A study in Journalism: ESPN 86, Sparty 0

Submitted by Grampy on March 3rd, 2019 at 2:35 PM

I performed a brief audit on ESPN’s Home Page for NCAA Men’s Basketball and the results would seem to indicate that both Sparty and Indiana are invisible.  That’s right, after looking at every team related link and highlight (ignoring bracket and state-of-the-sport content), there were 86 links on the page and none of them were in any way related to the turd Sparty tossed into yesterday’s basketball punch bowl:

Shall we look at what teams were more important? (Number of separate links on home page)

Wofford, Nevada, et.al. (Mid-Majors): 21

SEC teams: 16 (only 3 or 4 were about Tennessee/Kentucky)

Big 12: 13

Duke: 8

North Carolina: 4

Rest of ACC: 4 (mostly Virginia)

Gonzaga: 4

Villinova: 2

Sister Jean: 1

As for the rest of the Big Ten...

Purdue/OSU: 6

Rutgers/Iowa: 3

Wisconsin/PSU: 2

Even Sister Jean is more newsworthy than Sparty going down.  Wonder if their still pissed about those FOIA requests?

Chalky White

March 4th, 2019 at 8:04 AM ^

What he is saying is that no one is having a pornographic orgasm whenever Izzo loses a game the same way they do when Michigan loses a game.

I once heard Boomer Essiason trolling the lacrosse team in one of those CBS sports minutes because they lost to Maryland in the first year of Michigan's program. That was so important that he had to mention it in a national radio segment.

Huma

March 3rd, 2019 at 2:49 PM ^

It is simply because the State v Indiana game yesterday was on Fox, directly competing against a number of games ESPN was showing. 

MgoHillbilly

March 3rd, 2019 at 2:50 PM ^

They moved up in the "power rankings" in spite of their loss.  So they have that.  And maybe they're lucky that loss to Indiana isn't being emphasized?

Late Bluemer

March 3rd, 2019 at 2:50 PM ^

That's actually bad.  I want their failure highlighted for all of the world to see.

OTOH, it was a "lead story" on ESPN's scroll all last night so they weren't totally ignored.

johnthesavage

March 3rd, 2019 at 3:02 PM ^

This is just because the game was on Fox. They've done this to U-M games too -- I remember last year U-M vs MSU was on Fox and despite being a huge game of national importance ESPN barely noticed it was happening.

Mgoscottie

March 3rd, 2019 at 3:18 PM ^

Maybe this is just a big ten thing in general. When we were undefeated I'd have to go searching to find stuff about Michigan but when I'm on facebook and talk about dinner the Taco Bell ads find me.

BG Wolverine

March 3rd, 2019 at 3:40 PM ^

Am I the only one annoyed by all the love North Carolina is getting these days? Talk is about them maybe getting a 1 seed, ranked #5,etc... we thrashed them and have a better record.  Every body has forgotten about that now...