King Espn XVI

After watching Mike and Mike this mourning and hearing Harvey Perlman respond to Senator Hatch's comments from the prior day's show on the BCS, the truth of the matter became clear; this may look like a power struggle between Congress and the BCS but the king makers her is ESPN. And then the news that the Mountain West Conference had signed an agreement with ESPN confirmed the theory, the "Boys from Bristol" are running college football and the rest of use are just along for the ride.

This is not a new idea on this blog or for those that take a few minutes to pull themselves away from the ESPN teat long enough to realize that they are a cold mechanical business and not the warm maternal mother's milk of sports. Like a weed ESPN has woven itself into the fabric of sports to the extent that they can lay claim to stealing from King Louis XVI and say, "We are the sport".

This control of college football extend from the power to dictate the date and time of the game to having the most powerful person on the field that comes out during the commercial breaks to enforce the will network. In the need to fill up the time between games ESPN sets the agenda and molds public opinion shamelessly promote the upcoming slate of games. The $495 million comes from ESPN/Disney with the expectation that they will profit from the deal by having high profile games with match up that will deliver rating. Easy to sell rating such as Texas v. USC or Florida v. Ohio State not Georgia v. Hawaii or Pitt v. Uath.

In a game of chicken the Mountain West blinked and the rebellion has be squelched.
The Mountain West returns to an unhappy existence with a chip on there shoulder, a broadcast deal with CBS College Sports, the Mtn. cable channel, and because of this one of the lowest broadcast profiles in college football. The non-BCS school will need to stay at the outside hoping for a chance to change the system.

Parting question: "How did the Boys from Bristol get their way with the Mountain West?"