Well, I’ve got a few minutes here to give you some links on this Saturday. I’m also trying to see if Chris Fowler leaves any clues to where College Gameday will be next week. Sometimes, he’ll say, “I can’t wait to see that game,” meaning that he’s been told where the next destination will be. This season, every stop has been either an ABC or ESPN game. It’s mostly due to the fact that ESPN has purchased the rights to every major conference and it can schedule games as it sees fit. But CBS with its SEC contract has yet to carry a big game this season and Notre Dame has yet to get back to a major ranking this season. Chris Fowler has lamented in the past that he no longer goes to sites that are not ESPN or ABC games. And a lot of the choices are due to Kirk Herbstreit being an game analyst for ESPN/ABC, he either has to be close to the primetime game or actually be on site such as tonight’s Missouri-Texas game. That’s my rant on this Saturday morning.
Let’s do some linkage.
Well, the Boomer Esiason-Troy Aikman feud gets curiouser and curiouser by the day. Newsday’s Neil Best has a story in which Aikman responded to Esiason’s Cowboys bias charge on WFAN’s Mike Francesa show yesterday.
The great Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has the first part of a summation on how this whole thing got started. And Barry says he doesn’t think this whole thing will go away any time soon. Barry wonders if Troy and Boomer will try to work things out. And Barry gives us the ratings for Dallas-Fort Worth for the MLB League Championship Series. In his regular Saturday column, Barry writes that former backup QB and current Cowboys radio analyst Babe Laufenberg is rooting for Brad Johnson this week.
Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News says the Dallas Cowboys can be a drama series of their own.
Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record has comments from Troy Aikman on this weekend’s NFL games and none of them refer to Boomer Esiason.
David Knox of the Birmingham (AL) News talks with CBS’ college football analyst Spencer Tillman about Alabama coach Nick Saban.
Paul Ziese of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says today’s Pittsburgh-Navy game won’t be widely available in the Steel City.
The Baltimore Sun’s Ray Frager has three items for you in his blog.
Alexa Gilpin of the Business Gazette in Maryland profiles the new director of strategic partnerships for Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, a position that brings him closer to sports stars.
Jim Williams from the DC Examiner says Redskins fans hope the Ravens win their game before the kickoff of the Browns-Washington game as both contests are on the local CBS affiliate this week. And Jim says Red Sox-Rays will be your viewing highlight today.
Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette looks at two new sports hires on the local TV level.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has a bit more on the fact-challenged movie, “The Express”. And Tom links to a story from Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram which talks about the movie’s depiction of Texas.
Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star looks at Magic Johnson’s hiring at ESPN.
Eddie Pells of the Associated Press says thanks to its worldwide TV deals, the Olympics are for the most part safe from the financial crunch.
Paula Duffy from Examiner.com doesn’t think it’s a big deal for John Madden to take a week off.
Scott Radley from the Hamilton (Canada) Spectator says sports cameramen don’t necessarily have a cushy job as you might think.
The Sports Media Watch says the collapse of the Rays on Thursday might have rescued the ratings for the American League Championship Series.
John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable writes that TBS is seeing ratings growth in its LCS coverage.
Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the ALCS ratings on TBS are also rising in its most important demographics.
Ted Hearn of Multichannel reports that Comcast and the NFL Network remain at loggerheads in their long running carriage dispute.
From Maury Brown’s Biz of Football blog, he looks at the first ever $1,000 Super Bowl ticket.
Joe Favorito looks at Businessweek’s Top 100 Power Brokers In Sports.
That will do it for today.
