After watching some of the Duke/NC State game on Tuesday -- on ESPN -- I shrugged off my urge to watch the North Carolina/Clemson game last night.
As an avid sports fan living in the heart of the west coast, I am tired of the east coast bias that ESPN -- and most major sports mediums -- surround themselves with and entail.
The examples are there. In every popular sport across this country, franchises and teams located on the eastern side of the US get more media attention than any other region by far, exlcuding maybe USC and the Dallas Cowboys.
It seems to me that every night during the college basketball season, either UNC or Duke is playing on ESPN. Granted, I know that these are two of the premier teams and traditions in college basketball history.
But let me point something out.
UCLA may be the #1 basketball program of all time, and they are constantly in the top 10 in the rankings, including three straight Final Four bids. They will have three of their remaining games nationally televised. Arizona State, also in the Pac-10, is a proven good squad now, thanks to the past few years. Currently ranked 17th in the nation -- and fresh off a victory at UCLA -- the Sun Devils are not perceived as a top program. And I don't believe it will ever happen for certain reasons.
Maybe this will do the explaining.
Notice something? That's right. For the remainder of the season, they will have one game nationally broadcasted -- on ESPN. It's against UCLA. Outside the fans in the Pac-10, I am not sure many people even know ASU is ranked! In comparison, here is the rest of the schedule for UNC:
Yes. You are reading that correctly. That is 10 of their final 11 games will be nationally televised on a major network. And Duke's remaining games:
Oh. What a shame. Duke only has 9 of their final games nationally televised.
College basketball is just one example of how the west coast gets the back seat in natinal attention. I mean, it makes sense when you know ESPN is centered in Bristol, CT. The New York market is less than an hour away, and it is easy to get caught up in what is around you. These TV stats reflect our current situation -- with conferences having TV deals for their games. Hopefully, the Pac-10 can get a better media deal in place in a few years. But, for now, I guess it sucks to be a west coast fan.
Bear with me now as I flip on ESPN and catch the West Virginia/Georgetown game...nothing else is on.
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Pac-10 has a long-term deal w/ FSN. That's why hardly any games are on espn, cbs, etc. Has nothing to do w/ any east coast bias
ReplyDeleteI'd just like to note that part of the reason why ESPN usually only airs games from the East Coast is because of the time zone differential. If they were to play a West Coash game, it would either start at 9 or 10 p.m. for the Eastern time zone or at like 3 or 4 to get it in at the right time on the Easterners.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just ESPN. All TV channels cater to the Eastern time zone.