G
gmj81with her ________ (fill in the blank). My choices would be ignorance/bias/lack of intelligence
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/30927
She clearly doesn't follow the teams closely enough to provide any real substance, only keeps with her theory that BYU will "struggle to replace their QB" while "Utah is young and talented with Wynn at the helm who got great experience last year" (wow a whopping four games -- Ratliff also did pretty well the last couple of games in '05 because noone had any film on him but underperformed expectations once teams figured him out in '06) and "TCU will replace Jerry Hughes" even though she has no idea with who. She might be right on all accounts but she never provides any information to back her theories up.
But these parts was the best of this particular chat script:
Larry (Glendale, CA)
Do you think it is better for the Pac-10 to go after Rice and SMU rather than Utah and Colorado? Rice offers the Houston market and SMU offers the Dallas market. Both institutions have potential to grow in their athletic programs and offer the Pac-10 a pipeline to recruit in Texas. Rice is also widely known as a prestigious academic institution while SMU has the strong and rich alumni.
Graham Watson
Yeah, but Rice isn't consistent in any sport other than baseball and SMU just had its first bowl season since 1984. Neither one of those teams seem like attractive prospects. Besides, the Denver market would be a good get reginally for the Pac-10. Not sure Salt Lake is big enough, but I think with the LA market carrying everything, you can bite the bullet on that.
First of all, Colorado doesn't even come close to carrying the Denver market, not that Denver is all that much bigger than the SLC market anyway. But furthermore, anyone who follows recruiting knows that Utah has far surpassed Colorado as a recruiting hotbed. Every year, the state of Utah sends many kids out of state to top BCS contenders and fills many more teams with quality D1 players who don't always start right away but do eventually make handsome contributions.
Here's another gem:
Nick (Boise)
The addition of TCU clearly helped the MWC take a step forward in their quest for AQ consideration. With just Utah making BCS games every few years they weren't getting far... Now, if they added Boise State it would be almost impossible to deny the MWC AQ status with 4 consistent top 25 teams, who win BCS games and regularly beat upper echelon BCS teams. Shouldn't the MWC make a move now, especially with the prospect of losing Utah to the pac10... They should invite Boise State while the iron is hot.
Graham Watson
But see it from Boise's perspective... What is Utah AND TCU leave the conference? Well, the AQ bid is gone and Boise State is stuck. The timing really stinks on these announcements. There's a lot of speculation and Boise could make a terrible move if it goes to a MWC that's without TCU and Utah. Honestly, the MWC would only be slightly better than the WAC with a worse television contract.
Hahahahaha! First of all, either she hasn't done her research or she's just pimping her own employer. But the WAC's TV deal is nowhere near as good as the MWC's. The whole WAC splits about as much money from ESPN as one MWC team makes from their contract. Sure, ESPN reaches a lot more households but for one, the only team they ever televise is BSU (and extremely rarely on Saturdays mind you) and two, just because they are on doesn't mean people are watching. The WAC faces the exact same problem the MWC does... how to get people interested that don't have ties to their conference membership. The nation as a whole will tune in to the Fiesta Bowl to watch the 'underdog story' unfold but they aren't staying home the nights BSU plays during the regular season. In fact, very few schools have a national following like that save for the top 5 programs maybe in the country (Texas, Florida, OU, Ohio State, USC). Even the Notre Dame faithful have lost interest and continue to dwindle in number. You can bet they won't be getting another huge NBC contract any time soon, if ever, unless their coach (whoever it may be) can return them to national championship glory.
Finally, you know that even if Utah and TCU left the conference (the most unlikely combination to bolt IMO), more top WAC teams (kind of an oxymoron, i know) than just BSU would gladly leave the WAC to jump into the MWC so it would always remain significantly stronger than any other non-AQ conference. She obviously either hates BYU just because Cougar fans continue to check her on her "misinformation" or she actually really doesn't know the power and sway they hold. When we can draw 10-20,000K fans at every nearly road stadium we visit, you better believe our market is not defined by the Provo borders.
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/30927
She clearly doesn't follow the teams closely enough to provide any real substance, only keeps with her theory that BYU will "struggle to replace their QB" while "Utah is young and talented with Wynn at the helm who got great experience last year" (wow a whopping four games -- Ratliff also did pretty well the last couple of games in '05 because noone had any film on him but underperformed expectations once teams figured him out in '06) and "TCU will replace Jerry Hughes" even though she has no idea with who. She might be right on all accounts but she never provides any information to back her theories up.
But these parts was the best of this particular chat script:
Larry (Glendale, CA)
Do you think it is better for the Pac-10 to go after Rice and SMU rather than Utah and Colorado? Rice offers the Houston market and SMU offers the Dallas market. Both institutions have potential to grow in their athletic programs and offer the Pac-10 a pipeline to recruit in Texas. Rice is also widely known as a prestigious academic institution while SMU has the strong and rich alumni.
Graham Watson
Yeah, but Rice isn't consistent in any sport other than baseball and SMU just had its first bowl season since 1984. Neither one of those teams seem like attractive prospects. Besides, the Denver market would be a good get reginally for the Pac-10. Not sure Salt Lake is big enough, but I think with the LA market carrying everything, you can bite the bullet on that.
First of all, Colorado doesn't even come close to carrying the Denver market, not that Denver is all that much bigger than the SLC market anyway. But furthermore, anyone who follows recruiting knows that Utah has far surpassed Colorado as a recruiting hotbed. Every year, the state of Utah sends many kids out of state to top BCS contenders and fills many more teams with quality D1 players who don't always start right away but do eventually make handsome contributions.
Here's another gem:
Nick (Boise)
The addition of TCU clearly helped the MWC take a step forward in their quest for AQ consideration. With just Utah making BCS games every few years they weren't getting far... Now, if they added Boise State it would be almost impossible to deny the MWC AQ status with 4 consistent top 25 teams, who win BCS games and regularly beat upper echelon BCS teams. Shouldn't the MWC make a move now, especially with the prospect of losing Utah to the pac10... They should invite Boise State while the iron is hot.
Graham Watson
But see it from Boise's perspective... What is Utah AND TCU leave the conference? Well, the AQ bid is gone and Boise State is stuck. The timing really stinks on these announcements. There's a lot of speculation and Boise could make a terrible move if it goes to a MWC that's without TCU and Utah. Honestly, the MWC would only be slightly better than the WAC with a worse television contract.
Hahahahaha! First of all, either she hasn't done her research or she's just pimping her own employer. But the WAC's TV deal is nowhere near as good as the MWC's. The whole WAC splits about as much money from ESPN as one MWC team makes from their contract. Sure, ESPN reaches a lot more households but for one, the only team they ever televise is BSU (and extremely rarely on Saturdays mind you) and two, just because they are on doesn't mean people are watching. The WAC faces the exact same problem the MWC does... how to get people interested that don't have ties to their conference membership. The nation as a whole will tune in to the Fiesta Bowl to watch the 'underdog story' unfold but they aren't staying home the nights BSU plays during the regular season. In fact, very few schools have a national following like that save for the top 5 programs maybe in the country (Texas, Florida, OU, Ohio State, USC). Even the Notre Dame faithful have lost interest and continue to dwindle in number. You can bet they won't be getting another huge NBC contract any time soon, if ever, unless their coach (whoever it may be) can return them to national championship glory.
Finally, you know that even if Utah and TCU left the conference (the most unlikely combination to bolt IMO), more top WAC teams (kind of an oxymoron, i know) than just BSU would gladly leave the WAC to jump into the MWC so it would always remain significantly stronger than any other non-AQ conference. She obviously either hates BYU just because Cougar fans continue to check her on her "misinformation" or she actually really doesn't know the power and sway they hold. When we can draw 10-20,000K fans at every nearly road stadium we visit, you better believe our market is not defined by the Provo borders.