Are the days of ESPN ruling the Sports World over?

It was over 33 years ago that ESPN was born in the wooded area of Bristol, CT.  At the start, the big three networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) had sports divisions that appeared to be dominant, so ESPN was forced to cover sports from around the world and even the quirky kinds of sports (I remember the Putt-Putt championships were huge on ESPN).  From its humble beginnings, ESPN expanded.  They gobbled up ABC’s Sports Division, added new TV channels, started a radio network, started a Web Page, acquired the rights to major sports contracts from pro to college, and ultimately became the Worldwide Leader in Sports.  If you haven’t read the book “Those Guys Have All the Fun:  Inside the World of ESPN”, I encourage you to do so.  It tells of ESPN’s rise and the people involved in its rise.

Two decades ago, CNN and Fox tried to counter the rise of ESPN with their own Cable Sports Networks.  CNN was unsuccessful, and Fox was only marginally successful, though more at the local levels instead of the National levels.  Fox also tried to build a Sports Radio Network, and while somewhat successful, it never had the sports backing and following ESPN Radio has.  ESPN not only had all the sports, but all the good sportscasters.

But now, has ESPN’s day of dominance in the spotlight begun to wane?  They may still dominate the overall Sports landscape, but rivals from all sides have popped up, many using former ESPN personalities.  Consider:

-Fox Sports still has major rights to MLB and the NFL, but they have started pestering ESPN on the regional level, developing College networks with the Big Ten and Pac-12.  They also have focused on sports like Motor Racing with Speed Channel, and the World Sport of Soccer, with Fox Soccer Channel. 

-NBC has used their connections with Comcast to form NBC Sports Network, focusing on the Olympics, Hockey, Sunday Night Football, and Notre Dame Football.  NBC also owns the Golf Channel, which provides expansive coverage on the World Gold Tours, including the PGA, LPGA, and Champions Tours.  In addition, NBC Sports also has an arrangement with Yahoo! Sports, which means the next logical step might be to leverage Yahoo! Sports Radio Network to their advantage, possibly forming a large NBC Sports Radio Network. 

-CBS has jumped into the sports race, forming the CBS Sports Cable Channel and CBS Sports Radio.  CBS Sports Radio may pose the greatest threat to ESPN Radio’s dominance, while the CBS Sports Network will focus on Men’s College Basketball and the NFL. 

-CNN is also jumping back into Sports, thanks to agreements with the NBA, MLB, and CNN’s joint ventures with CBS on Men’s College Basketball.

All Professional Sports are also beginning to chip away at ESPN’s dominance as well.  The four major Professional Sports in this country (MLB, NHL, NFL, and NBA) all have their own cable channels and have varying agreements with many of ESPN’s rivals.  Colleges also have various conference alignments with all the major networks.  Several, like the SEC, Big East, Big 12, and ACC, have agreements with ESPN, but other conferences have arrangements with some of ESPN’s rivals.

ESPN’s journalism once was the envy of the sports world, breaking sports news on a regular basis.  But even that is waning.  Yahoo! Sports, Deadspin, Pro Football Talk, and other Websites regularly beat ESPN to breaking sports news.  And ESPN has even tried to protect sports celebrities for reasons of access to those personalities or teams.  See the recent Manti Te’o story.

While Sports are disappearing slowly on Free TV, the Cable Sports Channels and radio networks are booming.  But is it too much?  Even I can’t keep up with all the sports choices nowadays.  And I consider myself a sports savant, even more than an engineer.  There will eventually have to be some consolidation.  For example, my guess is that in a few years, Fox Sports Radio will disappear, and Yahoo! Sports Radio will become NBC Sports Radio.  Three National Sports Radio Networks might even be too much, but it is likely that ESPN, CBS, and NBC will survive on the audio airwaves. 

In this new world of sports hyper-coverage, ESPN may be the king for now.  But with many of their personalities now leaving for rivals, ESPN may be forced to pay and compete much more than they once had to if they intend to dominate, much less survive.  They may even have to take chances like they once used to.   Otherwise, the sprawling sports campus, known as Bristol U, may one day become an empty shell if they don’t learn to compete again.  Could you imagine that?

The Dirt on College Football’s top programs…

College Football has a major problem.  Almost every elite program has some level of dirt in it.  Players and coaches who get arrested, boosters paying the top players, Academic issues, and other problems plague all the programs.  How those programs handle that dirt determines whether or not the programs have the capacity to manage through the toughest of times.

It began long before SMU was handed the death penalty in 1987 for a boatload of issues, such as paying players, and drug abuses.  Since then, many National Champions have had problems with cheating to one level or another.  Miami in 1987, 1989, and 1991, Florida State in 1993, Ohio State in 2002, USC in 2004, Florida in 2008, Alabama in 2009, and Auburn in 2010 are just a list of National Title Winners who have had known issues with players or the NCAA.  And that’s just the ones we KNOW about.  Notre Dame may win the title this year with a rapist who was never charged and a victim who committed suicide over two years ago that the Irish administration has never really acknowledged or apologized to her family.  The other National Title Contender, Alabama, was in the NCAA doghouse so much about a decade ago that people wondered if the Crimson Tide would become the second school to receive the NCAA “death penalty”.

Today, several top programs besides Notre Dame and Alabama are facing problems, and I’ll name a few.  Penn State is deep in the NCAA doghouse, not for NCAA infractions, but for child rape at the hands of a longtime assistant, and a cover-up that included the administration and legendary football coach Joe Paterno.  They almost received the death penalty for it.  Miami (Fla.) has never really been a clean program when they were dominating college football, but with a new round of money issues, some are echoing the calls from 15 years ago that the Hurricanes should drop their football program.  North Carolina has been under perpetual investigation, with no clear outcome decided on how much the Tar Heels should be punished.  My beloved Georgia always seems to have players running into academic/law issues every year.  Please name for me the last time the Dawgs didn’t have someone suspended to begin the season.  LSU has great talent but dumb players who do dumb things.  See “The Honey Badger” and Jamarcus Russell if you don’t believe me.  And Ohio State’s issues began the moment Jim Tressel took the head coaching job.  They won a National Title in 2002, led by a freshman running back named Maurice Clarett, who claims to have been paid well as a Buckeye.  Then, the tattoo and selling of merchandise situations and lying by Coach Tressel led to a one-year postseason ban.  Ironically, the Buckeyes could have been playing for the National Title this year with a potential Heisman Trophy winner in Braxton Miller.  And if you think Urban Meyer is going to clean up Columbus, you ignore the 30-some odd arrests Florida players had during Meyer’s tenure at Gainesville.  That included a Heisman trophy winner.  No, I’m not referring to Tim Tebow, I’m talking about 2010 Winner Cam Newton, who left the Gators after his Freshman year for stealing computers from dorm rooms.  And don’t get me started about the pay to play scheme around the time he went to Auburn.

At the end of the day, every major program has some type of dirt on them.  How coaches respond to these situations and even how the head coaches act (see Bobby Petrino) determines whether or not they can manage without the NCAA stepping in.  If the NCAA steps in, it usually doesn’t end well.  Of course, if the NCAA did do their job, the only clean programs would be the service academies, Stanford, Northwestern, and maybe Duke.

At the end of the day, it’s not about student-athletes, it’s about business.  And right now, business is good.  Until someone decides to clean up football, the NCAA should just shut up about teams doing it the right way.  Few major programs does it exactly “the right way”.