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CBS Is Using Its SEC Theme Song for Big Ten Games, and College Football Fans Are Losing It

Also in Traina Thoughts: Amazon Prime's TNF theme song; Deshaun Watson’s coach embarrasses himself; Mike McDaniel is the most fascinating coach in sports and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. The Big Ten’s new media deals were announced Thursday, with the conference leaving ESPN and joining forces with CBS for a weekly 3:30 p.m. ET game and NBC for a weekly prime-time game.

While this won’t have a significant impact on college football viewers—you’ll see all the games you were going to see, just on different channels—one theme has emerged more than any other when it comes to fallout.

People are NOT happy that CBS will seemingly use its theme song (that has been used for years primarily before SEC games) for its upcoming Big Ten games.

CBS’s college football song is one of the most iconic in sports history, so I understand why the network would keep it. CBS has used it on non-SEC games, like Army-Navy or the occasional Mountain West game, for years.

But the song is synonymous with the SEC. It does feel unseemly to slap it on something entirely new. It’s like breaking up with someone and then giving your new significant other one of their sweatshirts that they left behind to wear. It’s just not cool.

There’s also the narrative that the Big Ten is not worthy of such a historic theme song. Now, I’m a New Yorker who has no dog in this fight, but the Big Ten just isn’t nearly as sexy as the SEC when it comes to teams and matchups.

Yes, the SEC absolutely has some dogs, such as Vanderbilt and South Carolina, but the Big Ten is filled with gross teams.

In fact, one extremely creative content creator put together this video of the CBS theme song over Big Ten lowlights, and it works better than the version CBS put out.

Like I already said: It’s not realistic to expect CBS to abandon a hugely popular theme song. But CBS keeping the theme song is just wrong. And the network is hearing about it loud and clear.

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2. Speaking of theme songs, Amazon Prime has released its theme song for the upcoming season of Thursday Night Football.

3. Deshaun Watson is a complete joke with his non-apologies, fake apologies and lack of remorse. It seems the people surrounding Watson are also a joke.

Here’s what Watson’s personal quarterback coach tweeted on Thursday:

So Jenny Vretnas, an excellent reporter who worked for Sports Illustrated and now works for The New York Times, reaches out for a comment, prints the comment and gets bashed for it by someone in Watson's camp? If Watson's camp didn’t want to comment, they should’ve just said, “no comment” or not responded. Instead, in a totally clueless move, they said “We’re going to stay away from The New York Times” in response to a reporter asking for a comment. 

In addition, the Watson backer then takes the stance that Vrentas is not interested in reporting. Nobody has done more reporting on Watson’s behavior than Vrentas. Nobody.

And to call Vrentas “low character” while you work for Deshaun Watson seems to present a credibility problem.

4. Now for something lighter. This video of Ben Affleck saying hello to someone and then immediately shifting his his facial expression had huge “I’ve been there” vibes.

My followers came through with other instances of rapid-fire facial expression changes.

5. Loyal Traina Thoughts readers know that I’m all-in on new Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel. He’s easily one of the most fascinating people in sports right now. While I find it hard to believe Tua is this good, I love the way McDaniel explained what Tua does to Dan Le Batard. There isn’t a head coach like him anywhere in sports today.

6. This week's SI Media Podcast features an interview with Tim Burke, also known on Twitter as @Bubbaprog, one of the former Deadspin reporters who broke the 2013 Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax story that is the subject of a new Netflix two-part series.

Burke gives details on how Deadspin got the tip about Te'o and how long they worked on the story before publishing it. He also talks about being surprised by the reaction to the story, what he wanted to accomplish with the story and what he’d do differently.

Burke also discusses the recent kerfuffle he found himself in after posting a spliced video of Sean Hannity and Ron DeSantis, how he was the first person to post the uncensored video of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, how he’s able to monitor so many things throughout the day and more.

The podcast closes with the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment with Sal Licata, from WFAN and SNY in New York. This week, I go on yet another rant about streaming, with the new NFL+ service as the target. We also discuss the NBA vs. NFL battle that is now set for Christmas Day, the NFL’s decision to add a Black Friday game next season and much more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: WWE will air its 1,200th episode of SmackDown tonight. Here is what the first episode looked like on April 29, 1999.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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