Next up -- ESPN??

[zeke12]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/super/parties

Nice to see they didn't have to skimp on the Super Bowl party while they're in a hiring freeze.

 

[SF_Express]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/super/parties

Nice to see they didn't have to skimp on the Super Bowl party while they're in a hiring freeze.

God help me for saying it, but for some companies -- probably including this one -- this is probably a fairly mandatory cost of doing business.

 

[zeke12]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/super/parties

Nice to see they didn't have to skimp on the Super Bowl party while they're in a hiring freeze.

God help me for saying it, but for some companies -- probably including this one -- this is probably a fairly mandatory cost of doing business.

There was enormous praise (from many men) for the women-to-men ratio. ESPN took a page from Playboy and brought in 300 of Florida's finest models, and through Friday there were more women at ESPN's Super Bowl party than at any of the other ones we attended.

You want to have a party in this economy, OK, have a party.

Paying models to attend? Not so much.

 

[Some Guy]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/super/parties

Nice to see they didn't have to skimp on the Super Bowl party while they're in a hiring freeze.

God help me for saying it, but for some companies -- probably including this one -- this is probably a fairly mandatory cost of doing business.

There was enormous praise (from many men) for the women-to-men ratio. ESPN took a page from Playboy and brought in 300 of Florida's finest models, and through Friday there were more women at ESPN's Super Bowl party than at any of the other ones we attended.

You want to have a party in this economy, OK, have a party.

Paying models to attend? Not so much.

But what kind of party would it be without, ahem, "self-employed" models?

 

[Shaggy]

Most of the recent hires (at least for writers or on-air talent) were given multi-year contracts. I think it will be interesting to see how many are renewed when their contracts are up.

Here's guessing the majority of the college football bloggers will be gone very soon.

Is there any education behind your guess? Because I've heard from sources that the college blogging was a pretty big hit, actually.

People at ESPN have told me the higher-ups there were disgusted by the inability of the bloggers to break any news. The big exception was Chris Low.

They expected the college bloggers to deliver the way the NFL guys did and that never happened.

Low does break a lot of news and is very good. Problem is that the other bloggers mostly post links to stories written by someone else. They mostly report on news broken by other outlets. I'm surprised it took the suits this long to realize it's probably not worth having all those people.

Agree on Low, he's very good. So is Ted Miller...

From what I heard, almost as soon as they were all hired people were saying, "What the **** are all of these people going to cover?"

The woman who covers the Big 12 rarely seemed to do anything other than say, "The KC Star wrote this today..." The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote this...

I believe the Big 12 she is a he. Isn't it Tim Griffin, he of the million cliched questions per Big 12 teleconference fame?

 

[luckyducky]

ACC -- Heather Dinich
Big 12 -- Tim Griffin
Big East -- Brian Bennett
Big Ten -- Adam Rittenberg
Pac-10 -- Ted Miller
SEC -- Chris Low
"Others" -- Graham Watson

 

[zebracoy]

This is, oh, about two years past the idea, but it is my understanding that as the blog network was set up at ESPN, the goal was to have it set up for a variety of different sports in different means (NFL, college sports, motorsports, etc.).

Seems like at this point, with no other sports/leagues having specific bloggers hired by ESPN, that idea went in the can. Whether it was due to performance by existing individuals - bang for the buck, per se - I don't know. But I think this is at least a good indication of things.

 

[Freelance Hack]

Essentially, ESPN hires beat writers for every BCS team out there. I like some of the blogs, it's a good secondary read. But, they don't break news because they are on an island.

Isn't that was College Sports Xchange is/was?

 

[Mark2010]

$100 K a year for a BLOGGER? Now, that's insane.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

$100 K a year for a BLOGGER? Now, that's insane.

The NFL guys do a lot more than the college guys.

 

[highlander]

ACC -- Heather Dinich
Big 12 -- Tim Griffin
Big East -- Brian Bennett
Big Ten -- Adam Rittenberg
Pac-10 -- Ted Miller
SEC -- Chris Low
"Others" -- Graham Watson

Sorry: The "Others" blogger written anything interesting all season. Sure hope he/she not one of them pulling $100,000.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

ACC -- Heather Dinich
Big 12 -- Tim Griffin
Big East -- Brian Bennett
Big Ten -- Adam Rittenberg
Pac-10 -- Ted Miller
SEC -- Chris Low
"Others" -- Graham Watson

Watson hasn't written anything interesting all season. Sure hope she's not one of them pulling $100,000.

Without naming names, I would say 2-3 on that list were good hires, one is awful and the others are very, very mediocre.

Nowhere close to the level of the NFL guys. I would say all of the NFL guys are very good with one exception.

 

[GlenQuagmire]

I won't mention names, but there's at least one person on that list that's a prime example of someone who mostly just posts links to other people's stories and rewrites press releases.

With the media getting less and less access to college athletics, I just don't see a huge benefit from having someone in Colorado blogging about something at Notre Dame, Florida or Washington.

With rare exception, it's no better than what someone else can blog from their basement.

If I want to see something of substance about those schools, I'll read copy from the local beat guys - who are at the practices, games, players and coaches on a regular basis.

 

[Editude]

I don't see this model lasting much beyond the length of the contracts. The information is not lacking, but it isn't especially urgent nor sought from a national perspective. Colleges, with few exceptions, are far bigger in their immediate bases.

 

[mediaguy]

Why aren't the college bloggers doing more basketball? Fine, put an emphasis on football, but some of them barely touch the hoops at all. Maybe that will change after Wednesday when recruiting is finished...

 

[GlenQuagmire]

I totally agree. Basically, it's Katz and little else for college basketball blogging.

Sadly, I expect all of ESPN's recruiting coverage to only get bigger and bigger. Another cash cow.

 

[Mark2010]

And, whom, pray tell, is reading all this stuff?

Or, more to the point, how are they selling and making money off any of this?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I follow ESPN's college football coverage pretty extensively and Low and Miller were the only ones who I ever saw break news during the season. I know that's not the primary part of their jobs, but it should still happen a few times a year, even if it's by default. Funny that the national guys seem to kick their asses.

 

[chase.colston]

Tim Griffin is no longer the Big 12 blogger. I don't know if he's still with ESPN, but I do know that position is being replaced. Can't say who just yet.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Tim Griffin is no longer the Big 12 blogger. I don't know if he's still with ESPN, but I do know that position is being replaced. Can't say who just yet.

The should hire B.G. Brooks, formerly of the Rocky Mountain News. Although Brooks' name wasn't among the ones I've heard mentioned.