ESPN doesn't hate Ohio State.

ESPN doesn't hate the Big Ten.

ESPN - or any other national outlet for that matter - doesn't hate your other favorite team or your grandma or anything else.  They are trying to gain viewers/readers so they can sell more ads.  That's all.  If they can support a narrative which accomplishes that by saying that my grandma's jump roping skills aren't as good as your grandma's after my grandma keeps losing to her, they'll roll with that story and definitely pile on whenever my grandma breaks her hip kicking an orphan.  But when she out-jumps your grandma at the regional jump-a-thon, they'll give her a trophy.

It is what it is.  This media-hates-us complex exists in all markets because guess what.. according to humanity, the media hates everyone's team.

i just wish the whole "media hates my team" attitude would disappear.  If your teams sucks or screws up, they will report it.  If they do something great, they'll report it.  And if the American public clicks on the first big story a lot - positive or negative - they'll print the next similar story with an even bigger headline.  Let's face it, for several years there, our team was generating its bad press.  That's not to say there weren't scientists at the university curing cancer and doing those sorts of great things. Of course there were. But that's not getting ESPN any clicks.  

If you agree with me, please join me in screaming in frustration when anyone makes this kind of statement. If you disagree with me, that's OK… the media hates me too.

tl;dr