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Just say "NO!" to ESPN

Herbie

Sorry my question got everyone so hyped up, but I am glad to see people talking about this. I agree with VL about game day. I also appreciate everyone elses point of view. The one image I still have stamped in my head is Herbie with his twin boys on the set during the scUM game in 02' both wearing OSU jerseys and Corso with the Brutus head on scaring the hell out of them. That sounds like a real Buckeye fan to me!

P.S. sorry to hear about your friends steve

Go Bucks!
 
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All of the recent Gieger/Gotleib stuff got me thinking about this again. When will ESPN announce their schedule? Is it just weeks or days before the Texas game, or will it be sometime this spring/summer?

I really have mixed feelings on them showing up to The Shoe:

Advantages:
1. It will allow OSU fans to really vent on national TV. Man, I'm sure there would be countless banners that would be sweet.
2. I still love that trio, and it really gets me hyped for a game. I'd love to go see those three with plenty of negative ESPN related stuff in the background (just not negative Herbie/Corso stuff).

Disadvantages:
1. Most likely, someone will cross the line. I'm not sure what the line is, but some OSU fan will do something that makes the rest of us look bad on a national stage. The last thing we need is to hand the ESPiN fucks more ammo.
2. As I've mentioned before, Herbie doesn't deserve the attacks that he'll probably receive. Hopefully, he thinks ahead and doesn't have his kids there - that would make things even more unfortunate.

Best Case:
ESPiN shows up, and NO BUCKEYE FANS ARE AROUND. Sure, there would be Texas fans hanging out, but how could they not mention the situation during the broadcast? They wouldn't be able to avoid it. Here they are at The Shoe, and we act like they're the local begger asking for change on the corner. It would be huge news. I can't imagine a bigger FUCK YOU than that.

It would never happen. No chance we keep everyone away, but I'd be willing to do my part.
 
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Yertle said:
Disadvantages:
1. Most likely, someone will cross the line. I'm not sure what the line is, but some OSU fan will do something that makes the rest of us look bad on a national stage. The last thing we need is to hand the ESPiN fucks more ammo.
2. As I've mentioned before, Herbie doesn't deserve the attacks that he'll probably receive. Hopefully, he thinks ahead and doesn't have his kids there - that would make things even more unfortunate.
I think the best thing for both tOSU and ESPN would be if they didn't show up. ESPN shouldn't want to be on campus, and tOSU shouldn't let them on campus. I think Ohio State has more to lose from something bad happening (Someone "crossing the line," as you put it), but I think ESPN has a lot to lose as well (mostly from some of your "advantages" section).

I agree with your "best case scenario." That would be hilarious if the shots of GameDay are of the trio and about 100 Texas fans, and Ohio State fans in the back just walking and ignoring them. I bet they'd "uncover" something about Clarett to talk about and maybe then make up a story that the fans have been banned from the set because they raped and pillaged the night before.

It would also be awesome if tOSU let them on campus and then told them to leave minutes before starting the show. They probably can't do that, though.
 
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Zurp said:
It would also be awesome if tOSU let them on campus and then told them to leave minutes before starting the show. They probably can't do that, though.

Oh, now that would be sweet.

I know that the "smart" thing to do is for OSU not to invite ESPN. But, you have to admit that the "fun" thing to do is invite them and watch the fireworks show.
 
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I don't think the GameDay crew being around will be as much of an issue, I tend to think that we die hard fans that frequent message boards and talk about gameplans in March are uh ... not the norm? :tongue2:

The bulk of people at the 'Shoe that day won't know, won't care, or won't remember. Most of the fans don't watch sports (any sports) as religiously as most of us might do, and the vast majority aren't going to be regular listeners to 1460 either.

I think ESPN shows up and the result is like any other edition of College GameDay, though with a substantially increased security presence. Remember, Patrick took his ESPN radio show to the Hall of Fame Cafe for UM week, at the peek of the turmoil (at least prior to Smith's suspension) and nothing came of it. As far as I've ever heard, Patrick, Dibb's and Show Killer had a blast, and the Buckeye fans treated them great.

I dunno, I've mellowed a bit re: this since October. I don't care about ESPN, as an entity, enough to hate them -- that's what co-workers are for. Fowler, Corso, and Herbie have always been fun to watch, and I'd love for them to make it here for what will be a legendary match-up.
 
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I disagree. While most casual fans don't have as detailed of reasons to hate ESPiN, they surely have plenty of surface reasons to do so.

ESPiN the Mag first had Clarett tossing off the jersey, then the huge writeup about Clarett. And the ESPiN articles were not hard to find. ANd every buckeye fan saw the absurd treatment in the Alamo Bowl.

Yes Dan Patrick had an okay visit to CBus, but he is someone most of us like and respect and never did anything to tick us off. Gameday is more of an ESPiN entity than a radio show featuring Dan Patrick, and I think it has serious potential to go wrong.

Unless ESPiN changes their tone (say after the NCAA clears us), I think they should be told no thank you for this game. They have the ND-UM game anyway, right?
 
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I am going to have to respectfully disagree with vlmarti and pretty much every poster on here.

in all honesty, you guys need to let it go.

there is no espn conspiracy or whatever. i do believe that Tom Friend has something wierd going on. but besides him, nobody else really cares one way or the other. sure, a lot of people have jumped on the "osu is dirty" bandwagon, and we have a history with trev and mark, but everybody else is not out to "get" osu. And really....the overwhelming majority of the junk can be attritubed to Tom Friend. It's not an ESPN thing; it's a Tom Friend thing.

college gameday is a fantastic show, and i'm pumped that it's coming for the texas game. it's a great atmosphere, and a great recent tradition that espn started.

because you guys post/read these message boards every day, you have a somewhat warped perception of the public reality. I used to read this board every day, but over the last few months i haven't had the chance to come here that much. and just from talking to my friends and other people...nobody has any hatred for espn. yes, maybe the die-hards do, but the average fan doesn't even know that espn was trying to get us.

espn is guilty of creating a national perception towards osu that is negative. the typical fan thinks that osu is a typical football factory and will make a few jokes, but that's about it. and really, who gives a damn what they think. I don't care that outsiders make fun of osu, it comes with the territory. I enjoy certain elements of espn, with college gameday being perhaps my favorite. I think it's stupid to let some "grudge" ruin that.

the whole situation, in a way, kind of reminds me of those southern fueds between two families, where neither side has any idea how it started, yet they continue fighting and killing each other regardless. at what point do we just move on? I personally do not care. Ohio State football will march on, and Jim Tressel will march on, regardless of what the public perception is. Sure, we might lose a recruit or two because of it, but if you've got any doubts about coming here...then you're probably not the type of person we want anyway.

I am going to go to the texas game, tailgate with my buddies, enjoy the great atmosphere enhanced by gameday, and celebrate a huge victory. I do not care about a snide comment that espn might have said, or some writer might have written. Let it go.

edit - i wrote this before reading dryden's post, he pretty much sums up my feelings
 
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BuckeyeTrail said:
college gameday is a fantastic show, and i'm pumped that it's coming for the texas game. it's a great atmosphere, and a great recent tradition that espn started.

I agree that Gameday is an excellent show. That's not the point of my post. It's not intended to be an "ESPN sucks" post. It's intended to be "Should ESPN come to the Shoe" post. It may be subtle, but there's a difference.

1. I don't think Herbie/Corso/Fowler suck.
2. I don't think College Gameday sucks.
3. I don't ban ESPN from my channel listing.
4. I do think May and Trev suck ass, but that's a different story.
5. I do think enough of the Buckeye general public is pissed off at ESPN.
6. I do think the pissed off public will show up to Gameday.
7. I wonder if that is a good thing or bad thing.
8. I decide to post my curiosity in this thread.

This has nothing to do with whether or not I'm pissed off at ESPN. It has to do with mob mentality and whether or not ESPN should expect trouble and avoid the situation.

That being said, the truth is I am still upset with ESPN. They handled this situation very poorly, and in my opinion, very unprofessionally. I admit that "letting it go" is one way to handle it, and I'm sure I will "let it go" eventually. However, in my mind, ESPN is now no better than the NY Times. I used to watch ESPN during every free minute, so coming to this conclusion was as disappointing as learning there is no Santa Claus (I hope I didn't spoil it for anyone out there).
 
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To me its not a ESPN vs Ohio State thing. Its the direction that ESPN is going with its sports reporting Jerry Springer style. Its garbage. Any opposing fan thinking its an Ohio State issue is fooling himself. These guys will hack at anyone and any institution! So I turn them off and don't watch them anymore.
 
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My 2 cents is pretty simple:

tOSU and ESPN Gameday didnt hook up for the tOSU/UM game last year and yet we still played one hell of a game with much intensity and energy. We shocked the world and played like heros on that November day without the National Spotlight on us, pretty much giving the middle finger to all the haters and ESPNs crew. Throughout the beginning half they raged about the Clarett situation and listed the things tOSU would have to do to stay in the ball game. And what happend? We shut them up by playing a damn great game. We dont need Gameday to get our point across to the world - Their night recap and the next days papers will do it for us just fine...

In no way am I pointing and saying there is a "conspiracy", but you are kidding yourself if you dont think ESPN took many uncalled for jabs at tOSU. If you taped the national coverage of 'The Game', just watch it and really listen to how much they talk about "the Clarett situation" while have NO facts, justifications, investigation proof, or any material worthy of proof.
 
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BuckPride said:
To me its not a ESPN vs Ohio State thing. Its the direction that ESPN is going with its sports reporting Jerry Springer style. Its garbage. Any opposing fan thinking its an Ohio State issue is fooling himself. These guys will hack at anyone and any institution! So I turn them off and don't watch them anymore.

With all due respect, I can agree with some of these characterizations of ESPiN but not that its not an attack on OSU.

If you believe that, then you have to believe that ESPiN has treated everyone the same as OSU? So, are they screaming that USC is a program out of control right now? Are they crawling all over USC locker rooms and interviewing former players trying to dig up dirt on Carroll? Do you believe that OSU would be getting the same treatment if one of our players shot another or exposed himself on sorority doorsteps? Is ESPiN out there in the desert digging up the dirt?

Am I really fooling myself? Do you really think that Ohio State fans have been fooling themselves? Really?

And, in response to BuckeyeTrail and Dryden, why should we move on? This is exactly the attitude that ESPiN hopes will emerge. These people damaged this University and sullied its name. We continue to pay a tremendous price, financially and otherwise, for the damage done to our brand name. That's money that would help pay off that debt. Our players and coaches have been besmirched and painted in the ugliest of terms. Our recruiting has been affected.

And all because ESPiN has used the fact that they could lie about OSU with the security in knowing that OSU could not respond with the truth because the law forbids them to release student information? And they have backed off a bit now only because of statements by the NCAA and because the Big Ten commissioner explicitly told them to stop the crap with Big Ten teams.

I am not a die-hard fan (although I have as much difficulty speaking about ESPiN as DiHard sometimes showed about other things)I am a professional and an alumni of Ohio State and I am disgusted by what these people have done. I am not unable to see that OSU, like everywhere else, has its faults. I would want OSU to be punished fairly if it broke NCAA rules. But that is not what this is about.

Move on? How much would I respect Ohio State, our present and past athletes, our alumni and students and our wider community if I did that? How much would I respect myself because of my association with Ohio State. How much support would I be giving my friends there if I did?

As to the comparison to Jerry Springer, and I know all about his expense claims, check payment to a prostitute and "trailer park trash" program, let's be honest, he hasn't ever sunk as low as ESPiN has on this one and you really owe him an apology.

ESPiN is not about sports. It's the lowest common denominator of sensationalism. It is the National Esquirer of the electronic sports media.

I am just amazed when people can't see their programming for the total shit that it is. Amazed! I can't understand why anyone would watch them unless they were broadcasting a game you wanted to see.

Why would we invite GameDay? Is it because their coming gives us some kind of recognition? Does it explain that we are "big-time"?

If you met someone who didn't know that OSU-TEXAS is the biggest pre-conference contest this year, wouldn't you wonder if he was an alien? Does either program have any difficulty getting national coverage or getting the idea across that it has a top 10 team?

We certainly don't need ESPiN's approval. They aren't even qualified to carry Andy Geiger's jock strap!

So, why would we invite GameDay?

How would you feel if you were a Buckeye athlete parent and took your kids to all those practices and games for all those years so that they could live out a dream to play for the greatest football team in college football, and then witness what these wonderful "investigative sports journalists" have done to trash that and line their pockets with dosh.

I'll move on when the folks in Bristol set the record straight. Until then, I will boycott ESPiN and I will do whatever I can to help others do the same.

I support VLMarti 100%. No ESPiN GameDay. BOYCOTT ESPIN!
 
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Good stuff, Steve19.

My bet would be that we'll start to hear reference to "issues in the Geiger era" (or not hear, given that we aren't listening :wink:). By temporarily spinning the whole bashfest as an issue with Geiger rather than the program at large, they could try to "make nice" sufficiently for the Gameday invite. If ESPN sent on its merry way, they can then complain about how tOSU holds a grudge.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems a pretty obvious move to me, so I'm getting annoyed in advance. :biggrin:

:grr:
 
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My turn to throw in 2 cents.. (there's probably quite a penny collection in the fountain by now)

Do the players care where GameDay is? I'm not just talking about tOSU players, but players for any team. It may feel good for them to know that the game they're about to play is receiving recognition for being the country's top game, but do they think that they need to step it up just because GameDay is there? I certainly hope not. The players ought to give 100% on every play, regardless of the opponent, who's watching, how many people are watching, or the national spotlight. I don't think GameDay can or will affect the game.

However, the subject of the thread is whether tOSU should allow GameDay on campus. I believe that it is a bad idea. Even if 99% of the fans are excited and provide the atmospere GameDay wants, you'll still find a few people with signs bad-mouthing ESPN. This will only backfire, and make tOSU look like a bunch of asses. (Anyone remember "T.O. has B.O." sign in Cleveland Browns stadium? That made Browns fans look oh-so-smart.)

I say that ESPN needs to get on tOSU's good side for 1 year before they should be allowed on campus.
 
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