NBC's Launch of Sports Network May Change the Landscape of College Football

It is no secret that college football’s BCS system is drastically flawed and heavily influenced by the media. 

Coaches and writers whose votes heavily influence the BCS rankings depend to a large extent on highlights and commentary that they currently get from one major network.

ESPN has the monopoly on sports highlights and news and thus has a large influence on voters and the college football rankings.

If ESPN chooses to, they can highlight or downplay a specific team’s accomplishments and influence voting that ultimately decide the BCS rankings.

They also have the ability to manipulate Heisman Trophy voting by heavily highlighting specific players, both in postgame highlights and commentary from their in-house “experts” on their news network.

I have said for years that ESPN needs a national competitor to take away some of its power in the college football world.

FOX Sports has been around for a while, but is mostly regional and plays no major role in national sports highlights.

NBC is launching a 24-hour sports network in January that, if successful, could take away a lot of ESPN’s power in college football.

The network, which will begin broadcasting on January 2, 2012, will finally give ESPN competition in the sports news market.

A major network like NBC, if it keeps its coverage national like ESPN, can change the entire landscape of college football, good or bad.

With NBC’s long-standing relationship with Notre Dame, the network will undoubtedly push the Irish into the BCS talks as ESPN has done for Boise State over the past five years.

The fact is that no matter what network is out there, presenting highlights will show favoritism and bias, but with competition, no single network will have a monopoly of influence over the already confusing and distorted BCS system.

Hopefully NBC will make a strong push in the sports news market with their new network and give viewers an entertaining lineup of shows and news that can actually compete with ESPN.