ESPN + Sports Illustrated = Sensationalism

Pardon the use of an equation for a title, I'm an engineer. I'm just exhausted by the media these days, and it isn't due to the coverage of Notre Dame football. More than most years of college football, this one seems to be ripe with sensationalism and melodrama amongst the media and journalists. I think it's mostly because of all the upsets. Most "sports journalists" (I use that term loosely because they are far from objective in their reporting, the supposed goal of a journalist) have no clue about what it takes to have a successful college football team, program, or season. In the absence of such knowledge and in the wake of inexplicable upset after inexplicable upset they are left with no real ground on which to write intelligent, thought-provoking, non-biased commentary. Instead, they would rather spin one sensational story after another completely void of anything resembling a factually-based article about college football.

This year, so far anyway, the target has largely been Michigan and USC. Two games into the season everyone forgot about the fact that Michigan had two ESPN dubbed Heisman candidates in Hart and Henne. They forgot about the fact that Michigan holds the all time highest winning percentage in college football history. They forgot about the fact that Lloyd Carr won a national championship within the last decade. The same people that were wailing on Michigan were the ones who ranked them in the top 5 and dubbed them a national championship contender in the pre-season. Last time I checked they didn't ask to have that status. This is the same script the media followed two seasons ago.

Then USC loses to Stanford and all of the sudden they have "lost their aura" and are "in crises mode" (two direct quotes from articles on ESPN.com and SI.com). Of course, had any of these journalists taken the time to watch USC's previous two games they might have seen it coming. A rash of injuries resulted in penalties and turnovers via inexperienced players receiving significant playing time. But in the big scheme of things it's one game. Pete Carroll is 65-12 at USC. He has won 84.4% of the games he has coached there. His first season he was 6-6. If you take that season out he has won 90.8% of the games he has coached. That is flat out absurd. I'd kill for that type of a coaching record at Notre Dame. It just goes to show you how fickle college football writers are.

But what is worse, in the absence of explainable losses and in the face of the collapse of the college football giants, "sports journalists" slant the statistics to support their argument. It's amazing (and I'm guilty of it) to read one of the articles where they make comparisons or analyze a game, team, or program using only the statistics that support their argument. A simple ten minute search on Google is often times all that is needed to find the rest of the information to tell the whole story. The problem is most college football readers (myself usually included) don't readily understand what other information to look for in hopes of balancing the perspective. This is not only irresponsible reporting, it blatantly plays on the emotions of fans, both good and bad.

Playing on these emotions "sports journalists" like Pat Forde and Stewart Mandel create utopias (the good) and dystopias (the bad) surrounding college football programs, their players, and their fans. This is borderline criminal as it preys on the human psyche (the bad), creating fuel to the fires of criticism, while also creating the sort of fervent fanaticism (the good) that nearly leads to idolatry. And what is worse, with writers like Forde and Mandel their emotions shine so brightly through their writing they beat a dead horse because they are motivated not by objectivity, but by personal vendetta. The ultimate disservice, however, is to the players who are subjected to unfair, unnecessary, and, in many cases, unwarranted criticism.

I only bring this up now because the pendulum will swing back to Notre Dame one day. Someday soon we will be the object of their criticism, then their glorification, then their criticism, and so on and so forth. They will quickly forget how they deprecated Notre Dame, the mission surrounding its football program, and its disillusioned coaches, players, and fans in lieu of glorifying their current success because it makes dollars and increases their audience. Do not play their games, do not support their cause. Support the essence of the game: your team, your players, and your school, regardless of apparent success or failure.