Post by bigdawgs on Oct 21, 2014 18:40:21 GMT -5
Mike Herndon | mherndon@al.com
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on October 21, 2014 at 11:32 AM, updated October 21, 2014 at 11:47 AM
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Nebraska coach Bo Pelini on Monday questioned ESPN's relationship with the SEC and whether the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" can be unbiased in its coverage of a conference whose network it owns.
"I don't think that kind of relationship is good for college football," Pelini said in his Monday press conference. "That's just my opinion. Anytime you have a relationship with somebody, you have a partnership, you are supposed to be neutral. It's pretty hard to stay neutral in that situation."
Pelini's comments come one day after four SEC teams were ranked in the top five of the Associated Press poll, and one week before the College Football Playoff selection committee will announce its first rankings of the season, a first step in the process of selecting four teams to play in the inaugural playoff in January. With only three Power 5 teams still unbeaten -- and two of those, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, set to play each other at the end of the regular season -- there is sure to be heated debate over which one-loss teams are chosen for the playoff.
Pelini's Cornhuskers, 6-1, are ranked No. 16 in this week's AP poll.
ESPN owns the SEC Network, which launched this year. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit refuted the idea that the company's ownership of the network might lead to bias or the pushing of an agenda from its analysts.
"I think that's kind of an outside-of-the-company perception because ESPN is associated with the SEC Network," he said. "I've worked at this company for a long, long time. Nobody has ever told me what my take needs to be or what my opinion needs to be. All they ask is that we do our homework and that we have opinions. That's it. It hasn't changed from the time we did not have an SEC Network to now that we do have an SEC Network. No one's ever whispered in my ear, or any other analyst for that matter: 'Hey, SEC Network, we've got to back that conference.'
"I'm a Big Ten guy," added Herbstreit, who played quarterback at Ohio State in the early 1990. "Nobody loves Ohio State more than me and nobody's more of a Big Ten guy than me. But the reality is the reality."
Herbstreit noted that ESPN also owns the University of Texas' Longhorn Network, and yet many ESPN analysts have been critical of the Longhorns' play.
"Nobody beats up the Longhorns more than the guys on ESPN," Herbstreit said. "You think we get satisfaction out of that? You think we enjoy doing that? No, it's just being honest. ... I feel just as affiliated -- which is zilch -- to the Longhorn Network as I do to the SEC Network."
Pelini isn't the only one raising questions of "SEC bias" after the conference's prominence at the top of this week's AP poll, although other barbs were more general and not targeted at ESPN, which has no affiliation with the poll.
For instance, Saturday Down South noted that former Washington, Colorado and UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, who has been critical of SEC scheduling in the past, said Saturday on the Pac-12 Network: "I know how to become a top 5 team. ... Just play Texas A&M."
Three of the SEC's teams in the top five -- Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Alabama -- have beaten Texas A&M handily in the last three weeks.
And former Florida State quarterback Danny Kanell, who also is an analyst at ESPN, has been outspoken in bashing the SEC, including these tweets on Sunday after the AP poll was released:
Danny Kanell ā @dannykanell
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Lol at AP poll. That's a big fat EL OH EL. So much blind bias
2:34 PM - 19 Oct 2014
Danny Kanell ā @dannykanell
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How quickly we forget a 1 point win (should have been loss) to a team who hasn't won a conference game in 2 years. #convenient #bama #bias
3:21 PM - 19 Oct 2014
Kanell did, however, tweet a top 6 that had Mississippi State at No. 1 ahead of his alma mater.
With all four of the SEC's teams in the AP's top five coming from the SEC West, Pelini said he doesn't know if there's a way to tell exactly how good those teams are right now.
"I think that will play out as the season goes on," he said. "They play good football, and I know there is some good football played in some other conferences, too. It's hard to say because you just don't see unfortunately in this day and age a lot of crossovers. So you don't get a lot to make that decision on to be able to compare and contrast. You have to go off what the media says to a certain extent and what some people say."
Herbstreit, who played with Pelini at Ohio State, said he looks forward to discussing all this with him the next time they see each other.
"I know him very well. He's an emotional guy and he says what he thinks," he said of Pelini. "Next time I talk to him, I'll have a conversation with him about this."
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on October 21, 2014 at 11:32 AM, updated October 21, 2014 at 11:47 AM
0
Nebraska coach Bo Pelini on Monday questioned ESPN's relationship with the SEC and whether the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" can be unbiased in its coverage of a conference whose network it owns.
"I don't think that kind of relationship is good for college football," Pelini said in his Monday press conference. "That's just my opinion. Anytime you have a relationship with somebody, you have a partnership, you are supposed to be neutral. It's pretty hard to stay neutral in that situation."
Pelini's comments come one day after four SEC teams were ranked in the top five of the Associated Press poll, and one week before the College Football Playoff selection committee will announce its first rankings of the season, a first step in the process of selecting four teams to play in the inaugural playoff in January. With only three Power 5 teams still unbeaten -- and two of those, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, set to play each other at the end of the regular season -- there is sure to be heated debate over which one-loss teams are chosen for the playoff.
Pelini's Cornhuskers, 6-1, are ranked No. 16 in this week's AP poll.
ESPN owns the SEC Network, which launched this year. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit refuted the idea that the company's ownership of the network might lead to bias or the pushing of an agenda from its analysts.
"I think that's kind of an outside-of-the-company perception because ESPN is associated with the SEC Network," he said. "I've worked at this company for a long, long time. Nobody has ever told me what my take needs to be or what my opinion needs to be. All they ask is that we do our homework and that we have opinions. That's it. It hasn't changed from the time we did not have an SEC Network to now that we do have an SEC Network. No one's ever whispered in my ear, or any other analyst for that matter: 'Hey, SEC Network, we've got to back that conference.'
"I'm a Big Ten guy," added Herbstreit, who played quarterback at Ohio State in the early 1990. "Nobody loves Ohio State more than me and nobody's more of a Big Ten guy than me. But the reality is the reality."
Herbstreit noted that ESPN also owns the University of Texas' Longhorn Network, and yet many ESPN analysts have been critical of the Longhorns' play.
"Nobody beats up the Longhorns more than the guys on ESPN," Herbstreit said. "You think we get satisfaction out of that? You think we enjoy doing that? No, it's just being honest. ... I feel just as affiliated -- which is zilch -- to the Longhorn Network as I do to the SEC Network."
Pelini isn't the only one raising questions of "SEC bias" after the conference's prominence at the top of this week's AP poll, although other barbs were more general and not targeted at ESPN, which has no affiliation with the poll.
For instance, Saturday Down South noted that former Washington, Colorado and UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, who has been critical of SEC scheduling in the past, said Saturday on the Pac-12 Network: "I know how to become a top 5 team. ... Just play Texas A&M."
Three of the SEC's teams in the top five -- Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Alabama -- have beaten Texas A&M handily in the last three weeks.
And former Florida State quarterback Danny Kanell, who also is an analyst at ESPN, has been outspoken in bashing the SEC, including these tweets on Sunday after the AP poll was released:
Danny Kanell ā @dannykanell
Follow
Lol at AP poll. That's a big fat EL OH EL. So much blind bias
2:34 PM - 19 Oct 2014
Danny Kanell ā @dannykanell
Follow
How quickly we forget a 1 point win (should have been loss) to a team who hasn't won a conference game in 2 years. #convenient #bama #bias
3:21 PM - 19 Oct 2014
Kanell did, however, tweet a top 6 that had Mississippi State at No. 1 ahead of his alma mater.
With all four of the SEC's teams in the AP's top five coming from the SEC West, Pelini said he doesn't know if there's a way to tell exactly how good those teams are right now.
"I think that will play out as the season goes on," he said. "They play good football, and I know there is some good football played in some other conferences, too. It's hard to say because you just don't see unfortunately in this day and age a lot of crossovers. So you don't get a lot to make that decision on to be able to compare and contrast. You have to go off what the media says to a certain extent and what some people say."
Herbstreit, who played with Pelini at Ohio State, said he looks forward to discussing all this with him the next time they see each other.
"I know him very well. He's an emotional guy and he says what he thinks," he said of Pelini. "Next time I talk to him, I'll have a conversation with him about this."