Canzano Skewers ESPN's BCS "relationship"

Missou is right on this one. It was an OK opinion, but one that overreached in a few spots.
With this one caveat: There are others who make a lot of money in the BCS system. It's the schools. So this "shitty bowl system" isn't the fault of ESPN solely. It's the fault of the schools and the networks.
Same reason there are conference championships and conference tournaments in hoops. More money for powerful schools and networks.
Canzano's take ends up feeling -- to me at least -- like the Orioles complaining about the Yankees' payroll.

 

My question isn't whether Ted Miller gets better treatment than Aaron Fentress, it's whether he gets better treatment than Austin Murphy or Dennis Dodd or other big-name writers.

 

I'm just wondering how, days before Oregon plays Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, how a column about ESPN having more access than Canzano benefits the readers of the Oregonian? The only person it benefits is Canzano by letting him vent about something that could have been done at any point after the game.

Totally self-serving, shallow column that doesn't even scratch the surface of a legitimate issue (ESPN's relationship with college sports). I know major metro columnists have more pull than their SE's in most cases, but that's an instance where the Oregonian SE should have spiked the column, or not even let it get to the written stage.

 

I don't think he was necessarily trying to change ESPN. And he definitely wasn't writing for a national audience.

 

Carzano is stupid for not knowing ESPN's mission is profit and not journalism, or lazy for not taking the time to let the reader know that. Maybe the Tom Shales book would be a good start for Canzano.

He typifies the "toy department" columnist who can't go into any depth on issues because thinking takes too much effort.

Maybe he can redeem himself by ripping a car dealer or Realtor in town.

 

Not to defend Canzano by any means, but I believe he was named the country's top sports columnist in one, if not both, of the past two years, and he works in a top-25 market.

He's written plenty of columns about the Rose Bowl in the past three weeks for his home audience.

John Canzano is many things. Stupid is not one of them.

 

Maybe spread too thin is a better description. That explains a lot of surface, shoot-from-the-hip stuff I see from many lately, with not a lot of depth. Certainly true of him.

 

I suppose only a Oregon beat writer or ESPN blogger could really answer that question, but I never got the sense the ESPN bloggers got better access. As in, I don't think the teams are required to or even often do.

If a coach was just nuts about privacy, he could shut everyone out. I don't think ESPN can force it to happen and fine a coach. The NCAA is not the NFL in that regard.

At any rate, Canzano's column is useful - and I'd fight for his rhetorical right to write it without getting drowned out by the folks obsessed with "well, buh, ESPN is really" semantics - but, yes, it is a little skin deep. Smart coaches should know - they usually don't, but they should - that taking care of local media and boosters is what makes your life truly easier. When a coach is sacked, it's never - and I mean not ever - ESPN's lack of access that causes it. But a booster sure could start a groundswell. A fed-up local reporter could.

Put it this way: In that market, what a local columnist like Canzano writes should matter much more to the local coach than what Kirk Herbstreit says on TV. Because even if Herbstreit loathes a coach - he'd never say on the air.

But coaches tend to be kinda dumb in that department, which is why they get fired all over the place after 3 or 4 years. They waltz in, blow off the local press, sit in their office for 20 hours, and get run out.

 

Disagree. Maybe it could have been fleshes out more, but the heart of the issue as as much about the NCS as it is ESPN. And Oregon readers/Ducks fans want to know what's going on with the BCS. The treatment shows ESPN has a stake in keeping the BCS as is, and that's absolutely relevant to the college football fan in Oregon.

 

When I, or colleagues, wrote similar pieces years ago on a beat covering a BCS contender, the only responses we got from readers were: "Quit complaining about access and do your job! Quit complaining that somebody is making your job harder."

Nobody gave a fuck.

 

You're connecting dots Canzano didn't.

 

Frankly, journos complaining about access is like the guy who has been a season ticket holder in the cheap seats for a decade wondering why the big time donor who just built a building for the school gets to park right next to the stadium and drink scotch in his skybox while he has to make do with flat soda and popcorn.
Money talks. The more of it you give, the more people will listen to you.