SMU at the time of this post is beating Duke 21-14 in the 3rd quarter and ended up winning 28-27. They held on to the lead and defeated the Blue Devils, so send ESPN Gameday there. Actually, it’s not even a question. SMU will be 7-1 and Pitt is 7-0. Both in the top 20.
It’s a game with ACC Title and Playoff Implications. Now you might wonder about a potential top 5 matchup between Penn State and Ohio State. It’s arguably a bigger matchup, but would ESPN really take gameday to their 3rd Big 10 matchup out of their last 4 Gameday locations? By comparison, the FOX equivalent Big Noon Kickoff has had 1 SEC team, a FOX telecast of Alabama at Wisconsin. Clearly they are only going to locations for games they are televising.
That certainly would seem like a peculiar television strategy for ESPN to keep promoting games and teams you don’t televise. It would also be the second time to have Ohio State within a month. Gameday also went to Texas at Michigan another FOX telecast. We had wondered how ESPN would treat the Big 10 after their complete departure from the network, and actually, they’ve treated them very well.
Gaemday destinations by conference members this year -> SEC – 10 Big 10 – 7 ACC – 4, Independent – 1, Big 12 – 0.
So I get the desire of ESPN Gameday to be a national show, but to the extent, ESPN is hyping games they don’t televise seems as I said is peculiar at best and downright bad business at worst.
The choice seemed obvious. Send it to SMU – as the Mustangs took care of business.
Well, the decision is made ESPN went with Penn State and Ohio State. A decision in a vacuum that is not so weird, but again another Big 10 location? Hey SEC your number 1 conference financial rival is getting nearly the coverage you do on your home network. ACC is fighting for scraps, and I don’t even know if Gameday is allowed at a Big 12 school anymore.
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