Yes, PackFamily, I did mean CBS, but what I really meant is that tv has taken over the direction that the NCAAs have gone.
But I still maintain that ESPN is responsible for WF, VT and Clemson being left out of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge this season, and were replaced by 3 teams that had at that time never played an ACC game (and two of them got home games on top of that). That was patently wrong. I understand television wanting good games, but the league should have told ESPN that the new teams would have to compete for one season before being slotted into this event. You can bet that never in a hundred years would UNC (or Duke) have been left out the way the Deacs, Hokies and Tigers were. And despite being an NCAAT team last year, our opponent was the B1G’s worst program.
You can also look at ESPN’s Big Monday and see who gets all the games (Blues). Count ’em.
And it is beyond obvious that ESPN wants Syracuse to be Duke’s “new” rival, which will more than likely limit the frequency of seasons in which we get to play Syracuse (and maybe even Duke too) twice. Who is naive enough to believe that next season, we’ll be playing both Syracuse and Louisville at home while Duke and UNC won’t?
The bigger this league gets, the smaller schools like the Wolfpack, Wake Forest and Boston College will become to our own league officials. When the games that matter are shown, these 3 teams will seldom be included, especially if they’re not having a “top 20” season.
Division One sports has become the land of the Big Dogs, and not in just revenue sports. Look no farther from here than Buies Creek, and what happened to Campbell last season when the NCAA baseball committee made its NCAAT selections.
