ESPN College GameDay will open the season at Virginia Tech for their match-up with East Carolina. So much for my predictions.
That shoots at least two if not three weeks out of the water right out of the gate. They're going to cover the emotional story of the Hokies instead of the UT vs. Cal game. The common thinking was that they would cover the VT story in Week 2 at LSU.
As one VT fan said, "This way, they're much more likely to get a happy ending vs. the outcome in Baton Rouge."
All the best to the VT people as they continue their healing process.
PWD
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11 comments:
You know what's been missing from college football for so long? Dredging up memories of national tragedies during what should otherwise be an entertaining 3 hour game of football. Hear me out...
I was sick to my stomach for DAYS after the tragic shooting at VT, literally nauseous. I can't even imagine how something like that goes down and I wrestled with myself for hours on end trying to figure out WHY something like that happened.
Like a lot of other people, college football is sort of an outlet for me. I can use it to escape the daily grind and an otherwise hectic world that is filled with tragedy. When I tune in to a football game I want and expect to be entertained.
That being said, where is the interest in tuning in to a football game only to be confronted with emotions and feelings that are EXTREMELY negative in nature? Most of us have dealt with our emotions regarding this event and have moved on. What good does it do to force us to bring these emotions to the surface again while watching a football game?
They've done the same thing with Saints games for the last 2 years. They can't have a home game without reminding us of the tragedy that took place in 2005. What does this accomplish other than depressing the hell out of the viewers?
We don't need to be reminded of these tragedies. Everyday life is tragic. Football is an escape. I haven't forgotten what happened on the Gulf Coast (it wasn't just NO) and I sure as hell haven't forgotten about the tragic shooting at VT.
More importantly, why should the shooter get more airtime than the football team?? The more they parade that sicko across the tv the more it pokes at the wound of those that lost loved ones and distracts from the efforts being put in by the team to overcome the tragedy and move forward.
Noone has ever accomplished anything by constantly looking backwards.
I wish ESPN would let the people who lost loved ones mourn in peace instead of using them for ratings.
Sean,
I like that ESPN will be going to VT but if they want to help them move on, don't bring up the biggest tragedy to ever occur on their campus.
When your friend's Dad dies you don't go to his house for dinner six months later and start the conversation with "Hey, remember when your Dad died?"
I do agree with some of the sentiments already expressed, but I will add a couple of other thoughts....
1) There is a right way and a wrong way to do this. If ESPN is smart, they will focus more on the positive stories of the community coming together and individual stories where people were overcoming the tragedy, rather than rehashing the incident. Of course, there will be a table-setter piece to rehash a little (as if we all don't know what happened), but the story will be how the band honors the student from Augusta or how the student body collected money to help out a victim's family or something like that. That way the story is not the killer, but healing.
2) One advantage of doing it during the ECU game rather than the LSU game is that (not to sound callous), the LSU game is a legit game. There are probably less "football stories" during the ECU game, so you don't do the game a disservice. Understand, I realize the game in no way compares to 30+ lives, but from a "Game Day" standpoint, losing breakdowns of ECU is less than losing breakdowns of LSU.
3) Regardless of when ESPN or any other media outlet does a game at Blacksburg, the issue is going to be brought up. Maybe this way, it is done (and hopefully handled well) and then we move on.
I'm going to step away from the emotional side of the VT tragedy for this comment. If you think that might be offensive, skip ahead to the next comment.
I think Gameday is miscalcualting a bit here. What exactly are they going to accomplish by rehashing the VT tragedy? I don't think they're going to get more viewers from it, especially at an ECU game.
Now they're putting a 2nd tier game on Gameday that they're going to have to produce some videos, interviews, etc for that will require a lot more effort than their usual stuff. And they're going to have to remind people about the shooting in their commercials because a lot of people have forgotten who aren't directly involved in some way. That's going to be a little awkward.
It just doesn't seem to make business sense unless they're trying to cut their losses. Maybe they feel they have to cover a VT game early to appear sympathetic and this game is the least of the possible evils. And I don't buy that they'd rather host this one than LSU because of VT's chance of winning. If they think it would draw higher ratings than everything else on Week 2, they'd at least try to take VT vs LSU and cry all the way to the bank over any potential VT loss.
A cold hearted bastard would say....
The Cal students don't give a damn, and they won't have 5k fans there at 7:00 am Local Time to go buck wild for the cameras. Thus, why go to UT at Cal? It only dilutes the perception of the presitige or excitement associated with their product.
VT students are some of the best supporters of ESPN GameDay in the country. So...go there instead.
I'm taking a firm wait-and-see attitude towards this.
My initial reaction was similar to some of those posted here already. It seems awfully inappropriate and forced on ESPN's part. However I'll probably tape it (will be tailgating for oSu) and watch just to see if they go with the healing angle or the 'WTH happened to VT's #1 D?' angle.
This could be a huge miscalculation on Bristol's part.
Oh yeah, go Cal.
This is insensitive, but when is it going to be acceptable again to refer to VT fans as inbred hillbillies and VT players as gun toting criminals again. Viva la Miami del norte.
Too soon??
By the way, screw College Gameday. The program serves to hype the mediocre Big Televen. Further, they haven't visited Athens since the 1998 Tennessee game. Finally, their bland/neutral host referred to Georgia fans as "overdressed, overserved frat boys." (Not that this assessment is inaccurate, I just didn't like his tone)
This is insensitive, but when is it going to be acceptable again to refer to VT fans as inbred hillbillies and VT players as gun toting criminals? Viva la Miami del norte.
Too soon??
By the way, screw College Gameday. The program serves to hype the mediocre Big Televen. Further, they haven't visited Athens since the 1998 Tennessee game. Finally, their bland/neutral host, Chris Fowler, referred to Georgia fans as "overdressed, overserved frat boys." (Not that this assessment is inaccurate, I just didn't like his tone)
It's weird how everybody (by which I mean ESPN, most SEC folks, and even quite a few VaTech fans) has been treating the LSU game as if it's a guaranteed win for the Tigers.
VT had the number-one defense in the country last year, and they bring back something like eight or nine starters on that side of the ball. About that many coming back on offense. Tiger Stadium is a hell of a venue to have to play in, but balancing that out you've got the coaching acumen of Frank Beamer, who's been around the block more than a few times.
If I were ESPN, even if I wanted to hype the rising-up-from-tragedy bit, I wouldn't waste that storyline on a weekend in which VT is only beating up on one of the little sisters of the poor. Pack that storyline up and bring it down to Baton Rouge. If Tech wins -- and there's an excellent chance they could do so -- that'd just make the rising-up-from-tragedy aspect resonate all the more.
Doug - that QB for VT was really, really bad. The VT offense isn't all that impressive and LSU's defense is redonkulous.
I think it'll be a 20-10 type thing for LSU.
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