FanPost

ESPN's dumb "contests"

I like watching ESPN because I love sports, but man, they really get on my nerves with all sorts of ridiculously stupid contests and/or polls that are just a waste of time.  What makes matters worse is that people participate in them and then think these contests have some sort of universal authority.  I'm not saying participating in them is bad if you understand it's just for kicks, but when this is used as an authoritative measure, it's just plain stupid.  Examples:

"Titletown USA" - I think this town in Georgia won because of their high school football team.  Raise your hand if you care what "Titletown USA" is, whatever it means in the first place.  Apparently, if your junior high school wins a lot of city championships, it counts in this discussion.  Who's bright idea was this?  I turned off Sportscenter everytime this came up.

"Greatest college football team of all time" - Yeah, like it's easy comparing teams across eras and the like.  Kirk Herbstreit was mad that people picked '95 Nebraska over '01 Miami, because all of those first-rounders on defense, in his view, would load the line and force Nebraska to pass.  Is he right?  Maybe.  Can we know this?  No.  Is it Nebraska's fault they just ran the option to death?  No.  It worked, they won, and they dominated the teams that were in their year.  Sure, nowadays, it is virtually impossible for a team that one-dimensional to do the same thing, but how is that Nebraska's fault?  Why are teams from the 1940's put up against '05 Texas, when the very sight of Vince Young would cause those players to pee in their pants?  Is that even a fair comparison to make?  Teams way back in the day would have virtually no idea what do with the complex passing attacks of today.  Again, just a waste of time.  It's a fun discussion to have among fellow fans, but pretending that they can actually figure this out by expert opinion and fan vote was just dumb and shows that ESPN is sometimes desperately trying to take up time when football is not in season.

"Best college football helmet" - I like our Longhorns helmet.  I have absolutely no interest if it's the "best" in college football.  I'm more concerned if we have the best team of the season.  Again, who's dumb idea was this?  Can you imagine even having a discussion about this?  "Our helmet has our Longhorn on it... it's pretty cool."  --->  "Well, our Notre Dame helmet is just... gold, and it's pretty cool."

At the least, a lot of their "rankings" aren't all that bad since they actually have more similarities and more relevanace (like ranking the current runningbacks in the NFL, for instance), but sometimes, it's just plain stupid.  And it gets on my nerves when they have these "experts" come in and give them their grand opinion like it even matters.

Maybe if you media types would spend such research and time, you know, evaluating current college football teams with deep coverage, then perhaps people wouldn't be so angry at you and your rankings over the years, though granted, the AP is no longer a part of the BCS.  Next time, why don't you rank "Greatest coach ever" and give it to some no-name guy in a no-name town who has won 13 straight titles at his 1A high school.  Yay.

All comments, FanPosts, and FanShots are the views of the reader-authors who create them.