This morning, whilst watching the greater metro area of the capital of the free world freak out over 2 inches of snow and expediently close down every school, office, and service it could close, I happened to notice a fun new graphic that ESPN was touting every spare moment it could find. That graphic depicted a listing of collegiate football programs with "the most national titles since major polling began." It listed Alabama and Notre Dame as tied with 8, effectively robbing Notre Dame of 3 of its consensus national championships. Effectively, ESPN, for whatever reason (a reason I'm sure is in line with some MBA's or group of MBA's strategy for ESPN and their relationship with the SEC), has revised history, and thanks to a huge lie media distribution capacity coupled with the fallow intellectual capacity of the greater portion of the nation's population, it seems likely that it's only a matter of time before it becomes "common knowledge" that ND holds only 8 national championships.
Whatever ESPN is trying to accomplish here, there's little doubt that their intent is no less duplicitous than Urban Meyer's average thought. Notre Dame, despite internal and external forces and influence, continues to refuse to "get in line" and join a conference and they continue to remain in a relationship with NBC. Thus ESPN, the "journalistic entity" that covers the sporting world - a world that is as much about business as it is about some ethereal notions of fandom and entertainment - has probably at best identified Notre Dame as competition and at worst identified Notre Dame as an enemy. So long as Notre Dame refuses to cooperate on a business level with ESPN, ESPN would rather Notre Dame be seen as a Vanderbilt or Duke in the college football realm.
There's not much more to be said about this. It's outrageous. It's irresponsible. And it's further indication that ESPN is little more than TMZ plus flashier intro screens and less journalistic integrity.
By Craig January 8, 2010 - 11:23 am
If they have both of us with 8, then they must be going off of polls.
If you add in other major selectors, then I tend to side with the CFB Data Warehouse total of 12 each.
I’ve linked the Wikipedia national championship article as my website.
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By The Biscuit January 8, 2010 - 11:27 am
The challenge there, Craig, is that Bama’s other 4 were never considered ‘consensus’. ND’s were. From what I understand, ND’s 11 (not sure how they get 12) have always been considered consensus. And up until last night, Bama had 8 (but claimed 11). No one else ever gave them credence to having those extra 3 – just their fans. It’s a pretty common joke.
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By The Biscuit January 8, 2010 - 11:34 am
DMQ, my guess is that ESPN just looked at the Wikipedia page. ND has 8 from ‘major polls’ (AP or Coaches or BCS).
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By SDI January 8, 2010 - 12:09 pm
The paper of record gives Alabama 13
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/sports/ncaafootball/08bcs.html?hp
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By DeepTeaKup January 8, 2010 - 2:05 pm
Are you really using some PA’s (maybe) mistake as some type of evidence of a vast ESPN consipracy against ND? Look at how much coverage they give to the semi-annual ND HC searches. Every chance they get to put ND on TV, they do it. They even have an unabashed ND homer as part of their studio crew. I think every fan base has some tired complaints against ND but this is venturing into tin foil hat territory.
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By domer.mq January 8, 2010 - 2:36 pm
It’s been on Sportscenter, Mike and Mike, and within a few of their online articles. If it’s just a mistake by a PA, then it’s a terribly ubiquitous one. And I get what they’re saying. They’re qualifying 3 of ND’s NCs as not really counting because, essentially, “they happened too long ago.”
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By Craig January 8, 2010 - 3:12 pm
CFB Data Warehouse gets ND to 12 by crediting us with 1953. I’ve seen at least one ND blog make the argument that we should have a championship from an early ’50′s team, and I think that’s the one. If I remember right, eventual champion Maryland was voted before the bowls, where they lost to an Oklahoma team that we had either beaten or tied in Norman. Post-bowl polling very likely would have given the title to ND.
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By Craig January 8, 2010 - 3:14 pm
I’ve linked the argument in favor of ND as the 1953 champion.
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By The Biscuit January 8, 2010 - 3:36 pm
Craig, I’ll take an extra, but I’d say that the 12th isn’t considered ‘consensus’. Just like Bama’s extra 3.
DMQ, c’mon man, that makes sense. It’s been a while, so it couldn’t matter, or have happened. I mean, we’re still a part of Great Britain right? Bc, you know, that Revolutionary War thing was a LONG time ago!
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