ESPN’s cupcake props at Washington Football scheduling earns pie in the face

Television works, but the producers don’t understand the complaint

Fans certainly DO appreciate the televised games. Let’s clear that right up. And Pac-12 teams understand that games will typically start at 4:00 p.m to suit the needs of the national audience. But the fact is that television producers have plenty of discretion.

This was a featured game for the Washington Football team. It is Purple Reign, a game which is all about reaching out to the fans and thanking them for their continued support.  The game time could have begun at 4:00 pm PT. Instead, Fox Sports opted to place Washington State at Oregon in that time slot.  That dictated that ESPN would catch Washington late once more.

Timing decisions seems subjective

Pac-12 teams understand that late games happen in the conference. But late late games for Washington do not help the conference. The more competitive teams featured nationally as close to “prime time” as possible raise the reputation of the entire conference.

Games of teams making national headlines, like USC, do not seem to run into the late late late slot. It cannot be a matter of competitive games. USC played California too.

Washington is just a very good team which appears to be fighting for air time. Clearly today was another example of Washington Football’s dominance. But when the game ran to nearly 1:00 am ET, you have to wonder who saw the contest.  ESPN broadcast a lopsided win and had plenty of second half air-time to fill with drama and controversy which didn’t show up on the field.

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The choices made seemed to fill that air-time seemed beneath a nationally televised game. We can only hope future broadcasts do not opt for that level of commentary. Raise the bar folks. Washington Football team, now 6-0, deserves a little more respect.