ESPN boss asked if he's ruining college football
The latest bombshell move in college football expansion has scores of fans across the country upset with the direction the sport has been taking recently.
And most of those disgruntled fans are laying the blame at the feet of the major TV networks, whose quest for more profits they believe has helped push the realignment process.
Chief among those culprits allegedly squeezing every last dime out of college football is ESPN, whose president, Burke Magnus, was asked on a podcast with Andrew Marchand if the network is destroying the game.
His answer was a predictable "no."
Who, us? TV networks have denied they have any influence over how college football expansion has gone, is going, or will go,
But there's no denying that the marketplace brought about by those networks is the primary reason why the sport has rearranged itself in recent years.
Bye, bye, Big Ten: Pretty soon, ESPN will be out of the Big Ten football business entirely.
After the 1st of July next year, that conference won't be seen on the four-letter network at least for the next seven years.
Except, of course, if a B1G team makes the College Football Playoff, which is broadcast on ESPN in the postseason, or almost any bowl game.
But it'll be the first time in 40 years that ESPN won't carry any Big Ten football games during the regular season.
That privilege will go to a syndicate of CBS, Fox, and NBC, all of whom just plopped down a combined $7 billion over seven years to show those games instead.