Your Veteran Scribe admits that journalistic objectivity is a sham. All reporters have biases and prejudices. Our job is to strive for objectivity; if we get within the same time zone, that’s about the best to be expected.
That said, YVS believes that ESPN has long had a track record of pushing the agenda it prefers or best suits their accountants. If its HQ was somewhere other than Bristol, Conn., it’s doubtful there would be a tilt toward Red Sox/Patriots/Yankees coverage.
The World Wide Leader, which has a lucrative partnership with the Southeastern Conference thanks to the SEC Network, is prejudiced toward the SEC. If College GameDay could air from an SEC campus every week, you can be damn sure it would. The CBS deal with the SEC allows the network to choose each week’s best game plus air the championship game. That means ESPN will suck the remaining marrow (money) from the leftover bones.
Which brings us to ESPN’s list of college football’s 50 Best Players for this season posted on ESPN.com. The story says that ESPN’s panel of writers who cover the sport voted on and then debated the final list.
The top 50 according to ESPN had 19 SEC players – 10 from Alabama. There were eight from the Atlantic Coast Conference (which this month debuts its own network – like the SEC, connected to ESPN). Six of those eight ACC players are from Clemson.
The top-ranked player from the Big 12? Former Alabama (really? really) quarterback Jalen Hurts, now with Oklahoma and expected to be the Sooners’ starter, is ranked No. 11. Texas junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger is No. 13, Oklahoma junior wide receiver CeeDee Lamb is No. 16, Oklahoma State junior wide receiver Tylan Wallace is No. 27, Oklahoma sophomore center Creed Humphrey is No. 44 and TCU junior wide receiver Jalen Reagor is No. 46.
That’s it. Six Big 12 players. None on defense. Four less than Alabama and the same number as defending national champion Clemson.
YHS understands and gets it. The Big 12 isn’t the best conference. It’s not the all-seeing, all-powerful SEC. But the tilt toward the “It Just Means More” league is too often too much.
Based on ESPN’s assessment of Alabama’s talent, if Nick Saban fails to win a national championship for the second consecutive season, he should be fired.
Another list
With the season approaching, this month is about rankings and lists. One preseason top 25 is out and another (The Associated Press) comes out in a week. You just read about the ESPN top 50 players list.
Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, one of the best reporters on the sport, offers up his top 40 offensive/defensive coordinators who are on the rise. His ranking is geared toward likely-to-be candidates to take the step from coordinator to head coach.
Oklahoma first-year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch checked in at No. 5, while Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko – who considered jumping to the NFL in the off-season — was ranked No. 7.
Both Texas coordinators made the list. Defensive boss Todd Orlando was No. 9 while offensive coordinator Tim Beck was No. 31. You can check out Feldman’s top 40, including his comments on each, here.
Mo’ money, no problems
USA Today annually collects sports revenue reports from 230 public universities. The NCAA mandates those schools report their expenditures and profits. The newspaper this week released the money list for the 2017-18 school year.
Three schools topped the $200 million revenue level – Texas, Texas A&M and Ohio State. The Longhorns took in $219,402,579 (expenditures of $206,554,432), the Aggies $212,399,426 ($165,782,418) and the Buckeyes $205,556,663 ($203,809,715).
It’s the second consecutive fiscal year that UT had revenue and expenses above $200 million.
All ten of the Big 12 schools ranked in the top 50 with Kansas State the lowest at No. 50 with a revenue of $86,911,309.
Texas: Bringing along the backup
Last season, Texas knew it had an experienced player backing up starting quarterback Sam Ehlinger. But Steve Buechele, having lost the starting job he held as a freshman, has transferred to SMU and is eligible to play for the Mustangs this season.
That means that the Longhorns’ No. 2 QB will have zero game experience. Redshirt freshman Casey Thompson, who has one year of experience in the system, will probably be Ehlinger’s backup. Freshman Roschon Johnson, the other scholarship QB on the roster, will only play if disaster strikes.
Thus far, Texas coach Tom Herman likes what he sees from Thompson.
“It’s been impressive,” he said during Week One of preseason practice. “You can see why we recruited him. The ball comes out smooth, effortless and jumps out of his hand. He can run. He’s football smart. It’s never going to be a skill set thing with him. We just need to make everything as game-like as possible for him in case we need him.”
Texas A&M: Bringing along the backup
The backup quarterback situation is much the same in College Station. Texas A&M has an established and talented starter in junior Kellen Mond but lacks an experienced backup.
Mond beat out Nick Starkel for the starting job a year ago and Starkel transferred to Arkansas. The Aggies have three scholarship QBs vying for the backup job: sophomore Connor Blumrick along with freshmen James Foster and Zach Calzada. Foster is a 4-star recruit and Calzada is a 3-star.
“We haven’t had anyone jump up and separate themselves from the other three,” Aggies offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey said this week. “They are very much a work in progress. Right now, I don’t think if we went into a game, if one of those guys were to play, we would run the entire package that we’re running with Kellen. We might have to water some things down.”
Standing the heat
For the first two weeks in August, the high temperature in College Station has reached or come close to 100 degrees nearly every day. For Texas in the eighth month of the year, that’s hardly breaking news.
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher isn’t treating his players like the Junction Boys, but he has relished the opportunity to spend the early portion of preseason practices with the heat turned up.
“That’s one thing in football, you’ve got to train yourself, tired, rested, whatever, (you’ve) got to play,” he said. “(You’ve) got a job to do.”
Fisher hopes that if the Aggies conquer the hot weather, they’ll be better prepared for the second half of the season and a challenging schedule that closes with road games at Georgia and LSU, two teams that will start 2019 in the top 10.
Bringing the heat
Billy Liucci, executive editor and co-owner of TexAgs.com, on the Paul Finebaum Show talking about the dormant Texas-Texas A&M rivalry:
“A&M isn’t looking back at Texas. The Longhorns are the ones openly begging for the game that they canceled…but you’d be hard pressed to find someone outside Austin that doesn’t see A&M as an ascending program in the SEC.”
