the media bias
Never has the media bias shown itself so strongly as this year in D-I college football. The media has its darlings, and it's amazing how they never do (nor never would) admit it.
The bias shows itself twofold. One is in the preseason rankings. The other is in the rankings as the year goes on.
The latter is really rearing its ugly head this year. Particularly as pertains to the current ranking of the Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas has never had a strong football team during the lifetime of anyone reading this. Kansas has traditionally been a cellar dwellar of the Big 12 and former Big 8 conferences, getting drubbed by traditional powers Oklahoma and Nebraska by ridiculous scores.
The Big 12 conference is considered a very strong conference in football. Throughout most of every season there are three B12 schools among the Top 10 teams in the country, and generally two to four more in the Top 25. So, this means at any given point in time about half the conference is ranked among the best college football teams in the country.
Enter this year. There is a Big 12 team which is currently 10-0. It beat all of its nonconference foes and has an unblemished record in a perennially tough conference (with two regular season games to go).
If this undefeated Big 12 team were Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska--the team would undeniably be ranked #1 in the country. The media would be swooning and couldn't talk enough about the team. There would be all kinds of special interest stories about the team, about its winning tradition, blah blah blah.
But...the undefeated Big 12 team right now is Kansas. A team who has beaten all the other teams in the strong B12 conference to date. Add to this the fact that there is not another undefeated team in the entire nation. All major conference teams have at least one loss. There are some very good one-loss teams out there, however none of them have an unblemished record.
If the undefeated team was Tx, Ok, or Neb, the media would be talking about what a great season they are having. What is the media saying about Kansas, as of today? "They haven't played anybody." The media is also posing the question "If Kansas remains undefeated, do they deserve to play for the National Championship?"
Excuse me? If any of the media darling teams were undefeated there would be NONE such talk. For example, Texas traditionally pays a bunch of patsy non-conference teams in their non-conference schedule. The same is true this year as any. They have played the likes of North Texas State (yeah, who?) and Rice (a historic bottom-tier team). But if Texas was undefeated right now? The media would be creaming in their pants. "Oh, Texas great this, Texas wonderful that."
Kansas gets no such treatment. Kansas instead gets "well, IF they win out, are they worthy to play for the NC instead of one-loss teams?"
The media bias is showing itself huge this year. It is always there, yet it's showing itself even more than usual this year.
The other aspect of the media bias is in preseason polls.
Every year, prior to the beginning of the college football season, pre-season rankings are released by the major sports outlets. Here also the media darling teams get the slathered praise from the media.
Case in point. In the mid-90's Texas had a God-awful football team. They mired around .500 for several years in a row and there was not anything with regard to recruiting or coaching which was indicative otherwise. Nonetheless, Texas every year (no exaggeration) was preseason ranked in the Top 7 in the country.
Texas would subsequently embark on another 5-6, 4-7 campaign.
I'm sure there are other teams of whom this same thing is true. I grew up in Texas, so I'm particularly familiar with this bias taking place in the South, and particularly the Southwest and Big 12 conferences.
The same might be true of Nebraska this year. I'm not sure where they were ranked preseason, however they have had a horrible season and the coach has never really gotten the program solid with any kind of steam or momentum since he's been there.
The bias is always the same for independent team Notre Dame as well. ND is not in a conference, however this year (as any other) in the preseason they were ranked in the Top 25. There is even one of the talking heads from a national sports outlet who in the preseason picked Notre Dame to be playing for the National Championship.
The team is currently 1-9. One win, nine losses.
No one is a Nostradomus when it comes to sports. It's unrealistic to pick perfectly. If that were true there would be many many multi-millionaires flocking the sportsbooks. But that's not the point. The point here is the darling bias that permeates the media. This would be no big deal except for the fact that it will cost a team like Kansas multi-millions of dollars when it comes bowl time.
And that, my friends, is a shame.
The bias shows itself twofold. One is in the preseason rankings. The other is in the rankings as the year goes on.
The latter is really rearing its ugly head this year. Particularly as pertains to the current ranking of the Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas has never had a strong football team during the lifetime of anyone reading this. Kansas has traditionally been a cellar dwellar of the Big 12 and former Big 8 conferences, getting drubbed by traditional powers Oklahoma and Nebraska by ridiculous scores.
The Big 12 conference is considered a very strong conference in football. Throughout most of every season there are three B12 schools among the Top 10 teams in the country, and generally two to four more in the Top 25. So, this means at any given point in time about half the conference is ranked among the best college football teams in the country.
Enter this year. There is a Big 12 team which is currently 10-0. It beat all of its nonconference foes and has an unblemished record in a perennially tough conference (with two regular season games to go).
If this undefeated Big 12 team were Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska--the team would undeniably be ranked #1 in the country. The media would be swooning and couldn't talk enough about the team. There would be all kinds of special interest stories about the team, about its winning tradition, blah blah blah.
But...the undefeated Big 12 team right now is Kansas. A team who has beaten all the other teams in the strong B12 conference to date. Add to this the fact that there is not another undefeated team in the entire nation. All major conference teams have at least one loss. There are some very good one-loss teams out there, however none of them have an unblemished record.
If the undefeated team was Tx, Ok, or Neb, the media would be talking about what a great season they are having. What is the media saying about Kansas, as of today? "They haven't played anybody." The media is also posing the question "If Kansas remains undefeated, do they deserve to play for the National Championship?"
Excuse me? If any of the media darling teams were undefeated there would be NONE such talk. For example, Texas traditionally pays a bunch of patsy non-conference teams in their non-conference schedule. The same is true this year as any. They have played the likes of North Texas State (yeah, who?) and Rice (a historic bottom-tier team). But if Texas was undefeated right now? The media would be creaming in their pants. "Oh, Texas great this, Texas wonderful that."
Kansas gets no such treatment. Kansas instead gets "well, IF they win out, are they worthy to play for the NC instead of one-loss teams?"
The media bias is showing itself huge this year. It is always there, yet it's showing itself even more than usual this year.
The other aspect of the media bias is in preseason polls.
Every year, prior to the beginning of the college football season, pre-season rankings are released by the major sports outlets. Here also the media darling teams get the slathered praise from the media.
Case in point. In the mid-90's Texas had a God-awful football team. They mired around .500 for several years in a row and there was not anything with regard to recruiting or coaching which was indicative otherwise. Nonetheless, Texas every year (no exaggeration) was preseason ranked in the Top 7 in the country.
Texas would subsequently embark on another 5-6, 4-7 campaign.
I'm sure there are other teams of whom this same thing is true. I grew up in Texas, so I'm particularly familiar with this bias taking place in the South, and particularly the Southwest and Big 12 conferences.
The same might be true of Nebraska this year. I'm not sure where they were ranked preseason, however they have had a horrible season and the coach has never really gotten the program solid with any kind of steam or momentum since he's been there.
The bias is always the same for independent team Notre Dame as well. ND is not in a conference, however this year (as any other) in the preseason they were ranked in the Top 25. There is even one of the talking heads from a national sports outlet who in the preseason picked Notre Dame to be playing for the National Championship.
The team is currently 1-9. One win, nine losses.
No one is a Nostradomus when it comes to sports. It's unrealistic to pick perfectly. If that were true there would be many many multi-millionaires flocking the sportsbooks. But that's not the point. The point here is the darling bias that permeates the media. This would be no big deal except for the fact that it will cost a team like Kansas multi-millions of dollars when it comes bowl time.
And that, my friends, is a shame.
posted by John Three Thirty at 11/14/2007 12:01:00 PM
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