By Joseph Person
jperson @thestate.com
Posted: Tuesday, Jul. 28, 2009
The next battle for football supremacy in the Carolinas looks like it will be put on hold for a couple of years.
South Carolina athletics director Eric Hyman will allow North Carolina out of its 2010 game in Columbia, but only if the Tar Heels agree to make up the game in the "very near future" and a suitable replacement is found for next year's schedule.
ESPN officials contacted Hyman several months ago to see if he would be amenable to letting North Carolina out of the second game of its home-and-home deal with USC so the Tar Heels and LSU could meet in the Georgia Dome the opening weekend of the 2010 season.
In exchange, ESPN told Hyman it would televise the Gamecocks' 2010 opener on Thursday night as the first game of the season against a team the network would line up. Hyman would not identify possible opponents, but said ESPN has a stake in making it an attractive TV matchup.
Hyman said he was willing to work with ESPN, which is beginning the first year of its unprecedented, 15-year deal with SEC worth $2.25 billion.
"We've got to do things to help ESPN be successful, and sometimes there are minimal sacrifices," Hyman said Tuesday. "But I would not reschedule the (North Carolina) game in 2030."
Col Hogan wrote:
Seriously, we have to let them know this crap doesn't fly....otherwise...
Yup, I haven't watched SportsCenter in years. I rarely watch ESPN programming or most sports for that matter. I am guilty of tuning in for football games though.
They certainly have a stranglehold on the product..
Tar Heels vs. Gamecocks a TV casualty
By Ron Morris
The (Columbia) State
If you needed a perfect example of how television runs college football, you got one this week when North Carolina pulled out of its scheduled 2010 game against South Carolina at Williams-Brice Stadium.
The ABC/ESPN conglomerate went to work this summer and made everything fit nicely into its prime-time packaging of college football. Fans across the country will be the beneficiaries of a North Carolina-Louisiana State game in Atlanta to kick off the 2010 season. Ultimately, those same national fans also will get to see South Carolina against an attractive Bowl Championship Series opponent.
So, everything worked out just dandy, right? In the words of ESPN analyst Lee Corso, not so fast my friend.
Fans of the four schools involved in the TV switch-a-roo will pay the price for television's ability to dictate matchups, sites and kickoff times. The ones who should be looked after the most – the local fans – are the ones who will suffer the most.
North Carolina and LSU fans will pay extra for premium-priced tickets to the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game in Atlanta, because the game will not be included in either team's season-ticket plan. They also will fork out a small fortune for travel.
As for South Carolina fans – and the yet-to-be-named opponent – they once again get stuck in that vortex called Thursday night college football.
Despite paying for the tickets as part of their season-ticket plans, thousands will eat the expense because they cannot fit a late-night, mid-week game into their work schedules.
"It's a little inconvenient for the fans, certainly, on Thursday night," South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said Thursday. "But that's just the way it is nowadays. You play when television tells you."
That is true more than ever with the SEC recently signing a $2 billion, 15-year deal with ESPN. If the sports programming network wants the SEC to play a football game at 4 a.m. on a Wednesday in Puerto Rico, you can be assured the league will make it happen.
"For as much money as ESPN is paying all the SEC schools, yes, we'll play when they tell us to," Spurrier said. "That's part of the two-way street of the deal. That's part of college football."
So... the over hyped SEC? When Ohio State/Big10/Big12 actually beat and SEC team for the "title" or when USC doesn't choke and lose to Oregon St or Stanford and gets the chance to beat an SEC team in the championship game... I'll give some credit to the "over hyped" statement. But until then, the ACC will continue to be weak... Ohio State, Penn State and Notre Dame will still play cupcake schedules... USC will still choke and lose a game they should win by three touchdowns... Virginia Tech will lose again to Boston College and yet another SEC team... meh, I've really become an SEC homer since I moved down here.
As for this TV thing... I hate going to televised games, they are boring... you sit around for two hours wondering WTF is going on. There's a guy in red standing in the middle of the field telling the teams when they can and can't play. TV commitments are much like an FCS team playing up to an FBS team in my book... it's usually about the money, the big pay day. UGA was pissed that "College Gameday" hadn't come to Athens in what seemed like forever, it's big money for the school when they get on TV, especially prime time... and if ESPN can televise what they deem the best game of the week (UGA v Bama last year for instance), the networks income with be much greater. I definitely don't like this interfering with a schools schedule so that they can have better TV. Might as well have ESPN broadcast a one day special of their selection of games they think should be played next year... it could be as legit as the NBA lottery!
