ESPN college sites/hiring

On a jobs thread, David Ching revealed that he had been hired for the new ESPN site covering UGA.

I know ESPN raided the Daily Oklahoman for its Oklahoma coverage.

Anybody got any other scuttlebutt/intelligence on other programs that ESPN plans to cover and who they have hired?

 

No.

 

Thanks.

And gives me an opportunity to reframe the question/comment: I guess I'm surprised that ESPN is launching a major initiative that could add dozens of good jobs covering high-profile college programs and there hasn't been much discussion about it here.

 

Michigan.

 

Anyone who thinks these jobs are so good should ask themselves one question: Is there even one writer who has been hired into one of these specialty positions (covering a team, for one of the local sites or as a college or NFL blogger) moved on to a better, higher-profile job as a result? The NFC North blogger or Big 10 correspondent doesn't get to write anything of any substance, and they're not moving on to better gigs. At least that I know of.

These jobs, if you ask me, are career black holes unless you just want to work for ESPN. Which I guess is cool, Pompano.

 

Might be great gigs. All you have to do is practice reports, features, gamers and follows. Lord knows they don't want anyone breaking NCAA violations or stuff like that. ("If you guys want to root out the truth and expose corruption, go work for Yahoo.")

 

But I ask you this: What do they pay?

 

Texas and USC sites have launched.
http://espn.go.com/colleges/texas/index
http://espn.go.com/colleges/usc/index

I think Michigan, Georgia and Oklahoma are next. I'm not clear on whether there's an OSU site coming too, considering the OSU guy was hired too. I think you might be looking at a 3-man site for OU, but I'm not sure.

 

That's a fair opinion.

I imagine very few of us are dying to work for Evil Empire, but many of us like money.

 

OMG.

Working there doesn't suck. It kind of rocks. You won't agree with every decision ever made there, obviously. But the job security is largely good, the campus is fantastic, the cafeteria is the best I've ever seen, and if you want to work somewhere where something is ALWAYS happening, you can't go wrong.

Pay is good, but COL is high.

 

Just to clarify, the folks being hired for these positions are living in the cities of the teams they cover.

As far as the quality of the job, somebody noted the bloggers don't seem to move up the chain. The question is, are they jumping ship? If the job's weren't good, they'd leave, wouldn't they?

Now, if there has been high turnover in these positions, then let me know.

 

There's plans for Ohio State. They were going to hire one of the writers who covers the Buckeyes for a Website, but that may have fallen through. I don't think these positions are going to be like the AFC East, SEC, etc. bloggers. From what I was told it sounded more like a typical beat job. And the person I talked to about all this mentioned a $30,000 raise.