Pat Forde: Competent College Football Writers Dropping Like Flies at ESPN

Those who enjoy reading Pat Forde's work for ESPN won't be able to do so for much longer. That ship is about to sail very soon.

Don't worry. It will land at Yahoo! Sports.

At least, such is the word around the campfire. According to TheBigLead.com, Forde is going to be writing for Yahoo! in a few weeks' time. His contract with the worldwide leader expires on November 1st. Soon after it does, he will take his talents to one of ESPN's biggest competitors.

Because it has been rumored that this was going to happen, that it is happening should be no real surprise. To boot, the word is that Forde's pending breakup with ESPN is "amicable."

Which makes Forde a little different from Bruce Feldman, of course. Feldman departed for CBS Sports after having a fallout with ESPN, which was brought on by a controversy over the book he wrote with former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach.

You might remember the whole ordeal. ESPN got miffed at Feldman, suspended him and the next thing you knew #freebruce was a trending topic on Twitter.

Ultimately, Feldman freed himself, saying afterward (per SI.com) that he had "lost all faith" in the ESPN hierarchy.

So there was that. Now there's Forde leaving. Coincidence?

Probably. But then again, maybe not. As TheBigLead.com points out, Forde has been critical of The Longhorn Network, which is run by ESPN.

Here's what Forde had to say about the LHN in an Outside the Lines interview:

"

I’m frankly a little troubled by the Longhorn Network. I know it’s been a very positive business situation I believe for our employers at ESPN, but what it does, to me, is it singles out a specific school as opposed to a collective. And when you do that, you are essentially playing favorites. … If it gets into an uneven playing field, and ESPN is part and parcel of creating an uneven playing field, then I can understand why fans of other teams would have a problem with that. It creates a perception for those of us on the dotcom side and on the news side that are covering these teams that we are going to play favorites as well.

"

As I understand things, this goes against the first commandment that all ESPN employees must follow:

Thou shalt not criticize the network.

This being said, I have to say that it doesn't look from afar like Forde is being forced out. For all we know, ESPN wanted him back. He said thanks, but no thanks.

Either way, this is a weird trend that's starting to develop. First it was Feldman, now it's Forde. There's no telling who could be next.

Truthfully, I kind of hope it's Lee Corso. It seems like he becomes more and more of a cartoon every year.  It's painful to watch.