College Football: ESPN's Monopoly is Bringing College Football to its Knees

We are currently living in a time that represents a significant moment in the history of collegiate sports, a turning point which may spawn results that have a lasting and irreversible impact on the landscape of institutional athletics.

Laying the flood of sanctions imposed on programs from coast to coast aside, tuning into college football in September of 2011 means a serious lack of discussions about touchdowns, yards, defensive schemes, beastly athletes and stellar match-ups and a literal barrage of reporting on conference realignment.

What began last year with major moves of Colorado and Utah to the now Pac-12, Nebraska to the Big 10, Boise State to the Mountain West, BYU to Independence and the pending move of TCU to the Big East ended in an explosion this past summer when Texas A&M’s president began making alluring phone calls to the SEC.

And now suddenly you can’t pull up a sports website, read the sports page or watch sports TV without being inundated with the newest rumor or grounded fact about who is going where and when.

The seemingly imminent demise of the Big 12 was temporarily trumped this past weekend by the ACC nabbing Syracuse and Pitt from the Big East but the former took back over the headlines early this week with Oklahoma and Texas investigating how warm it would be under the covers in the Pac-12’s big bed.

Could Oklahoma State and Texas Tech follow their older brothers west?

Will the remainder of the Big 12 join up with what’s left of the football members of the Big East?

Is West Virginia headed for the SEC?

If Conference USA and the MWC loosely join football forces for a championship game will it really result in a BCS bid?

Will TCU reverse field and stay in the MWC rather than roll the dice with the dwindling Big East?

What will Notre Dame do with its non gridiron sports if the Big East folds and can they retain their precious yet precarious independence?

Will the ACC expand to 16 teams in the next 15 minutes?

Is the Big 10 really happy with 12 members and who’s next on the SEC’s radar?

How hard would it be to win a 16 team conference?

Yes, there are more questions and rumors than answers and facts, but what is behind all the unprecedented change in college football?  Indeed, what force let loose the first domino in what looks to be a race to the unknown shores of Super Conference Island?

Well, you could make a pretty solid argument that it’s all about TV money and it’s all about getting the biggest piece of a very big tasty cash-filled pastry.

Television contracts, team or conference specific networks and the subsequent revenue does more than boost athletic budgets, it funds institution-wide projects that otherwise would be impossible.

Add to this opportunity for income the very human traits of “look what the other guy is getting” and “I want to be the first and the best” and you’ve got a frenzied and dangerous mob of institutions knocking down the doors of every potential super conference, regardless of the once loyal neighbors they trample down along the way.

And, if we’ve determined TV money is a major contributing factor in this debacle you have to include ESPN as accomplice No. 1.

ESPN very literally controls college football coverage to a point that it is reasonable to label their firm grip as a monopoly.

To illustrate, of the approximately 165 games televised thus far in the 2011 season ESPN has been involved in the broadcast of right at 100 of these contests meaning that they have handled a whopping 60 percent of this season’s TV business (and subsequent advertising dollars).

Want more fuel to throw on the fire?

Of the 35 bowl games scheduled for the 2011-12 postseason ESPN is covering all but TWO of the contests (the Sun Bowl will be shown by CBS and the Cotton Bowl is a FOX product). 

This means that ESPN has rights to 94 percent of the bowl games this season… and you were wondering why the number of bowl games has exploded in recent years (15 games in 1980, 19 games in 1990, 25 games in 2000 and 35 games today).

This also means that ESPN has coverage rights for each of the four BCS games and the BCS Championship game and if you’re not convinced that the worldwide leader in sports is in bed with the showcase of college football check out the BCS website where the entire news feed is a direct copy of what’s on the ESPN site.

The bottom line is that ESPN has wriggled its way into a commanding position in college football and the 120 institutions of the FBS are jockeying for a prime position to madly grab the most cash in the ESPN money blaster (think of that Chuck E. Cheese ticket machine that wildly blows tickets for birthday celebrants to grab and then spend on pencil erasers and glittery lizards); and college football is coming apart at the seams in the process.

In an almost bizarre twist that highlights the ludicrous state of college football ESPN published an article yesterday that reported on the possibility of Texas and Oklahoma joining the Pac-12.  When highlighting the inherent problems presented in melding the current Longhorn Network scheme (also an ESPN entity) with the Pac-12 media package the article states, “ESPN, which operates the Longhorn Network, had no comment.”

So, let me get this straight, an article published on the ESPN site, authored by “ESPN.com news services” couldn’t get a comment from ESPN on the situation involving a piece of their business?

Seriously…to quote another ESPN program, “Come on, Man!”

At the end of the day, who cares if none of this makes any sense and if any of this is good for collegiate sports or the institutions and student athletes involved?

Just follow the “leader” and everyone will be wealthier, have newer buildings and shinier uniforms which is the point of college sports anyway, right?

ESPN reminds me a lot of Wal-Mart and you have to wonder where it will all end…