We are all well aware of a suggested bias against OSU and the Big 10 (percieved or real) by the powers that be at ESPN. Checking ESPN's site tonight I see the story of OSU losing their top recruit due to a sex offender staring me in the face on their home page. Curiously not only is this story not on the front pages of CBS, Fox Sports, CNNSI, and Yahoo, it isn't even on their college football pages. I know this doesn't really come as a shock to any of us but it is yet another example of ESPN's pure desparation to place anything negative related to OSU front and center.
Hopefully this is just a case of a kid having second thoughts about a school and having an unfortunate event push him over the edge to decommit. My gut feeling about this whole thing is that Heurman, Bosa, and Anzalone got caught up in the Bash Brothers thing they had going on around the Spring Game and after taking a step back to evaluate things two of them decided that OSU wasn't the place for them.
BTW this is my first post here. I'm one of those forum lurkers that enjoys reading other people's thoughts and opinions but rarely chimes in. Love the site, the folks in charge do a remarkable job keeping us all up to date on things as they happen.
ESPN is in the business of reporting the news. I read the article. It's accurate and unbiased. Yes it sucks it's negative but OSU might have the biggest following of all sports teams in America and ESPN would be stupid not top publish any and all OSU related articles for the sake of web traffic. They do post positive articles about us as well.
- Respect the Rivalry -
You are right, the article is accurate and unbiased. I guess my frustration lies with the importance placed on the story in their news feed. On a day where the NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing and there are several prominant national stories still lingering on, I find it hard to believe that there is value for ESPN in placing a recruiting article about Ohio State. Especially a story that hasn't fully developed yet. As you said though, ESPN is about making money and can choose to focus on whatever stories they want, it just doesn't seem necessary.
Our honor defend we will fight to the end for Ohio..
@BLUKE I would argue that more people are interested in OSU football than in the NHL playoffs.
OSU sells, seriously--this would be as big of news if it happened at USC or 'Bama. FWIW, ESPN's coverage of Urban Meyer has been overwhelmingly positive.
FYI - currently is on CBS Sports home page
also noted on the NCAAF page on Fox
As I mentioned in an earlier post, ESECpn had the Anzalone de-commit as a front page story, but not the widespread fraud at Chapel Hill.....
Just for clarification, ESPN had it front page of RecruitingNation, not the main site, correct?
No it was on both.. The main headlines on espn.com
thanks, was just wondering
To me, its not so much that this is news that should be reported but the fact that ESPN barely reports anything related to OSU in regards to good recruiting news. It just seems that anytime OSU, or even B1G in general, has bad news they put it on the front page. Hell, OSU had to go to the Final Four for them to acknowledge they were even in the tournament (a bit exaggerated but you would believe it if it were true).
I liked having Anzalone but really he isn't even in the top 5 of the recruits for 2013. Marshall, Burrows, Woodard, Bosa, Barrett would easily be considered the top recruit over anzalone. Now I know they aren't saying THE top recruit, but it sounds like it when you read the title.
The bias is truly there, there is no denying it! Plus the way they make it sound, "OSU loses top recruit due to sex offender". Might as well say "OSU loses whole recruiting class because of scandal"! It is more tasteful with Rivals.com with "OSU loses top linebacker recruit". CBS sportsline and ESPN make it almost sound like the kid is the sex offender. Let the kid be and stop it right here and now linking him to such a stupid situation.
"DIS HERE IS A GOT-DAMMED MEDIAH CONSPIRACAH!"
/sigh
October 20th: National Kenneth Guiton Day
So I am curious, along the same lines as the original post; why do you all think people hat OSU so much? I used to only think it was fans from other BIG schools that hated us because we always beat them, but recently I am starting to see a more national dislike for OSU. Anyone have any idea why??
Yes there are two Buckeyes in Ann arbor on this site!
Squirrel, you honestly think ESPN doesn't say anything positive about OSU recruiting wise? Were you out of the country when Meyer was hired and started recruiting? One negative story about a very odd situation does not mean there is a bias against OSU football.
Ann Arbor, squirrel masters post is a good example of why there is a national dislike of OSU. Whining about negative coverage from ESPN, whining about not enough positive coverage from ESPN. I'd say its not so much dislike for the team, you have to respect what they've done for the last decade. The dislike stems more from the general attitude of a sizable portion of the fanbase.
So u think the country thinks our fanbase is arrogant? Like Tsun fans?? lol
Yes there are two Buckeyes in Ann arbor on this site!
It not just the whining, the hatred really started after 2006. We wound up in back-to-back championships and losing both. It was total over-exposure. We'd dominate a crappy big ten, and get lots of exposure, and then lose big out of conference matchups. Throw in a rabid fan base, and you have a recipe for widespread vitriol. The Tressel saga only exacerbated this. You have a beloved coach who preaches winning the right way fall from grace--it's the perfect story. Everyone was fed up with our over exposure, and this was reenforced by our fans rabid defense of him. Granted, we knew the whole story, but it don't do us any favors in terms of national perception.
I say to Hell with that noise: we're going to win and we're going to win big. Get used to it.
Absolutely no question that eSECpn has a negative bias against Ohio State. I don't even know what to say to Buckeye fans who cannot, or refuse, to see that stark reality - without being insulting to them.
Texas, Michigan, Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida also have huge fan bases; news of these programs generates lots of page hits; fans of other programs pay attention them; etc.; yet eSECpn's coverage of these other members of the cfb royalty is far more favorable than its coverage of Ohio State.
The best rememedy is to watch/view as little eSECpn content as possible. Don't link it, tell your friends about it, and fret over it; ignore it!
I think Hodge is onto something..I totally agree with his comments. It was the big losses on the big stage that really hurt us and made most outside Ohio think we didn't deserve to be in those games. The fact that those games weren't even close combined with everything else did a lot of damage to the rest of the countrys perspective of OSU and the BIG10.
Yes there are two Buckeyes in Ann arbor on this site!
Fido - Dont worry, I find it hard to not be insulting to those who think ESPN is "out to get" OSU. The above schools were not hit with sanctions like OSU, a school which until that point was seen as shining example of how a program should be ran. Of course stories are going to come out. The thing all you conspiracy freaks fail to realize is that ESPN did very fee of their own INVESTIGATIVE pieces...they simply ran with the stories(which is another issue). All this rage towards ESPN should really be focused on The Dispatch, SI, CBS sports(dodd and doyel), Yahoo, Etc. Where is all the conspiracy filled hate for these publications...the ones that actually dug up all the dirt?
I swear ESPN could run(and has lately) 10 positive OSU stories, yet the minute anything remotely negative comes out the crazies forget about those other articles and focus only on the negative. This is just another example of why we get a bad rep as a fanbase.
CicnyOSU: never mind, then, I will be a little insulting . . .
Hey, genius, negative bias =/= "conspiracy."
Look both words up in a dictionary, then get back to me.
That the negative bias is not confined strictly to eSECpn (Dodd, Doyel, Hayes) does not mean it isn't prevalent at eSECpn. Logic 101, pardner.
I would have to side with Fido on this one. ESPiN basically sets up camp in Columbus, OH digging and digging for more bad stuff while Auburn gets away with paying the Newton family. During the NC game, our favorite Fake Buckeye & Musburger get up there at halftime and make excuses for the Newton situations trying to downplay the whole thing. I didn't see ESPiN setup camp at Auburn's campus.
Or at LSU's last year when they had violations -- in fact no one even heard about the violations until the infractions committee had ruled and the ruling itself was being reported. Look at Alabama -- couple years ago they renovated a local high school with multiple top tier recruits during bowl practice. Only one story written on it by an unknown online reporter.
The bottom line is that it matters a great deal who you are. If you're in the SEC, you're going to get favorable treatment from ESPiN & the NCAA. ESPiN does not like Ohio State or the Big Ten in general, and there are monetary reasons that go along with that related to how and particularly why the Big Ten Network got started. There is some bad blood there.
Razor - The point that EVERYONE forgets is that ESPN rarly does the digging. They report what others have dug up. ESPN did not "set up shop" in Cbus...that would be yahoo and SI.
Now in regards to the few schools you mentioned
LSU - Involved ONE player and ONE asst coach. Ours scandal, while minor in nature(aside from Tress), was MUCH larger in scope. Combine this with the negative national sentiment due to our recent big game struggles, its not hard to see why we got much more coverage.
Alabama - If only one "unknown online reporter" thought it was a story, over the droves of investigative sports journalists across dozens of reputable sites...couldn't it also be that there was nothing there? The NCAA didn't think so.
Auburn - Whether the conspiracy theorists want to believe it or not, this was actually all over the news. You "remember" ESPN doing nothing, well I vividly remember ESPN covering this quite a bit. Selective memory is a great thing when tying to prove something you believe. It didn't last all that long due to the quick nature with which it was resolved. Here are a FEW links from ESPN. Seems to me it was covered.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7190987/auburn-tigers-rec...
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5792707
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5786315
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/11/espn-...
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13454731
http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/17484/no-easy-answers-in-cam-newto...
CincyOSU: You're big on attacking the strawmen "conspiracy theorists" (do you frequently tilt at windmills?), but do not seem to comprehend what bias means.
The equivalent of you accusing the other side of this argument of being all "conspiracy theorists" is like if they accused you of suffering from Stolkholm Syndrome. But I won't go there.
Btw, are you one of our friendly neighborhood Bearcatbuckeyes?
You can cry this bias thing all you want, but you continue to ignore any evidence that goes against your opinion....that in itself is a bias. I agree that there is a negative national fan bias, but its not an "ESPN" thing. Stockholm Syndrome?? HAHA...nice try.
I am NOT a UC fan(although I do want them to do well), I live in Cincy and have to deal with their constant little brother whining on a daily basis, esp during football season...it gets rather annoying.
CincyOSU: what evidence have you presented contradicting that eSECpn is biased against Ohio State? That "reporters" from other media outlets "investigated" Ohio State doesn't address whether espn's coverage of Ohio State reflects a bias within that organization.
Look, I'll concede that eSECpn is probably more careful about releasing stories than some of these other clowns - they like to present themselves as a serious news outlet. It's safer for them to report on what other outlets have run with, no matter how sloppy the "journalism" ("hey, were just passing along what other outlets have reported"). But it's quite possible for a news group to be biased without breaking anything, itself: the bias is revealed in a dozen other ways (unless you really want to get into it, I won't break it down here).
Also, if you concede that there is a "national fan bias" against Ohio State and espn is a national outlet that must cater to its viewers/readers interests, therefore are you conceding that espn coverage reflects that "national fan bias"?
If not, do have any thoughts on how espn avoids falling prey to such biases? After all, many of the bloggers, reporters, etc. at espn are Americans who are cfb fans; if there is a bias more generally among "national fans," wouldn't we expect some of that trend to extent to fans working for espn?
Apologies for the length, this topic requires some detail:
For what it's worth, ESPN has been very much favourable towards Meyer since his hire (hey, that rhymes!). I've said this a thousand times, but I don't think ESPN has a problem with Ohio State, per se. ESPN is a massive money-making network, and they're in the business of doing just that. Ohio State generates massive amounts of fan interest--that's just the way it is. We're probably one of the top three fanbases in the country, and everyone who doesn't like us despises us--there's no middle ground for us. Therefore, anything ESPN puts out on the Buckeyes will garner interest (read: page views).
But why does ESPN seem positively biased towards the SEC and Texas? It's simple; they are. The worldwide leader is a massive conflict of interest, being financially involved with certain teams (broadcast rights) and making revenue of the aforementioned teams' perception. This creates a ludicrous amount of framing by the powers in Bristol. They simply can't have their financial interests in danger because their widespread interest goes straight into their coffers. The leadup to LSU-'Bama and the National Championship are prime examples of this. Not once did I hear the name Willie Lyles, or Trent Richardson's SUVs or the potential Tuscaloosa tailor violations. Contrast that with the leadup to OSU-Miami and you'll see my point (as a side note, ESPN also has money in the ACC--hence the lack of coverage towards that scandal).
When you look at the scandal, it's pretty obvious why ESPN led the witch hunt (and by that I refer to all the digging they did after the fact). They have a relatively low financial stake in OSU, therefore the rest of the world (who pretty much despises us--read my aforementioned reasons above), would lend an eager ear towards anything thrown out. They're not losing revenue through our lack-of-positive-perception, the B1G network is. Can't blame them for it, it's damn good buisiness.
You know who really understands our plight? Penn State. Go read BSD and you'll see the same level of disgust for the worldwide leader. Again, ESPN didn't hate Penn State, but when a team they're not financially involved in got dragged through the mud, they were first to jump on the bandwagon.
One of the best examples I can think of--lately, at least--is Bobby Petrino. I listen to Mike and Mike some mornings, and the Monday after all the details surfaced guess who had their attention? Ozzie Guillen, and his respect for Fidel Castro. I damn near called the show, wondering why they weren't lending their reactionary speculation towards Petrino's fate. But, sure as shit the next day--after he was fired--they were all over the "news." Recycling other outlets' beats.
In summation: ESPN is biased, but not solely against OSU. They don't hate us, we just make for good business--in good times and bad.
Hodge: good points, I don't really disagree. It probably is as much, if not more, a matter of a positive - or more accurately, protective - bias in favor of the SEC, Texas, and other espn-aligned products than it is a negative bias toward non-aligned products (Ohio State, BT in general, possibly the P12 going forward).
At the same time, if many of the espn hacks were personally negatively biased toward Texas, Bama, Florida, etc., but were careful not to undermine what they perceived to be their bosses' editorial agendas, I suspect that that bias would still reveal itself more often. Espn has so many talk shows and live-action events that require their personalities and "analysts" to give impromptu perspectives, it would be hard for them to consistently hide an anti-Texas or anti-Bama bias. It would rear its head at times, just like it does in reference to Ohio State/BT.
Otherwise, your points are quite compelling.
Is it your recollection that ESPN devoted more/less/the same air time to discussion of OSU's problems during the 2010-11 bowl season? I recall (selectively?) that Musberger and Herbstreit in particular engaged in a lot more theatrical handwringing about Tatgate than Cecil Newton's attempts to extract payment in exchange for his son's services.
I clicked on it... I regretted it immediately...
ESPN's handling of Auburn, per Deadspin.
They look like a PR firm working with a client.
This morning, the story is on the front page of www.yahoo.com. Not Yahoo Sports, but the home page for Yahoo. Aces.
wow. hadn't read the emails from the Deadspin link. there you go, cincy.
Hodge is right & yet you would think it would be hard to argue those facts but some people will ignore them and defend espn to the end.
There is no conspiracy but there is a bias twoards the B1G in general & i beleive it started when the Big Ten Network to shape and like it or not they are now competion for espn in colledge sports and that has alot to do with how they report news about the B1G now.
O H I O is the Buckeye State
Hodge - I actually agree with most of your novel of a response(kidding). I agree that their is a "southern bias". My only real issue, and the reason I respond the way I do at times, is the ppl who think ESPN goes out of their way to "bring down" OSU. OSU get s PLENTY of positve press from ESPN(just look at recent storiess abotu Meyer and the direction of the program), but they also do get more negative press than some of the schools you mentioned. The two things I hold a different opionion are in regards to the alleged issues at other schools and how ESPN led the witchhunt. 1) The Lyles thing did get a fair amount of press...maybe not during championship week, but it did get press. The issues with the SUV's and suits...you can't just pin that on ESPN. That didn't really get press anywhere mainstream...likely bc either everything actually was legit, or they couldnt prove anything. 2) ESPN did not lead anything. The only thing they really led had to do with their lawsuit regarding OSU releasing certain documents. To me the only thing ESPN is really guilty of is shoddy reporting in that many of the stories they ran ended up being proven false. Most of the blame should be on these other news outlets that were so badly wanting to break a story that they didn't do all their homework.
In regards to that Deadspin link, what are you trying to show? If anything that shows that while some at ESPN looked to have a crush on Cam, they also held their ground and were actually the fist to break the story about his father. Deadspin even gave "kudos" on several occcasions for how they handled things. Now as things progressed and the NCAA basically said nothing to see here, it looks more like a case of what you mentioned earlier...protecting their investment as ESPN put the kid gloves back on.
SonOfBuckeye - I never said OSU didn't get more press than the other scandals. What I did say was that ESPN, and others, reported quite a bit on Newtons case and others...the Deadspin link Hodge provided shows this. Our scandal indeed did get more coverage than the others but a lot of that has to do with the number of different accusations as well as the staggered way in which they came out. When something new comes out every other month its going to seem like it never stops and that the media is piling on us(which in a way is true). Had everything been laid on the table from the beginning we wouldn't have had to deal with 6+ months of "breaking news".
@CINCY - Yeah, the post was a novel; I was half expecting a swath of "tl;dr"s haha.
I agree with you, I really hate hearing that ESPN has it out for us. They don't, but they also lack the protective bias that they afford to their own financial commodities in Texas and the SEC. I was trying to clarify " leading the with hunt," and I'll concede it probably wasn't the best term to use there. I'll be the first to jump down the worldwide leader's throats about their shoddy journalism practices (repackaging other outlets' stories without the slightest bit of credit--at least intitially when they break it), but at least to me--and this is merely my feeling--ESPN was the absolute last entity to put tatgate to bed. Their File Blog posting being the culmination of their efforts (and a last, worthless vestige of the affair), providing more speculation than hard evidence. It came off to me--in conjunction with the prolonged FOIA lawsuit--that they were trying to milk this for every last drop. And sure, LSU was linked to Oregon's misfortune with Lyles, but I saw no sensationalism like I did toward the tatgate mess.
My point in posting the Deadspin post, is that around November 22 (ten days before the NCAA cleared him), it's mentioned that the story begins to be nudged in a "new, friendlier direction." Ironic that ESPN would start "backing off its own scoop" right around the time that Newton was thrust into the Heisman spotlight and his Auburn team went from a dark horse to the legit favourite for the national title. My point is, with the cash ESPN had invested in the SEC, they couldn't afford to bring down their title team--even if it came at the cost of losing a juicy scoop for their news outlet.
Has anyone taken into account that perhaps it wasn't Ohio State that was the problem, but Jim Tressel? Herbie was always HIGHLY critical of Ohio State when Tressel was the coach. Last season Herbie was pretty warm toward Ohio State. I noticed a much different attitude coming from Herbie toward Ohio State last season.
We discount the Dorhman piece, but what if the stories where true? It seems, to me at least, that there are many people who have had the opinion for quite some time that Tressel was a dirty coach. YSU's president during Tressel's tenure was not all that convincing in defending Tressel.
I've heard many many times be sports radio personalities(not neccessarily the greatest source admittedly) and other sports writers etc who commented on radio shows, that indicate there have been murmurs about Tressel being dirt for a long long time.
Could it be, that the coverage of the Ohio State fiasco was because someone wanted to finally be the guy that proved Tressel was as dirty as everyone thought but couldn't prove with sources who were actually willing to come forward?
Everyone bags on Calipari in basketball for being dirty, but in my opinion he's not really any different than Tressel. Tressel's previous scandals, and this one until he got caught, he simply claimed he didn't know about what was going on.
I know everyone loves JT, and to be sure he did great things in the community and the school, which is why he was so beloved and it is impossible for some to believe he could be a dirty coach. If we take a step back though, and look at things from the outside, and see the history of his players and programs, would we really be defending him? I have a feeling if you put JT at Bama, and there was all this smoke around him all the time, our opinion would be much much different.