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Lee Corso (official thread)

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I really don't give a hoot about ESPN's ratings. If the Buckeyes played on PBS, PBS's ratings would likewise soar. I can't imagine why Herbstreit and Corso would not want to be in Ann Arbor on 9/10. The two winningest teams in football history, the struggling Irish lead onto the field by the offensive mind of the 3 time Super Bowl champion NE Pats, the lengendary Big House, the academic pillars of college sports, the moral compass of college athletics - it's all in Ann Arbor on 9/10. Who cares if Gameday's ratings will not be as high. That will not detract from the fact that Columbus will be electric that day.
 
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In a sense I do believe in a conspiracy on ESPN's part against tOSU.
I don't believe it was in any way premeditated but I do think that it is a simple case of covering one's ass. What I mean is this; ESPN's article with MoC was simply bad journalism. It was an article that was written and published with minimum investigation. The piece was obviously biased.
Instead of admitting to the nation that they were unprofessional and should not have published the article without further investigation into the facts and instead of risking their own integrety and because of the fear that the sports world may view them as being unreliable the network goes on an all smear campaign against the university to take any pressure or heat off of themselves. It's a tactic as old as mankind itself.
Hopefully in the not too distance future, Espn's monopoly on 24/7 sports will end. I'm just waiting for someone to start something that can in any way compare to their current programing. Fox tried it and failed.
 
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ashlandbuck said:
Hopefully in the not too distance future, Espn's monopoly on 24/7 sports will end. I'm just waiting for someone to start something that can in any way compare to their current programing. Fox tried it and failed.
Click to expand...
My sentiment exactly. There aren't too many choices after the ESPN/ABC duopoly. I can't stand a single broadcast FOX does, from the sound effects to their obtrusive scoreboard/gametracker to the announcers, everything about FOX blows.

I guess that's a credit to the greatness of this past years ALCS between the Yankees and BoSox. FOX brought out everything in their arsenal to try and destroy that series, from Tim McCarver to Jeannie Zelasko to Scooter the talking baseball to the obscenely inappropriate dialogue regarding Mariano Rivera's personal tragedy. Hell, even the guys in the production truck for the games got their licks in by playing the first few bars of "Superman's Dead" by Our Lady Peace while going away to commercial in the 1st half-inning of Game 1, despite the fact Christopher Reeve passed away the day before.

God forbid FOX ever gets rights to college football.
 
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Fox already has the future rights to the BCS games other than the Rose Bowl.

BCS Newsroom

BCS-FOX Reach Agreement on TV Deal

November 22, 2004

FOX SPORTS AND BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES REACH MULTI-MEDIA RIGHTS AGREEMENT

DEAL ESTABLISHES STAND-ALONE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Also Includes Television, Radio, Internet, Sponsorship & Merchandising Rights

The League Championship Series and World Series. The NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl. NASCAR's Daytona 500. Clearly, FOX Sports is America's king of televised sports championships, and its crown now shines more brilliant as college football's most precious jewel moves to FOX.

FOX Sports and the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) announced today that they have reached an exclusive four-year agreement covering all media distribution and sponsorship rights for the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, FedEx Orange Bowl and Nokia Sugar Bowl from 2007 through 2010, and a new, stand-alone, BCS National Championship Game from 2007 through 2009. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with FOX Sports," said Kevin Weiberg, Big 12 Commissioner and BCS Coordinator. "We very much look forward to the creative energy that the FOX team will bring to the Bowl Championship Series, and I am certain that college football fans will find that the presentation of the games will bring a new level of excitement and energy to these classic bowl contests."

"I am also pleased that we were able to successfully negotiate a television contract for the expanded BCS," added Weiberg. "The new model brings an enhanced opportunity for highly-rated teams to play in BCS games, including teams from conferences that have not had an automatic berth. This model will also showcase in a more distinct fashion the BCS National Championship Game in a unique telecast window after the BCS bowl games."

"Few sports boast the passion and pageantry of college football, and the BCS is the Mt. Everest of college football," said Peter Chernin, President & COO, News Corp. "The deal we've agreed to with the BCS will prove to be financially advantageous for all concerned."

In addition to telecast rights, the contract also covers national radio rights; Internet rights; all sponsorship rights, including naming rights, signage and virtual signage opportunities and in-game enhancements; ancillary programming on FOX and/or FSN; and a joint venture (FOX, BCS and Bowls) to identify and exploit merchandising opportunities.

"The agreement with FOX proves that the new BCS model has great market appeal," said David Frohnmayer, President, University of Oregon and BCS Presidential Oversight Committee Chair. "We look forward to our partnership with the network and joining its lineup of high-profile championship sporting events."

The addition of the BCS to FOX's already impressive array of championship caliber events comes just two weeks after the network reached a new six-year agreement to continue as television home to the NFL's NFC Sunday afternoon package, which gives FOX the next eight NFC Championship games plus Super Bowls this February and in 2008 and 2011. Existing agreements with MLB and NASCAR guarantee that the next two American and National League pennant winners and world champions will be decided on FOX, as will Daytona 500 victors in 2005 and 2007. Since 1995, over 35 champions have been crowned on FOX.

"Since our inception, FOX Sports has worked aggressively to provide our viewers the very best sports programming possible," offered FOX Sports Chairman David Hill. "Some of the nation's most dramatic and memorable sports series, games and moments over the last decade have been captured by our cameras, and described by our announcers, and I know that in years to come that the BCS will add to our legacy. We're just sorry that we'll have to wait two years for this to begin."

Over the last two years, the Fiesta, Orange, and Sugar Bowls have averaged an 11.1 household rating, which would rank the three BCS Bowls in a tie for seventh among all prime time shows this broadcast season-to-date. These games also attract audiences that are both upscale and better-educated than average, both compelling features for advertisers.

The BCS championship game, which right now is presented as the Fiesta, Orange, Rose or Sugar Bowl on a rotating basis, is one of the most powerful events in television. The last two BCS title games (the 2004 Sugar Bowl and 2003 Fiesta Bowl) averaged a 15.0/26 household rating/share. Only one show in all of prime time is averaging a better rating this season-to-date. The 15.0 for the last two BCS title games is better than the two-year averages of the NBA Finals (9.0/16), NCAA Tournament Final (11.8/19), Monday Night Football (11.5/19), the final round of the Masters (7.8/19), and the Belmont Stakes (10.4/25). An estimated 50 million Americans are expected to watch the 2005 Orange Bowl, this year's BCS championship game.

FOX and its related cable channels are not strangers to college football. FOX Sports has televised the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day since 1999. FSN has national cable rights to Pac 10 and Big 12 football, and the recently launched Fox College Sports carries over 100 games culled from FSN's owned-and affiliated regional sports networks.
Click to expand...

Here comes FOX
 
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I think it would be a huge mistake for OSU to allow Gameday in for the Texas game. I guarantee there will be many, many Buckeye fans ready to exact some revenge on ESPN with signs, profanity, and throwing of objects. It will make OSU look ugly, even though I understand why people would act that way. And, I think that ESPN deserves to be excluded for the way they have smeared OSU. As is evidenced elsewhere in this thread, ESPN has knowingly carried forward this campaign against Ohio State. They've made their bed.
 
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From the article:

"[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The obvious point of McDowell's quip was that Corso is pushing 70, and would never pose nude anytime, anywhere. Evidently that was lost on a man who has made millions making fun of himself."[/font]

That's not accurate, because he said in jest that Corso was the second guy to pose nude, which would have had to have been almost 35 years ago, right after Burt Reynolds did it.

But Corso handled it very poorly.
 
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Anyone see these quotes from Corso? I got them from Michigan Insiders, supposedly from the Defiance Crescent News:

On the greatest football team he's ever seen,
"What USC did to a really good Oklahoma football team was unbelievable and they absolutely destroyed them. It could have been 80 points and it was the best all-around game I’ve ever seen a team play. Some of the other teams were the Buckeyes with Archie Griffin were as good as any teams I’ve seen when I coached against them. Also the Nebraska team with Tommy Frazier when they beat Florida like 63-10, but the best was USC in the Orange Bowl this year.”

On the worst place to visit with GameDay,
“Michigan and LSU are the worst two places. Michigan because the people are so obnoxious and they don’t pay attention to the show and are ‘blue’ everything and that’s disrespectful. LSU people, they can party.”

On MoC,
“The situation was unfortunate because he tarnished a great university with great football players. This is all people want to talk about. I saw him and he had nothing to do with winning the national championship, nothing. Krenzel, defense and a great coaching job, along with a great kicker and punter, that’s why they won the title. My opinion, he has absolutely just destroyed a great football program with great players and he was not worth all the talk.”

On what to look for next fall,
“Texas and Ohio State, the winner of that game has got to be really tough to beat. USC, Oklahoma and all the same teams, but if you take a look at that Ohio State game against Texas, that is a big game for the national title.”
 
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Yeah, I saw that interview posted by TrojanWarrior, of all people. It sounds like the type of thing Corso would say in the audience of a bunch of Buckeye supporters. You have to remember the context, which was a local gathering, if the accounts are true. Not to say he doesn't believe those things, but he was laying it on thick for the home folk.
 
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Just wait. We're now entering the "aw shucks" phase we all expected, in which the blame is deflected to Andy Gieger and Maurice Clarett.

"Aw shucks, guys, that Maurice Clarett wasn't the nice young man we thought he was and there is a new dawn at Ohio State. Aw shucks, guys, now that that nasty Andy Geiger is now gone you can clean up this terrible mess at Ohio State. It's just terrible that all of this soiled your storied name. Aw shucks, guys, Troy Smith might just be a nice young man now that he has served his time and rehabilitated."

Yeah, right. With respect to some of the previous posts, everything on ESPiN is scripted. The "live" GameDay, all of it. And Herbie has confirmed that. This disgusting campaign against Ohio State was premeditated and it is even more disgusting when one considers what has happened in the meantime elsewhere (see the Police Blotter thread, Tennessee, South Carolina, etc). The repugnant difference between the coverage of other stories on ESPiN has been the way in which they have characterized every small allegation against Ohio State, even those proven untrue, as suggesting Ohio State is a "program out of control".

They did not abandon this position in response to good journalistic practice. Clarett did a lot to discredit himself, every time he opened his mouth. The comments out of the NCAA suggested that the findings will indicate that Ohio State was very much in control and, in fact, was a poster child for good practice in compliance. Moreover, every fresh transgression at Tennessee, South Carolina and elsewhere (see the Police Blotter thread) makes ESPiN look every bit the prize "investigative journalists" we know them to be. Every day of transgressions elsewhere discredits ESPiN and conflated allegations they have presented against Ohio State.

Oh yes, and there is that little thing about Ohio State and Texas playing in the biggest game of the year.

I don't visit their site, but what has been posted here on BP suggests that they have not corrected the erroneous impressions they have created about Ohio State. They have damaged our University, our teams, our degrees and us. They miscalculated and thought we would be like Tennessee fans, just glad to see the attacks end. But we don't have a coach with questionable practices or anything to cover up. If there are transgressions, we know our sports administration people will come out with it and deal with it transparently. And we have a pride in ourselves, our University and our teams that will not allow us to ignore the damage that has been done.

We are the good guys. And THAT is what really pisses ESPiN off.

Simply put, Ohio State doesn't need ESPiN but ESPiN needs Ohio State.

I'm with IrontonBuck. They made their beds. They know how to repair relations, just set the record straight and repair the damage that has been done, it's up to them.

BOYCOTT ESPiN! No to GameDay!
 
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I think Lee Corso is one of the few "good guys" at ESPN. Here is a good story on him. I found it interesting reading.

Corso penciled in for variety

By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY
Lee Corso is a multi-tasker. ESPN's most prominent college football pontificator, likely alone among the stars of TV sports, works a year-round office job unrelated to sports. He is director of business development for Dixon Ticonderoga, best known for its yellow No. 2 pencils, hired in 1992 after getting to know Dixon executive Gino Pala as a golfing buddy.
In his Dixon office, Corso has found the file for one of his "favorite" office projects - helping create a crayon made of soybeans in 2001.


Now he can get back to talking about his nasty elephant ride. "You laugh, but look at these scars," says Corso, holding up his hands. "They have hair like needles. I couldn't get off it. And it turned its trunk around and spit at me."



Corso is serious. He rode the elephant in a circus parade in 1969 to help sell season tickets for the football team at the University of Louisville, where he showed up for his first job as a head football coach only to hear the school was ready to drop the sport.



The program survived - Corso went 28-11-3 over four seasons - although his ride produced sales of just four tickets and left him with two pulled groins.



Corso returns to pulling out more files to explain his Dixon job. There are programs from trade shows he has attended, such as an "international conference on powder metallurgy," the company history he commissioned and notes from trips to schmooze retailers and motivate Dixon workers.



"He'll do anything we ask him do," Dixon CEO Rich Asta says. "The funny thing is, he's always going 110 mph. He never even walks slowly to pick up a fax."



Says Dixon executive vice president Len Dahlberg, "It's hard to keep up with him walking through airports."



You would think Corso, 69, might be worn out by now. The son of an Italian immigrant father with a second-grade education and a second-generation Italian immigrant mother with a fifth-grade education, Corso showed up at Florida State in 1953 to play football and baseball - at just 142 pounds.



But college worked out. He met Betsy, his wife of 48 years, roomed with Burt Reynolds and remains friends with the actor and left as the school's all-time interception leader, a record that stood until Deion Sanders broke it on the last play of his FSU career.



Reynolds offers a telling memory of Corso in college: "Nobody was funnier, especially in the huddles."



Then Corso went on to a pretty funny life.



From turkeys to coffins



After Corso's 1.3-mile commute in his black Jaguar to a spacious home down the street from Masters runner-up Chris DiMarco, he was ready to talk turkey. Says his wife, chuckling, "I'll never forget that turkey."



No wonder. The turkey sort of captures Corso's lifelong faith in the unconventional.



His first Louisville team, coming off a big loss and depleted by injuries, was playing Thanksgiving Day at Tulsa. Corso, searching for an edge, remembered "we used to rally around the goat mascot" when he was an assistant coach at Navy.



He decided the team needed a turkey on a leash.



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"Everybody at the pregame meal had to pat it," says ESPN NFL analyst Tom Jackson, on that Louisville team before going on to playing 14 seasons in the NFL. "It charged out on the field with us. And he told us about the bet."

Corso had taught the mascot to respond to a leash - it escorted Louisville's captains at the pregame coin toss - but he had not made a bet. He just told his players he had, with the Tulsa coaches: If they won, they could eat the bird.

Corso, almost choking with laughter, recalls a late-game timeout to remind his players there was a life at stake: "And they said, 'We'll hold 'em!' They did and carried me and the turkey off the field."

Says Jackson: "No one has ever had more fun coaching than Lee Corso. He has a shtick on TV, but he was a good coach."

Good enough to go on from Louisville and last 10 seasons at Indiana, where Ohio State's Woody Hayes advised him to just forget about even trying to recruit anybody the Buckeyes wanted.

And where Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight, as if there were any doubt his program reigned supreme, once held a news conference in the stadium press box as Corso's team was playing below. (No surprise, says Corso: "Everybody went to listen to him.")

Corso went 41-68-2 at Indiana. He also managed to get a Hoosiers lead against Ohio State for the first time in 25 years - he called timeout in the 1976 game and had the team pose for a photo in front of the scoreboard - before the Buckeyes won 47-7. And he once crawled out of a coffin on his local TV show to suggest his team shouldn't be counted out.

"Ever been in a coffin?" Corso asks matter-of-factly. "It's soft."

The coffin happened to be in the TV studio for a Halloween show, Corso says, and it just occurred to him to hop in.

He says his on-air TV pranks, now epitomized by donning the head of a team mascot to indicate his college football game predictions on ESPN's GameDay, are just spontaneous - "not one has been premeditated."

But he'll stick with what works. When he first put on a mascot head, he says, "People in the (TV production) truck were dying. I thought, 'Wow, this must be a good shtick.' "

Firing opened another avenue

In giving more than 20 motivational speeches a year, Corso has maxims that include, "Believe that no matter how bad things are, they could always be worse."

He should know. At Indiana, he was assured his job was safe just days before his wife read in a newspaper that he had been fired.

"My kids came home from school crying," Corso says, tearing up himself at the memory. "They had every right to fire me but not hurt my family. It almost destroyed me." Still, it also led to his favorite memento in his Dixon office. Betsy and their four kids, days after that 1983 firing, presented him with their plaque, citing his "excellence and integrity."

Corso, who never speaks off the record or quotes anonymous sources, says he still goes "utterly ballistic" when he hears media speculation about coaches losing their jobs - "that kills coaches."

Al Carpenter remembers Corso dropping by his apartment after being fired at Indiana.

Carpenter, who had cerebral palsy, used crutches and couldn't read or write, had become friends with Corso after he had begun hitchhiking 20 miles to sit in on Indiana football practices.

Carpenter inspired Corso, who invited him to sit in as he listened to opera and drew up game plans. As Indiana's coach, Corso presented Carpenter with a game ball and took him with the team to a bowl game in California.

They remain friends. "He's one of the finest men who ever walked," says Carpenter, 54. "And I'm not saying that just because he's my best friend."

When Corso came by after the firing, Carpenter says he threw out an idea for his friend: " 'Coach, why don't you consider TV as a profession?' "

No pencil pusher

Corso wasn't ready to give up coaching. In 1985, he moved to his current home in the Orlando area to be coach of the Orlando Renegades of the U.S. Football League. Corso got in one season before the league folded.

"Lee, remember how you drove past your office as it was being repossessed?" his wife says, referring to the double-wide trailer where her husband had worked before it was towed away.

Corso was hired at ESPN in 1987 but landed on sporadic and relatively obscure game assignments. He caught a break when, as a last-minute substitute, he was asked to leave for Tokyo immediately to call an American college football all-star game being played on the same day as his departure. Thanks to time-zone differences, he made it. And, he says, "Ever since then I've worked for ESPN a lot."

Another break came that ultimately would provide a pop for Dixon Ticonderoga. ESPN, having seen Dick Vitale emerge as a bona fide TV personality after being unleashed on studio shows, took Corso off games to team him with Beano Cook and Tim Brando on its first college football studio show, which has evolved into the migratory GameDay, now with Corso, analyst Kirk Herbstreit and host Chris Fowler.

Corso didn't immediately grasp that the switch would make him a star who now has endorsement deals for the Hooters restaurant chain as well as The Home Depot, Pontiac and Scott's fertilizer.

Hearing of his new assignment, he asked management if he could keep going to games instead.

"And they said, 'Not if you want to work at ESPN,' " Corso says, laughing. "I'll never forget the words."

From there, GameDay became a show that can sometimes draw tens of thousands of fans to otherwise empty stadiums hours before game kickoffs.

Which really helps Dixon Ticonderoga. Corso's on-air trademark is waving a pencil to make his points.

Although Corso isn't the only person to gesture with pencils on TV, Pala says, "He's the only one who really shakes it in your face."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=678&e=1&u=/usatoday/20050420/sp_usatoday/corsopenciledinforvariety

 
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