Ohio State fans definitely think ESPN is out to get them

Submitted by maizenblue92 on

Funny Onion style article about ESPN's coverage on the Ohio State scandal.

Some of the highlights: 

ESPN has made steady strides over the years to increase their coverage of the misdeeds at Ohio State. They started with Trev Alberts and Mark May belittling Ohio State and getting the intended ratings spike. Soon, others saw the possibility to advance their careers by jumping on the anti-Buckeye bandwagon. Alberts and May were joined by Jim Rome, Colin Cowherd and former Ohio State player, MVP and Captain, Kirk Herbstreit. “With Kirk joining the chorus, we struck gold” 

The channel will begin broadcasting on Thursday, August 11 at noon with a four-hour special called, “Ohio State – Inside the Fourth Reich” which will chronicle the institutionalized corruption at Ohio State that dates back to Francis Schmidt and Paul Brown. This program will be re-aired throughout the day as a lead-up to Ohio State’s August 12th hearing in front of the NCAA Committee on Infractions where it is expected that Ohio State will receive a 5 year bowl ban, 3 year television ban and a reduction of 12 scholarships per year for 5 years. Ohio State is not expected to appeal the penalties.

Link: http://www.tspfanhouse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=420&p=2785#p2785

Rico616

August 11th, 2011 at 11:18 AM ^

Yea yea yea I read Ohio fans say this everywhere. ESPN is just trying to report the news. Execs arents out there in Bristol with an even grin forcing players to get tats and drive new Nissans.

Ron_Lippitt

August 11th, 2011 at 11:20 AM ^

If ESPN were after us to the same degree (Read: Practice Times), would we bitch and complain like these pugs at tsio?  Uhhh not so much.

Difference was, RR was mistrusted and a poor fit BEFORE practice-gate.  These idiots at tsio scream bloody murder at the sports leader because they still love what they got!  Heck, half these clowns are still bitching at Vest being asked to leave.

Begging the ncaa to have cajones.

Tater

August 11th, 2011 at 11:23 AM ^

The littie satire piece is pretty funny.  That guy would have made a great Michigan fan had he been born a bit north of where he was.  

MilkSteak

August 11th, 2011 at 11:33 AM ^

Wow what a tough punishment for them. Can you imagine the effects on recruiting? First with the reduction but then trying to find kids to fill those spots who will be fine with coming to play for your school with absolutely no shot of ever winning a national title or even going to a bowl game. 

I love it.

bronxblue

August 11th, 2011 at 11:34 AM ^

We all thought the Freep had an ax to grind, and as it turned out we were right.  I'm sure OSU hates the fact that they are being protrayed like SEC North when this probably happens at other big-time programs, but thems the breaks. 

EZ Bud

August 11th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^

I don't have enough points to start a post, but Boise State's President just fired AD Gene Bleymaier. This move is in stark contrast to what the fellers in Columbus are doing. Boise State is being investigated for fairly minor violations including cheap transportation, meals, and housing. They self-reported 63 violations that resulted in a cumalative benefit of less than $5,000 (an average of $80 per improper benefit). Just wanted to throw that out there and hear people's thoughts.

justingoblue

August 11th, 2011 at 3:19 PM ^

Just to comment on that, it seems that the bar is really high for AD's to keep their jobs after major NCAA violations. USC, Tennessee and USC have all lost previous athletic directors after their scandals, while LSU and UNC have kept theirs after being praised for great handling of their scandals. Michigan is a weird case since Brandon was the new guy coming in, but I think it's definitely fair to say that he met expectations. Smith is the odd one out- for now.

CarrIsMyHomeboy

August 11th, 2011 at 12:00 PM ^

I agree with Buckeye fans (bleh) that ESPN has levied at least a dozen unsubstantiated claims against them as well as it has delivered now-countless articles that don't really say much of anything yet do so while setting tones of DOOOOOOM. And I might even agree that ESPN is paying disproportionate amounts of attention to the OSU goings-on relative to those at Oregon, Auburn, and UNC. However, I firmly and thankfully split from the average Buckeyes fan's line of thinking here...

What he thinks: ESPN is an emotional institution hell-bent on hurting his institution and that ESPN's profit is following along as a convenient coincidence.

What I think: ESPN is a self-interested institution that doesn't mind disproportionately hurting a school like OSU if doing that guarantees more profit first and foremost.

For OSU fans to focus on this ESPN drama as a series of emotionally driven attacks instead of the product of capitalistic urge is not necessarily illogical (it's a viable, but improbable, hypothesis that can't be ruled out by folks who do not sit in leather chairs with ESPN big wigs) but it is certainly unreasonable. In sum, then, no ESPN doesn't hate you, OSU. So, stop the tired and tawdry conspiracy theories saying so. However, ESPN does seem to adore the idea of profiting in the setting of your demise. And these things are not the same.

CarrIsMyHomeboy

August 11th, 2011 at 2:30 PM ^

In honor of Lloyd Carr (which means I'm basically paying you lots of respect): "Why would you ask such a stupid question?"

Any Michigan fan bemoaning the disparity between the relatively few and minor penalties that OSU seems likely to get and the relatively multitudinous and awful allegations against them needn't look far to settle on the explanation: most of that multiawfulness remains unsubstantiated.

Now just in case reading comprehension is an issue (not accusing, just being thorough; hence, "just in case"), I should point out that I deliberately used the word "unsubstantiated" and not the words "necessarily untrue" because of course they are not the same and only the former one applies.

Anyway: you challenged me to make a list of those claims. That pisses me off and seems like a waste of time. However, I'm just the chump to get lured into the job. So, you're on. Give me a few hours, though, please. I want to be thorough and don't want to mistakenly lump in non-ESPN unsubstantiated claims with the ESPN ones.

ZooWolverine

August 11th, 2011 at 5:38 PM ^

Michigan's allegations were from one source, thoroughly investigated, and shown to be untrue.

I don't keep track of who has said what, but if it's been anything significant, then that's two independent media sources since SI has had the most damning claims. Some of the more major allegations were not investigated by OSU (who, as you may recall, called off their investigation after an investigation by the DMV showed no laws were broken but, of course, had nothing to say about NCAA violations). To say that the allegations haven't been proven to the satisfaction of the NCAA is true, but we're in the midst of the investigation, not at the end of it, so that's not conclusive at all.

Michael Scarn

August 11th, 2011 at 5:57 PM ^

For the record, I did't downvote you, even though I thoroughly disagree with your claim that my question was a stupid one.  I'm curious about what you find, genuinely, but as the poster above me pointed out, I think you might have more of an argument against SI, even though Dohrmann has stuck by his report.  Maybe I'm forgetting a bunch of stories on ESPN or they all just blend together, but I feel like a lot of what they did was simple re-reporting, something that is done ALL the time in today's media.  "AP reports" or "According to the Washington Post" is used everywhere.  I think that's a far cry from ESPN "lev[ying] unsubstantied claims" against OSU.  

Tater

August 11th, 2011 at 12:05 PM ^

The free portion of Bucknuts has a cute comment that shows how important and high on the food chain they see themselves to be:

 

Our best weapon for this has been their behavior in this case. I say make a documentary of our case and give it to any and all cable outlets for free and run the living shit out of it.

As if anyone would want to watch their shitty documentary...

elvis056

August 11th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^

Just now on Colin Cowherd's show, Herbstreit believes that Ohio State is a BCS team this year.  I thought Valenti was a homer but Herbstreit might have just topped him.

makkd97

August 11th, 2011 at 1:24 PM ^

My friend,huge buckeye fan,claims espn is trying to keep the big ten network in check. So beat down their biggest draw. Everyone is doing it,why are they picking on us?

74polSKA

August 11th, 2011 at 1:29 PM ^

Every time this topic comes up lately he asks "what more do you want from us" regarding ESPN's reports and investigations.  Today he said that tosu has already lost one of the greatest coaches in college football history.  WTF?  After all the stories that are coming out about Tressel, how can even tosu fans have confidence in his coaching record?  He's been playing allegedly inelligible players since Youngstown State.  I guess all the other great coaches in football history were probably cheating too but ESPN didn't have it in for them.

Edit:  He's on the afternoon show on 97.1 in Columbus for those fortunate enough to not know who he is.

MGoStrength

August 11th, 2011 at 2:08 PM ^

I really don't understand the logic of so many OSU fans.  I have to admit I check out the Bucknuts site from time to time to see what they think about the whole NCAA infractions thing and about UM in general.  I am generally interested in their perspective.  But man, they are so emotional.  They think ESPN is out to get them.  And, probably the most annoying thing is they have all these names for everything, like meatchicken or scUM, or espin.  They are always trying to belittle anyone that doesn't agree with their point...even their own fans.  God forbid if an OSU fan can actually sees ESPN's or another UM fan's perspective, even if they don't like it and simply understand where their coming from, all the other OSU fans bash them just for acknowldeging an argument other than their own.  The seem so childish.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see this from UM fans.  They can validate another opinion while still disagreeing with, something you never see from OSU fans.

marco dane

August 11th, 2011 at 3:08 PM ^

How long have they been pullin this stuff within their football program...hmmm! 

I still perfer MoC13 suv sitting on some def twenties. However...when you can change out eight cars in twenty-four months...you are BALLIN!

Look Up_See Blue

August 11th, 2011 at 4:14 PM ^

ohio fans always find something to cry about, shit even when things are going right they find something to bitch about.  ESPN wants ratings, and guess what, they're going to get them by broadcasting news events that people are going to watch.  I'm not so sure they're doing this in spite of tosu.  I'd say they just want more cash in their bank accounts.  Even one of our own MGoBloggers "rushed home" to watch the program.  enough said.

 

 

michelin

August 11th, 2011 at 6:46 PM ^

Matt Hayes (sporting news) says:



--he cannot understand why OSU has not yet been charged with LOIC or FTM, except the fact that NCAA pres, Mark Emmert, and OSU pres, Gordon Gee, once shared the same house in Colorado.



---that OSU offenses--even just those admitted by OSU--are far worse than USC's offenses.



---that many many university presidents will be

asking what is going on at the NCAA if there is no

LOIC or FTM charge.



http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/feed/2010-12/osu-suspensions/…

althegreat23

August 11th, 2011 at 6:26 PM ^

If ESPN is out to get Ohio State, then why do they hire so many damn buckeyes? (Cris Carter, Herbstreit, Robert Smith, Chris Spielman, am I missing anybody?).  I guess they need  for them for inside information.

ManBalls

August 11th, 2011 at 7:01 PM ^

Espn has been out to get tressel for the past decade....that's why the were so persistent after the clarret and troy smith indescretions....