After watching the National Championship, something has to be said about this. The east coast bias in sports broadcasting needs to be dealt with. It is almost to the point where I cannot listen to the announcers on most of the major networks.
Looking at CBS, there was one point during the National Championship where I had to turn my television on mute. Listening to Jim Nantz and Billy Packer attempt to call “a fair game” was dreadful. Even though UCLA did not deserve very much praise, it was all about Florida and how it was the best team in sports ever. During the pregame, it was all Florida and how it should have been Florida and LSU in the national championship because that would have been a great game. Never mind the fact that UCLA made LSU look like a division II program.
At halftime of the LSU-UCLA game, there was not one word about the game, only about how exciting it would be if Florida and LSU played in the championship. Never mind the fact that UCLA was up by 11.
What is worse about this east coast bias nonsense is it is even worse in college football. All you ever hear on the major networks about college football is better in the SCC and all other forms of football are not as good. The PAC-10, which had one of the best teams in college football history in the USC Trojans, was made to look like a weak conference because it does not play smash mouth football but runs the “west coast offense.”
Never once during USC’s winning streak did the Trojans get the respect that they deserve. It was always about, who is going to beat USC. Want an example?
Last season, when USC was on its 32 game winning streak, Texas received more first place votes than the Trojans. Did those “voters” on the east coast forget that USC was back to back champions and had not lost a single game in almost three years?
Granted Texas beat USC in the Rose Bowl and now they have earned the right to be the No. 1 ranked team in the country. But when a team has not lost a game in three years, they should always be No. 1 until someone beats them.
What is even worse about this is I have not even started to discuss ESPN, which is without a doubt the most biased network when talking about sports. ESPN is about as fair and balanced as FOX News.
If you ever watch Sunday NFL Countdown, about 100 out of the 120 minutes are designated to NFL teams located in the eastern part of the country. The other 15 minutes are for commercials and the other five minutes are for west coast teams.
Rarely is the a great west coast rivalry mentioned such as the Denver Broncos against the Kansas City Chiefs. It is only about Peyton Manning watch and how the New England Patriots are coming back from a lackluster season.
Or when talking baseball, it is only about the great rivalry that is the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Rarely does ESPN mention the great rivalry of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants.
I for one am tired of hearing about how the west coast is weak in sports. It is time that ESPN gets its stuff together or we as sports fans need to call up and tell them we are tired of it.
Justin Satzman can be reached at sports_sundial@csun.edu.
