ESPN's Gameday gained it's rep and following by ignoring it's roots after being acquired by ABC and sometimes venturing out to CBS turf to cover the biggest game on the college football landscape on any given Saturday even it was televised by CBS and not ESPN or ABC. This week....I think no question that nationally Bama-UF is that top game....#1 ranked team.....the rematch factor of the last two NCs.....Saban and Meyer...Ingram the Heisman winner......both teams 30-2 heading in to the game....just a ton of story lines going on there. Granted OU-Stanford should be highly entertaining and the winner will be squarely in the NC title picture but it still doesn't top Bama-UF because of the reasons I list. Gameday gets a pass......but barely. You have to wonder if they will ever get back to covering a CBS game again unless maybe it is Bama-Auburn later in the year. Trocchi of SI weighs in: "Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and the top 10 powerhouses they've created at Alabama and Florida will renew acquaintances this weekend for the first time since last year's SEC Championship Game. Alabama won that contest in Atlanta before going on to win the national championship, just like Florida did in 2008. Saturday's clash in Tuscaloosa won't carry the all-or-nothing BCS implications the past two SEC championships did, but it will serve as the nation's biggest regular-season game to date".
"You have to wonder if they will ever get back to covering a CBS game again" They should care because doing the right thing is what established Gameday in first place.
:idea: They were at the right game. Stanford and Oregon are two of the best. The other game was a blowout...
Stanford/Oregon turned into a Blowout, at least on the scoreboard...I can't say from actually watching, since I was riveted to the ND/BC game.
Sort of. They have influence over Heisman and poll voting. They give more exposure to programs that are televised on their network. They're rating whores.
"They're rating whores." Just like everything thing else in business they used to have more scruples and principles. It's what made them.
Here's something that nearly shocked me...the Oregon-Stanford game was not televised in my area---and I subscribe to Gameplan! I don't fully understand it, but it seems like a new "thing" this year. In past years, I believe Gameplan would show any regional ABC game that was not televised in your area. That dosen't seem to always be the case anymore. RTR
The Stanford-Oregon game was a hell of a game until late. The Florida-Alabama game was over in the first half. The only reason I kept switching back was to see how many yards/TDs Richardson would get in cleanup duty, which wasn't many. With the rest of the country blowing the trumpets of the Universe's best conference, perhaps it's time to recognize there are huge games in other areas of the country, too, which is how I view Gameday. They were at the right game.
Agree Kes - shockingly there are other big match ups and they were just in Tuscaloosa a couple weeks ago for a great intersectional matchup.......rarely if ever does the Gameday set make repeat visits in such a short time.....if somebody can show me two visits to the same place in the first month of the season, I'd be shocked. All this network stuff is just some parallel universe nonsense, imho.....
"just in Tuscaloosa a couple weeks ago" I forgot about that......that's the key to it all right there.
Terry--exactly what I figured based on reading the TV listings. Instead, I get ND-BC on ABC, PSU-Iowa on ESPN, and USC-Wash twice--on ESPN2 and on Gameplan. Not a big deal since I watched the Alabama-Fla game during that time, but considering the amount I pay for cable and Gameplan, that kind of puzzled me.
I work in an office full of Tide fans and not one of them had an issue with Gameday not being there. How many weeks in a row do you want??? Jesus this smacks of the SEC 'look at me' arrogance that drives me nuts. Right now, you're a 1 team conference with 2 or 3 'pretty good' teams. You are NOT the center of college football, no matter how much ESPN and CBS tell us so. ESPN Game day locations in 2010: Week 1: LSU/NC Week 2: Alabama/Penn State Week 3: Auburn/Clemson Week 4: Boise State/Oregon State Week 5: Oregon/Stanford Week 6: South Carolina/Alabama That means in the first 6 iweeks of the season, they will have Gameday at an SEC location for FOUR out of 6. Seriously, you got some nerve. There were 4 unbeaten teams playing head to head Sat night and Florida looks to be the worst of them. They had 1 'impressive' win against a Kentucky team they always beat AND who just got smoked by a horse sh*t Ole Miss squad. Last week, Tim Brando made the statement on the Finebaum show that 'If Boise played in the SEC East, they'd win it this year' That sent the Bama and SEC fans into a rage. Looking at that division top to bottom, he's gotta point....
I don't disagree with any of your points except that I made the topic post before I knew about Bama-SC......and I noted that I had forgot about Bama-PSU being at Bama. That said.....PSU is a Big 10 team covered by ABC and that game was on ABC as well as the rest of them being either on ABC or ESPN. No big news thay would be at an ABC affiliated game. I would not have made the post had I been aware they were going to Columbia this week for a true SEC clash on CBS. They answered my concern about their direction with that decision. And......prior to the game UF-Bama was a huge game with huge hype. Now?.........not so much thanks to the Gators rather piss poor performance and Bama's clear domination.
Still, Coming into last weekend, that means that THREE of the 4 previous game days had been at SEC games. Boohoo, they chose to actually cover someone else.