What was the biggest topic of conversation throughout the offseason? Come on, you know it, expanding the playoff from 12 to 24. Some people love it. Some people hate it. But you know who hates it most. ESPN. And because of their tie to ESPN, the SEC isn’t a fan either.

Now, don’t take me wrong, I’m not chomping at the bit to go to 24. In fact, I’m in the Phil Steele and Adam Carriker camp of going to 16. But for this topic, the number is irrelevant. What isn’t irrelevant is ESPN’s opposition to it.

That’s why without anyone really noticing ESPN fired a shot across the bow of FOX, NBC, and CBS this last week. It’s so subtle nobody really noticed it. Yes, there were conversations about it, but the way ESPN presented it, what I believe is the real reason was missed.

ESPN announced they would no longer have the ticker tape at the bottom of the screen during games. Their reasoning, to give a cleaner presentation of the event they are televising.

Again, some people love it going away, others are up in arms over it. Personally, I think ESPN missed the target. The ticker tape has merit. ESPN just wasn’t utilizing it correctly. It has its place. It should be kept, but it should only cover the events that’s being televised. For example, if it’s a college football game, then only college football scores should be on the ticker. If it’s an NFL game, only NFL scores. A golf tournament, only the players positions on the leader board.

What people hated about the ticker was that if you are a college football fan you could care less about Labron James changing teams. You were stuck seeing it a 1,000 times on the ticker during the game you are trying to watch.  

But here’s the problem with ESPN’s shot fired. ESPN, who presents themselves with the slogan, “Serving Sports Fans, Anytime, Anywhere,” has slowly shied away from providing full sports coverage. Case in point, when was the last time you saw scores or highlights of the UFL?

Ummm, never.

Why, because it’s a Fox Sports league and in direct competition with ESPN.

So, forget ESPN as someone who covers all sports. And they took that one step further by eliminating the ticker tape last week. You’ll no longer see scores from games on FOX, CBS, and NBC. Why, because the last thing they want to do is promote their competitors and have you flip channels to what a game with a close score or going to overtime.

They’ll tell you that they will break away from a game and go to an update. But let’s see how many of those games take you to FOX, CBS or NBC games. More than likely, they’ll flip to games on other ESPN channels and ABC.

You can call me a conspiracy theorist or whatever you want. But the fact is ESPN funds the SEC. While FOX, CBS, and NBC funds the Big Ten. We want to think the conferences are in direct competition, when it’s really the television stations who are in direct competition. The television stations are the puppeteers and the conferences the puppets. Both conferences dance to the sound of money. And the puppeteers are looking after their own best interests.

Football season is here fans, so let the games begin, between both the conferences and the puppeteers.

GO BIG RED!! SIMPLE, FAST, VIOLENT!!

Art worked designed by Lyle Harmon and ‘Off the Cob’.

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