The Wiz of Odds: ESPN's 'Game Day' Problem

zoogies said:
Florida State didn't play on either of the two days portrayed in the graphs: a bye week one time and a Thursday game the next.

I hate to nitpick also, but one issue I have with the graphs is it does seem to take some visual liberties. According to the times given, the SEC bar in the first graph should be at 55.9%, not 60%. In the second graph, it would appear there are about 15 minutes of unincluded statistics (if the 35% and 17.5% portrayals are accurate). SEC coverage seems to decline from 55.9% in the first graph to 35% in the second, although it's unclear that this happens because the bars look the same height -- and because it's unclear where that decline went to. Indeed, from the provided times only, the first graph lists an extra 24 mintues, 39 seconds compared to the second.
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The actual data the graphs are based on is in this article: http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/college-gameday-clock-west-virginia.html

Inspired by Fowler’s claims, I decided to watch three hours of College Gameday, with a stopwatch, to compile the amount of airtime that was given to each conference during its broadcast. Assuming that, in the interest of being a network that “televises a bracket,” it would want to give equal airtime to, as Fowler noted “a west coast team, [a] midwest team, [a] team from the Big 12 or ACC…”

The results were staggering. Not only did the SEC get the majority of the airtime (totaling more airtime than every other conference combined), they gave the SEC nearly 4 times more airtime than the second-most aired conference, the Big Ten. The ACC received 43 seconds of total airtime, and it was limited to George Whitfield commenting about Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston. Here were the totals:

  • SEC – 1:02:08
  • Big Ten – 15:59
  • Big 12 – 15:19
  • PAC12 – 10:57
  • DIV III – 5:00
  • Ivy League – 1:08
  • ACC – 0:43
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There's more at the link.

 
HTO said:
NUpolo8 said:
I for one am stunned they spend the most time talking about the highest ranked teams. It's a horror.
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Florida State (ACC), winners of 20-some straight games, Oregon/Arizona State (PAC), KSU/TCU (B12), Notre Dame (Ind/ACC) and Michigan State (B1G) all disagree with your sarcastic but humorous response. There's 7 of the top 10 teams in the county, I fully expect ESecPN to slobber over each one this upcoming Saturday. After all, it's about "the highest ranked teams", right?!?
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I'd wager they get mentioned.

 
Kernal said:
The actual data the graphs are based on is in this article: http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/college-gameday-clock-west-virginia.html
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Yeah, I saw that, but the times were already listed on the graphs and I don't think there's any additional data there. From what you posted, it seems like any "non conference specific" airtime was simply not included. So assuming both Gamedays had the same 3-hour broadcast time, it's worth noting that there was an additional near 25 minutes of conference coverage Oct 25, compared to Nov 1.

Assuming the percentages are based only on the times provided, here's how the graphs should look:

sec.png


Minor quibbles, I suppose. It just seems the %s shown are a little off, in different directions, and for no reason.

 
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NUpolo8 said:
RedRedJarvisRedwhine said:
NUpolo8 said:
I for one am stunned they spend the most time talking about the highest ranked teams. It's a horror.

It's not limited to here either. Every swimsuit issue I've gotten from sports illustrated has really nice looking women on it with rockin chest beefers,they don't give any equal time to the 280 pound girls.
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Keep Fightin the fight for the chubbers Polo!
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They're like mopeds, kimosabe.
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Fun to ride, but you don't want your friends to see you on one. I hear ya

 
The aside between Polo and Jarvis made me laugh. I don't know why.

I think ESPN has their defenses pretty well up on this bias thing and they're sticking to their guns. They'll continue to deny any bias, and we'll continue to all see right through it. But I think the path to leading us past this is two-fold:

1) The other four Power 5 conferences HAVE to find a way to win some championships. We've got to string together consecutive championships in a row. FSU was a good start last year, especially knocking off Auburn. It's a shame the sideshow circus act that that program has become in the meantime.

2) The other conference networks have to continue to flourish. Obviously the SEC network has a direct tie-in with ESPN. I think the Big 10 network has done the best of any of them, so far. They've been around the longest and are pretty well available. By contrast, you can't even get the Pac-12 network here (unless you have Dish), and the Big 12 and ACC don't even have their own networks. Being able to cater to all fans would be a good thing and even the playing field, at least slightly. Truly, I think we should hope that a network like FS1 rises up and becomes a legitimate entity. Another sports provider that does NOT have financial incentives to pump a specific conference would be a GREAT step forward, and the conference networks will probably always be regionally limited, by nature.

 
I mean there's so,much Espn bias one of the only power five teams ever to get shut out of the championship game was Auburn. Twice.

 
dtbugeater said:
Man, I have heard enough about the SEC to last me a life time. Part of me hopes the south just falls into the ocean--

But... this graph isn't a real problem for me. The SEC currently has the most interesting stuff to talk about. They had more interesting matchups (that may or may not be changing in the weeks ahead) and more schools in the top 5. If the Big 10 had 4 teams in the top 5, I bet that graph would be heavy big 10.

I know it is fun to say that ESPN hates on Nebraska, but back in the 90's when we were kicking a$$ and had a national following, they made it a point to talk about Nebraska on every college football show. Even when Nebraska didn't have anything particularly interesting happening. Now it is the SEC's turn. In 5 years I suspect it will be the PAC12 but who knows...
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It's the ESPN bias that landed those SEC teams in the top 5.

If they had been bias toward the Pac, we would see Oregon and ASU and possibly Arizona all at the top.

 
That is a really surprising graphic. My interest in College Game Day has wavered greatly over the last few years. Mostly it is due to the fact that I think it is getting old and stale and it does have a lot SEC talk all of the time.

The crew that has been on for the longest are ok, but I can't believe they have Paul Finebaum on ever. That is just blatant unabashed bias. Pollack is one step above Finebaum in the SEC bias category. Throw in Luganbill and you have a great trifecta.

Should they cover the best teams in the nation sure, but to be that much in one direction is showing some bias.

 
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