You can't spell "suck" without Fox...

by KU Doug on Jan 4, 2008 11:11 AM CST

Oh, wait... I guess you can.

I suppose I should be really giddy at the moment, and I guess I was last night. But, dammit, Fox Sports is killing any enjoyment that you can get from watching a major bowl game.

Do you know how many times they showed the OU or WV bands during the Fiesta Bowl? 58. I'll say that again. Fifty-eight times the Fox broadcasting crew needed a cutaway and they went to one of the two bands.

Now apparently, this went over big time in the Fox Corporate offices. The only reason I think this is because there had to be a memo that went out prior to the Orange Bowl that basically said, "Fuck it all. How many times can we show the bands from here on out?"

In the first half of the Orange Bowl the KU or VaTech band was shown a stunning 55 times! And, another 55 times in the second half, adding up to a grand total of 110 (!) times for the entire game.

Seriously, is it that challenging to put a couple extra roving cameras on the field, maybe take that damned DLP Sky Cam you kept showing us but rarely used? Nope, apparently Fox is satisfied by sticking a remote camera in front of each band and using that for any and all cutaway shots during a lull in game action.

Oh, even more impressive, KU won in total band shots as well, racking up a stunning 71 times on camera to VaTech's pitiful 34 during the game (there were an additional five shots of the bands during pre-game). How's that for dedication?

And, of course, I pick on Fox, but it's not like ABC and ESPN are setting the world of fire anymore with their game productions.

Just once, just once... I want to see broadcasts that employ talented play-by-play announcers, insightful color analysts and competent production crews.

Is that really so much to ask

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I will say this for ABC and ESPN...

...they don't employ Charles Davis. That's a check in their column. The Beef mentioned to me that Davis did the '03 MU/NU game, and I don't remember being annoyed watching that, but apparently when he got hired by Fox, he decided that he needed to take his game to another level, so in a short amount of time he became the Thomas Friedman of sportscasters...he's televised nationally, he botches metaphors, and he self-assuredly speaks nonsense, making points that aren't just stupid, but crazy stupid.

The best was during the Georgia-Hawaii game, when he defended Georgia going for it on fourth-and-goal late in the game by saying they were worried about "next season's preseason ranking." Brennaman (sp?) almost lost it at that point, basically saying "I'm sorry, are you actually saying that Georgia thinks next year's ranking will be better if they run up the score on a helpless, pathetic team right now? That's insane. Are you actually saying that?"

(I should also point out how awful it is that Fox now gets four of the five biggest bowls of the year after nationally televising exactly 0 games during the regular season. Broadcast teams need chemistry and repetition to become good, but instead they get thrown together and broadcast their first game of the year together on January 1. Makes for some awful TV viewing.)

I realize none of this had anything to do with your rant, but it allowed me to form a splinter rant, and I appreciate that.

by Bill C. on Jan 4, 2008 11:35 AM CST reply actions

No... that's another point about Fox...

I didn't get to.

You're absolutely right, it does seem like Fox just pulls people off the street and sticks them in the broadcast booth for the BCS games. I don't even know if any of these guys do college games on FSN during the season.

And, that is what makes the BCS the biggest crime of all. Since Fox gets all the broadcasts, except the Rose Bowl, we have to deal not only with crappy announcers, but also a bowl season that doesn't end until January 7th! I think you would improve the product immensly if you allowed a New Year's Day only schedule with say, the Cotton, Gator, Outback and Captiol One all kicking off before noon, and then a schedule of the Sugar, Rose, Fiesta and Orange all kicking off within an hour and a half of each other on all the four major networks.

But, that ain't gonna happen.

by KU Doug on Jan 4, 2008 12:04 PM CST up reply actions

the old days were not too bad...

Cotton and Gator were early (and remember this was east coast time) and opposite one another. Cotton was on CBS, Gator I think on NBC. ABC also had an early game, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called. NBC had the Rose Bowl with...um....Charlie Jones? ABC had the Fiesta at the same time, and then had the Sugar Bowl that night while NBC had the Orange. Am I even close on that for those of you who are 30 or a little over?

by The Beef on Jan 4, 2008 1:01 PM CST up reply actions

They couldn't find 4 hot kU girls? The ones FOX

kept putting on were dogs. I had my doubts hot kU girls existed, but my doubts now have a basis.

by Big Head on Jan 4, 2008 4:07 PM CST reply actions

No, actually, our entire fan base...

Is just the band and the old, bald guy sitting one row in front of them.

As a poster on Awful Announcing said, "They showed him so much, I figured he was starring in a new Fox show."

Now, if you played the band drinking game and took a shot every time the bands were shown, the KU drum major would have looked pretty good sometime around the middle of the second quarter. And, the same could be said for a Missouri co-ed... though that would take until the end of the game.

by KU Doug on Jan 4, 2008 6:00 PM CST up reply actions