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Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged Anti-SEC Bias...

selmaborntidefan

selmaborntidefan

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In an otherwise mediocre column, Dan "Death to the BCS" Wetzel makes a hilariously accurate point:


An aside: remember, it makes perfect sense to believe a new, billion-dollar national sports entity and its international broadcast partner would do all it can to favor teams from small, poor Southern television markets. Perfect sense.

Better than Fowler, better than Musberger....
 
bamaga

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

selmaborntidefan said:
In an otherwise mediocre column, Dan "Death to the BCS" Wetzel makes a hilariously accurate point:


An aside: remember, it makes perfect sense to believe a new, billion-dollar national sports entity and its international broadcast partner would do all it can to favor teams from small, poor Southern television markets. Perfect sense.

Better than Fowler, better than Musberger....
Click to expand...
Cowherd made a similar argument today. He inaccurately said outside of Atlanta and Charlotte, what big TV markets are in the SEC . It absolutely makes no financial sense to artificially prop up the conference.
 
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mittman

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

bamaga said:
Cowherd made a similar argument today. He inaccurately said outside of Atlanta and Charlotte, what big TV markets are in the SEC . It absolutely makes no financial sense to artificially prop up the conference.
Click to expand...
He and Herbstreit had a funny conversation about that. What was so funny for me was the fact that they aren't talking about Texas even with the Longhorn network.
 
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RTR91

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

I agree with the argument. Had the same idea earlier when reading folks tweet about the announcement tonight.

There's one flaw in it, though. What market ranks #1 in college football viewership every week? Birmingham.
 
KrAzY3

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

32-1...

That's bias alright, but it's statistically biased due to the abnormal number of SEC West wins.
 
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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

I agree with this, and just posted some statistical numbers on another thread about the small size of most SEC cities. Still, don't let ESPN totally fool you. With expansion ESPN is hoping to make big gains in the St. Louis and Houston markets, and despite Vandy's ineptness the Nashville market is a desirable one, plus the SEC really has Memphis and Jacksonville too. So while it's fair to say that ESPN isn't going to taint its reporting at risk of losing the real big markets like the NE, California, and Denver, it is not fair to pretend that the SEC is void of any desirable markets.
 
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JeffAtlanta

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

RTR91 said:
There's one flaw in it, though. What market ranks #1 in college football viewership every week? Birmingham.
Click to expand...
That ranking measures the percentage of households in a city that are watching a particular show or category - it doesn't measure absolute number of viewers.

For example, a 1.0 rating in NYC or Los Angeles would be more financially lucrative than a 9.0 rating in Birmingham.
 
CrimsonForce

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

RTR91 said:
I agree with the argument. Had the same idea earlier when reading folks tweet about the announcement tonight.

There's one flaw in it, though. What market ranks #1 in college football viewership every week? Birmingham.
Click to expand...
I don't think that measure is ranked by pure volume of viewers. I think it's the % of the population watching. I could be wrong though..
 
RTR91

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

JeffAtlanta said:
That ranking measures the percentage of households in a city that are watching a particular show or category - it doesn't measure absolute number of viewers.

For example, a 1.0 rating in NYC or Los Angeles would be more financially lucrative than a 9.0 rating in Birmingham.
Click to expand...
CrimsonForce said:
I don't think that measure is ranked by pure volume of viewers. I think it's the % of the population watching. I could be wrong though..
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You're both correct. However, the overall popularity of college football in the south, not just Birmingham, could be seen as a possible reason for ESPN to push for Southern teams to get in the playoff.

Notice I said Southern teams, not just SEC. That's where the ESPN SEC bias theory takes a hit.
 
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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

USCBAMA said:
So while it's fair to say that ESPN isn't going to taint its reporting at risk of losing the real big markets like the NE, California, and Denver, it is not fair to pretend that the SEC is void of any desirable markets.
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That's a good point - the only top 10 TV market where the SEC is completely dominant is Atlanta (#8) though. Nashville (#29) is probably the next largest SEC dominant city.

The Florida cities are very lucrative, but they are certainly split among the Florida schools. Dallas (#5) and Houston(#10) are very desirable but they're heavily Big 12 and the SEC bias talk began before A&M joined the conference.
 
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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

I agree with a lot of the article. Why release a top 25 when there is more than enough work evaluating the top 8 teams and their merit for inclusion. The basketball committee doesn't do it this way. I think he is right the outrage will derail this process pretty quickly.
 
Bama Lee

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

Top 100 TV Market Cities

There are several markets within the Southeast that are worth pursuing. Especially when one looks at Missouri, Texas, Cincinnati, Carolina s, and Florida. I was surprised to see Huntsville/ Decatur on the list.
 
CraigD

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

If the SEC is more relevant nationally then it's got to be good for ESPN and the SEC Network because college football fans from anywhere in the country are more likely to watch SEC games on TV.
 
Bama Lee

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

The Demographics for the future point toward large population movements in the direction of the Southeastern US. Census Datal
 
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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

mittman said:
He and Herbstreit had a funny conversation about that. What was so funny for me was the fact that they aren't talking about Texas even with the Longhorn network.
Click to expand...
Wonder if anyone still watching that Longhorn Network? :D
 
Go Bama

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

Bama Lee said:
The Demographics for the future point toward large population movements in the direction of the Southeastern US. Census Datal
Click to expand...
Interesting graphic. Not to turn this into a political thread, but I couldn't help but notice that the large states that vote Democratic (California, NY, Illinois, Michigan, etc.) are all getting smaller.
 
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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

TIDE-HSV said:
Wonder if anyone still watching that Longhorn Network? :D
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Maybe a few people sipping tea when the exclusive games are on. Last I heard they had around 13 million subscribers. Sounds really low, you'd think they could get more than half of the Texas population :biggrin2:
 
BamaMoon

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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

Interesting that the heart of the SEC, Alabama, has 3 of the top 100 TV markets - B'ham, Mobile/Pensecola, and Huntsville/Decatur.
 
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Re: Dan Wetzel Makes The Best Point Possible About Alleged SEC Bias...

RTR91 said:
You're both correct. However, the overall popularity of college football in the south, not just Birmingham, could be seen as a possible reason for ESPN to push for Southern teams to get in the playoff.

Notice I said Southern teams, not just SEC. That's where the ESPN SEC bias theory takes a hit.
Click to expand...
I agree and would like to point out that ESPN has a nationwide audience. If they were biased it would be to the nationwide markets -- California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York (Jersey), Florida and etc. What I mean is they would be promoting a California team, a Texas Team, a Florida Team and, you get the picture. Nationwide population.
 
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