Alright folks, it’s our annual weekly piece dunking on ESPN and the SEC, because they continue to make it so damn easy!
On Monday, one of the biggest games of the college basketball season took place with No. 1 Arizona heading to Allen Fieldhouse to clash with Bill Self and his ninth-ranked Jayhawks. Kansas won, which was a big-time victory, but where the SEC somehow comes into play was in the lead-up to tip-off during an interview segment with the broadcast crew.
ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt (who I love and appreciate, zero shots sent his way for this) interviewed Jon Sciambi and Fran Fraschilla about the matchup between Big 12 heavyweights, and for some reason, in the corner of ESPN’s studio, there was a massive SEC logo, which was completely out of place.
Let’s take a look.
Now, is it the biggest deal in the world? No, but what’s even the point of throwing that logo up there? It’s like ESPN isn’t even trying to hide it anymore! I mean, everyone in the world knows that the Big 12 is the best college basketball conference around, and for the SEC, the league has a total of just four teams ranked inside the AP Top 25. The Big 12 nearly has that many teams ranked in the Top Five with No. 1 Arizona, No. 3 Houston, and No. 5 Iowa State! For reference, the SEC’s highest-ranked team is Florida at No. 14. These two things are not the same.
Not that anyone associated with ESPN will likely see this comment, but my advice? Stop trying to steal the shine from others and send it to the SEC. If you put lipstick on a pig, you’ll still just get an overrated league with overinflated egos from everyone associated with it. The SEC has no business being in the conversation when Big 12 Basketball steps into the room.
