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ESPN, ESPNU, CSTV and Big Ten Network plan programs Wednesday for collegiate football news
Published on Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008
Just days removed from the Super Bowl, this space normally would rehash some of the broadcast highlights of the Super Bowl.
Not today.
Thank you, New York and New England for a classic, classic game, but you've been usurped by your baby brother, college football.
In recent years, the NFL has evolved into a 24/7 fascination for American sports fans. From speculation about the draft to the draft itself to minicamp, training camp and so on, football is king.
Slowly but surely, however, college football has crept closer. It will steal some of the spotlight Wednesday on National Signing Day, which for all practical purposes is NCAA football's version of the draft.
High school seniors will step farther into celebrity's glare and the media will be right there to document every moment of it, depending on the player's status.
Despite being on the air for less than three years, ESPNU, the sports behemoth's network devoted to collegiate and some high school sports — is leading the way with its signing-day coverage. When you have a network whose calling card is the collegiate realm, it only makes sense to delve into recruiting.
''Recruiting is at the heart of everything we do related to high school football. Recruiting is such an integral part of a college football existence,'' said Burke Magnus, vice president and general manager for ESPNU. ''When ESPNU came along, we looked at this as an untapped area of content that was really sort of the purview of exclusively an online endeavor for us and others.''
The era in which Web sites dominated recruiting news is over. ESPNU added a weekly show, Recruiting Insider, to its lineup in fall 2006 and it is one of three networks that will provide extensive coverage of signings.
ESPN will provide numerous sources throughout the day for news. The insanity begins at noon on ESPNU with ESPNU Recruiting Insider: National Signing Day Special by 76. Yeah it's a mouthful and a half. ESPN Mobile TV and ESPN.com will stream video to phones and PCs. ESPN will offer a variety of ways to check your favorite college team online at ESPN.com.
Not to be left out, CSTV will provide six hours of coverage of the day's events. They kick off with Generation Next National Signing Day Presented by U.S. Army Early Edition at 10 a.m. for an hour. Next up: Generation Next National Signing Day Presented by U.S. Army at 2 p.m. for four hours. Generation Next National Signing Day Presented by U.S. Army Wrap Up Show airs at 10 p.m.
Not to be outdone, the Big Ten Network gets into the game with its own special programming. The college sports network will air three editions of Big Ten Tonight: Signing Day Special — at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, another after that night's live sports events and at 6 p.m. Thursday.
It seems fitting that the Big Ten will offer its own coverage given that two of its member schools have a vested interest in one prime recruit named Terrelle Pryor.
Pryor, a dual-threat quarterback from Jeannette, Pa., will choose between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines on Wednesday. He tops many recruiting service lists and understandably has been evasive about which school he will attend.
The word out of Jeannette is he will make his announcement at a noon press conference, one that's certain to be well attended and well covered.
I'm torn about this type of coverage for high school athletes. I have been since ESPN shoved a camera in LeBron James' face while he was playing at St. Vincent-St. Mary.
What 18-year-old kid is ready to handle this kind of attention? Does it feed the sense of entitlement many of them develop throughout college and the pros, should they be talented enough to make it there?
The college football fan in me loves it because with the analysis from the experts on these shows you get an idea of how your team compares to others. Ultimately, however, anyone who is reasonable has to acknowledge that none of it matters if these prospects don't pan out.
A Super Duper Bowl
I couldn't get out without rehashing something from Sunday's game, so I offer this: Super Bowl XLII proved to be the most watched game ever, delivering more than 97 million viewers to the Fox Network (WJW Channel 8) Sunday evening.
It will go down in history as the second most watched program on a TV network ever, just behind the 1983 airing of the final episode of M*A*S*H.
George M. Thomas can be reached at sportswriterabj@sbcglobal.net. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/sportsblitz/.
Just days removed from the Super Bowl, this space normally would rehash some of the broadcast highlights of the Super Bowl.
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