Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Yeah, there's still highlights, hockey is still acknowledged as a thing that happens...for some reason.  But to completely black out a major sports entity...it's petty.  I'm embarrassed for them.  

It'd be like CBS only showing scores of SEC games - it would look stupid.

Or minor league baseball scores

...except that those lower levels happen simultaneously as the bigger entities (big ole entities, lol) that would take away from posting scores of teams that matter.

The AAF or whatever purposely was spring football and is not biting in to major college football nor NFL's exposure.

True... But was there customer demand?

ESPN can spend hours talking about Zion Williamson. They can spend hours talking about the NBA. Heck, draft analysis is probably more marketable as fodder for talking heads compared to the ratings they'll get from AAF scores.

Listen, I agree with you. If they had AAF broadcast rights, I'll bet they would try to pump it to CREATE demand for it. As they'll likely do with the XFL. But it's not like there were tens of thousands of irate fans who wanted to see their favorite AAF teams highlighted on Sportscenter every night. So it's not like it's a conspiracy that ESPN didn't devote coverage to it. 

True... But was there customer demand?

ESPN can spend hours talking about Zion Williamson. They can spend hours talking about the NBA. Heck, draft analysis is probably more marketable as fodder for talking heads compared to the ratings they'll get from AAF scores.

Listen, I agree with you. If they had AAF broadcast rights, I'll bet they would try to pump it to CREATE demand for it. As they'll likely do with the XFL. But it's not like there were tens of thousands of irate fans who wanted to see their favorite AAF teams highlighted on Sportscenter every night. So it's not like it's a conspiracy that ESPN didn't devote coverage to it.

Yes, it's the last part.  I don't think they were intentionally avoiding it despite demand, so much as there was no incentive for them to create interest, as there is for the XFL.  As there was for women's basketball, with the national powerhouse right next door, while ignoring more interesting women's sports.

That's why I think the Big Ten maintaining a relationship with ESPN is important, not because the quality is better, but because they are going to promote their own properties, which makes sense.  And no matter what we think here, ESPN still determines what is important to 90% of sports fans.  If the Big Ten isn't on ESPN, it isn't because of their relationship with FOX, it's because they must not be important.

Sorry, I just have an issue with anything claiming to be "news" having anything to do with financial tie-ins with this sport or that.  And maybe ESPN is merely sports entertainment, but that's a tough argument when they play Sportscenter episodes or 16 of their 24 hour cycle.

I wouldn't necessarily state it's due to not having a financial tie-in. 

It's a league that basically nobody outside of football die-hards knew about or cared about. It was full of NFL has-been and never-were players. About the only reason that any of us cared was because we might see a few guys from our own college, but that was never enough for me to actually, you know, tune in. 

The financial aspect wasn't from not having a tie-in. It was because it was a product nobody cared about, and there was no organization that put the marketing behind it to MAKE them care. The AAF should have created the marketing. I don't think they really did.

Heck, ESPN had an interest in the PBA. They televised professional bowling for 38 years. Did you ever see anything about professional bowling on Sportscenter? No, because nobody tuned into Sportscenter every night to find out who won that weekend's bowling match. 

It makes ESPN more money to replay the same episode of Sportscenter on a 5-hour loop than it does to make it one hour of popular sports and then 4 hours of original content following sports that nobody cares about.