Bill Simmons is leaving ESPN

I would be shocked if Simmons went to Fox to do college football. There's just no way.

 

Another thought: Fox on Sunday mornings for a half-hour entirely devoted to gambling.

That would kill.

 

Grantland publisher also gone: ESPN’s Grantland Publisher David Cho is Leaving, Too | Re/code

 

This was part of the USA Today story today:

Now, this puzzles me, not in small part because they make it sound like Grantland is dead. As far as I can tell, it's alive and thriving. Am I wrong?

 

See, I kinda agree. Fox already does a college football gambling show, but they throw it on Friday nights at like midnight. Put it on Saturday mornings at like 9 or 10 and I'd definitely watch.

Edit: I'm an idiot. I was referring to FS1, not the big Fox. Big difference, obviously. Carry on.

 

Does Grantland make any real money or is it like the WNBA?

ESPN makes about $6 per subscriber per month on TV. They can write checks for anything, including Reilly for $3M.

I agree the long term money will be harder to find for Simmons. Curious as to what any podcasts would be like for him but I've never considered him that great a talk show/podcast host. Great writer and good on NBA hosting.

 

first off, he didn't run 30 for 30, he was a co-creator. Grantland? His whole approach was "hire young writers who everyone thinks are cool." Obviously the big boys -- Skipper, ESPN -- don't think he's vital to that ongoing mantra of pandering to the young. I like Simmons, I respect the hell out of what he accomplished, but it's still sad to me on some level that he retains the interests -- or acts like he does -- of someone who is in his early 20s.

 

Another note for the future. We are moving to Ala carte content. Dish and directv can get the old people who don't watch ESPN to pay the six bucks a month in a bundle.

Yet within 15 years, you won't have to. ESPN would be smart to start cutting anything that doesn't bring in solid revenue. NFL rights won't be going down but the ESPN revenues won't stay like this forever.

 

Yeah, as anyone who has listened to his podcast knows, Simmons knows absolutely nothing about college football. Nothing.

That's not a knock, because he's made millions obsessing over the NBA, the Red Sox, pop culture and NFL gambling. I'd feel comfortable hiring him as a network analyst/commentator on any of those subjects.

But college football is even further out of his wheelhouse than baseball, about which he admits he only cares about the AL East. Hiring Simmons as a college football analyst would be like hiring Paul Finebaum to co-host Inside the NBA.