Tennessee fans just received undeniable proof that ESPN favors Alabama over the Vols
Tennessee Vols fans received undeniable proof this week that ESPN favors the Alabama Crimson Tide over UT football. Remember two weeks ago when the Vols experienced an officiating debacle in Athens? Tennessee lost to the Georgia Bulldogs in Sanford Stadium two weeks ago because the Vols were outplayed in the trenches. The officiating, however, was […]
Tennessee Vols fans received undeniable proof this week that ESPN favors the Alabama Crimson Tide over UT football.
Remember two weeks ago when the Vols experienced an officiating debacle in Athens?
Tennessee lost to the Georgia Bulldogs in Sanford Stadium two weeks ago because the Vols were outplayed in the trenches. The officiating, however, was subpar at best. And there was a Georgia drive in the second half that was aided by a couple of very questionable calls that helped massively swing the momentum in UGA's favor (that drive took over seven minutes off the game clock and ended with the Bulldogs taking a seven point lead).
There was a questionable face mask call and a controversial 12-men-on-the-field penalty that went against the Vols that helped extend Georgia's first drive in the second half. Both calls prevented Georgia from facing third-and-long.
Those poor calls were briefly discussed during the broadcast, but that was about all you heard from ESPN on the matter.
The way ESPN handled the questionable/bad calls against Tennessee is completely different than the way they're approaching a questionable/bad call that went against Alabama this past weekend.
In the Crimson Tide's loss to Oklahoma in Norman last Saturday, Alabama true freshman wide receiver Ryan Williams had a terrific touchdown catch wiped off the board due to an illegal touching penalty.
There's been some debate this week over whether or not that call was actually correct, though most folks seem to agree that it was an incorrect call.
Whether or not the call was technically correct, though, isn't the point here.
ESPN's popular College GameDay podcast with Rece Davis, Ryan McGee, and Pete Thamel, devoted an eight minute segment this week to "the egregious call in the Alabama-Oklahoma game".
Eight minutes of questioning officials because Alabama was on the wrong side of a bad call!
"It was egregious, it was awful," said Davis, an Alabama graduate, during the podcast.
"It effectively ended the game, Pete," added Davis.
Thamel pointed out that the questionable call isn't why Alabama lost the game, but it certainly prevented the Crimson Tide from having any shot at coming back in the game (Alabama would've been down 24-10 with 14 minutes left in the fourth quarter).
The fact that ESPN is giving the illegal touching call against Alabama this much attention while completely ignoring the extremely questionable calls in the Tennessee/Georgia game (specifically on Georgia's first drive in the second half) tells you all you need to know about ESPN's brand bias.
I'm sure there are plenty of folks who think it doesn't matter that ESPN treats Tennessee like it's sitting at the kids' table at Thanksgiving dinner, but it absolutely matters. The Vols don't get the same benefit of the doubt as teams like Alabama and Georgia. And that impacts the way Tennessee is viewed by the College Football Playoff committee (the committee seems to be easily influenced by the media). The Vols often have a steeper hill to climb than Alabama because Tennessee has to do even more to impress the committee. UT doesn't get any assists from the national media.
There's undoubtedly a double standard when it comes to the way ESPN covers Alabama football and Tennessee football. And it was on full display this week.
Tennessee’s players and coaches need to watch Clark Lea’s speech in the Vanderbilt locker room after Commodores’ loss to LSU
Required viewing for Tennessee
