Why?

Maybe they don't have enough announcers. I say this afterlistening to the butcher job of commentary for the Cowboys-Packers game on Thursday.

puma

The Cowboys/Packers game was a NFL network game----not the same as the major networks---they used Bryant Gumbel as the play by play man---not a great choice

TR I totally agree but what is even worse is when they have spelling bee's, dog shows and other crazy stuff like that. Those are not sports at all.

TR, the worst is when they have poker on ESPN, ESPN2, and FSN all at the same time!

The obvious answer is...
...WHY NOT?

If you can do it naked and not get hurt, it's not a sport. You can get real hurt crashing a car naked.

quote:

You can get real hurt crashing a car naked.

Especially once the cops get there!

quote:

The Cowboys/Packers game was a NFL network game----not the same as the major networks

Yup, NFL network gave some nice airtime to the Dallas Cowboy Chearleaders in the pregame. Wasn't used to seeing that! Can't say I complained tho!!

quote:

Why are POker, Pool and NASCAR on sports channels taking time from sports events?

I consider them skills, not sports!!!

TRHit, Welcome to 2007! You gotta change channels man!!! You know ---"surf"! You've been around so long you have obviously forgotten how it was. Remember when there were NO "sports" channels -- No weather channel --- no history channel. Remember the days when it was JUST ABC, CBS, and NBC? I get 250 channels and have to catagorize them just to manage my TV time. One catagory is "sports". True you can find everything from Ninja fighting to curling and everything in between but there is lots of baseball (including college and MILB) and those things YOU consider real sports like football and basketball. Sorry I was so harsh on you. Good night Tom, Good night Chet, Good night David, and good night for NBC news.
Fungo
PS: what do you think about "sports" on the internet?

FUNGO


I am in 2007 thank you---Our cable package has all the ESPN channels, MLB.TV,NBA.TV , NFL.TV etc


Not harsh on me at all---but the skills I noted are still not sports and should not be on sports channels although ESPN seems to be more "entertainment" than sports nowadays

I remember when ESPN started. Someone in the Boston Globe wrote ESPN proved there's a market for turtle racing at 3am. Do people remember the BS on ESPN before they became credible and nailed some serious sports contracts? I remember when cable was two extra UHF stations from New York and teletype news, sports and weather.

The big thing about cable then was the improved reception. I remember having a remote control wired to the cable box with twelve buttons and a toggle switch to get 36 channels. The cable company promised someday we would need the third row.

Tom, I’m just making a point that you don’t have to watch NASCAR or poker. It’s not that these non-sporting “events” are on TV at the sacrifice of those sporting events you like to watch. Your programs are still there and lots of them! There is a tremendous variety of programming and the competition for viewers is fierce. Like you say, it all comes down to the $$$. I dislike threads that stray into the political scene but to me biggest travesty is the methods the networks use in the delivery of the news. Sensationalism and political bias is running rampant in the newsrooms. I never realized there were so many different ways to report the news.

quote:

Originally posted by Fungo:

quote:

Why are POker, Pool and NASCAR on sports channels taking time from sports events?

I consider them skills, not sports!!!

TRHit, Welcome to 2007! You gotta change channels man!!! You know ---"surf"! You've been around so long you have obviously forgotten how it was. Remember when there were NO "sports" channels -- No weather channel --- no history channel. Remember the days when it was JUST ABC, CBS, and NBC? I get 250 channels and have to catagorize them just to manage my TV time. One catagory is "sports". True you can find everything from Ninja fighting to curling and everything in between but there is lots of baseball (including college and MILB) and those things YOU consider real sports like football and basketball. Sorry I was so harsh on you. Good night Tom, Good night Chet, Good night David, and good night for NBC news.
Fungo
PS: what do you think about "sports" on the internet?

I didn't see anything on ESPN until the Regionals. Anything prior to that I had to get thru the internet. Where did you see all these college games?

As I am a big conspiracy theorist [Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone, Sirhan Sirhan was the first Al Queda terrorist attack & Martin Luther King was killed by J Edgar Hoover, etc.] it is all so simple to me. ESPN puts on all the garbage because they are connected finianally with all the Satellite TV & radio companies so that those of us that want "real sports" are foced to buy packages at outrageous prices and ESPN reaps much of the profits.

What do you think?

TW344

While I'm not currently following any particular college team, it seems as if during season I can channel surf and find college baseball games during the season. I know I was able to record a collection (about 25) of my son's college games that were televised ---- most were on CSS (College Sports South). Some were on Jefferson Pilot and some were on other channels out of different southeastern states. I just now Googled "College Baseball TV" and here's a list of college baseball games on ESPN and CSTV in '05:

Date
Teams
Network

April 6
Iowa at Nebraska
CSTV

April 8
Texas at Nebraska
ESPNU

April 9
Texas at Nebraska
ESPN

April 10
Texas at Nebraska
ESPN

April 13
Army at Lafayette
CSTV

April 15
Miami at North Carolina
ESPNU

April 15
Oklahoma at Texas
ESPNU

April 16
Miami at North Carolina
ESPN2

April 17
Miami at North Carolina
ESPNU

April 17
Oklahoma at Texas
ESPN2

April 19
Louisiana State at Tulane
ESPN2

April 20
Texas at Rice
CSTV

April 23
Baylor at Nebraska
CSTV

April 24
Texas at Oklahoma State
ESPN2

April 26
Oklahoma at Wichita State
ESPN2

April 27
Nebraska at Wichita State
ESPNU

April 28
Nebraska at Oklahoma
ESPN

April 29
Nebraska at Oklahoma
ESPNU

April 29
Southern California at Arizona
ESPNU

April 30
Nebraska at Oklahoma
ESPNU

May 1
Southern California at Arizona
ESPN

May 1
Nevada-Las Vegas at San Diego State
CSTV

May 2
Rutgers at Lafayette
CSTV

May 3
San Diego State at Cal State Fullerton
ESPN2

May 6
Texas at Kansas
ESPNU

May 7
Texas at Kansas
ESPNU

May 7
Missouri at Nebraska
CSTV

May 8
Notre Dame at St. John's
CSTV

May 8
Texas at Kansas
ESPN2

May 10
Houston at Texas A&M
ESPN2

May 13
Texas A&M at Baylor
ESPN2

May 14
Oklahoma at Oklahoma State
ESPNU

May 14
Loyola Marymount at San Diego
CSTV

May 15
Oklahoma at Oklahoma State
ESPN

May 16
Rhode Island at Massachusetts
CSTV

May 19
Georgia Tech at North Carolina
ESPN2

May 20
Georgia Tech at North Carolina
ESPNU

May 20
Arizona at Stanford
CSTV

May 21
Kansas State at Nebraska
CSTV

May 21
Long Beach State at Cal State Fullerton
CSTV

May 21
Georgia Tech at North Carolina
ESPNU

May 22
Texas A&M at Texas
ESPN

May 28
Big 10 Tournament Championship
CSTV

May 28
Conference USA Tournament Championship
CSTV

Poker and pool fall into the same category as the X-Games, while nascar was actually considered a sport long before ESPN.

The simple answer is cheap production costs. ESPN looks for opportunities to create or exhibit "events" that take little or no production costs. They need programming to take up hours. They also feel that through their brand, they can create viewership even for the most mundane of events.

ESPN is famous in the industry for being notoriously cheap when it comes to paying for anything. These outlets take up airtime at a cheap cost and provide them a base for selling ads from.

quote:

Poker and pool fall into the same category as the X-Games

The X Games athletes are real athletes. That's difficult stuff. They tend to be smaller/short and are very agile. From being a skier (don't tell the coach) I can watch the Winter X Games all night.

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
If you can do it naked and not get hurt, it's not a sport.

How about swimming? And I'm not talking about the type Chevy Chase does on "Vacation".

RJM,
That's exactly the point. To ESPN, athletes aren't part of the equation, it's about production cost. X-games, poker, pool, they all have small production costs which equal large profits.