No Littering Allowed: How Large Sites Promote More Clutter Than Creativity

The blogosphere creates an interesting dilemma: How do you let those whose voices that have important and well thought out opinions be heard while sorting through mindless clutter and chatter? It is not just the blogoshpere, but society in general that is facing this issue more now that even before. The internet at times epitomizes free speech and avid sports fans take advantage of that. The problem? Not everyone thinks before they speak freely. After searching through one of the largest athletic blogging sites on the web, known as Deadspin.com, I found two blogs that though had they had nothing to do with each other topically speaking, they had something very important in common – there was very little thought put into both. If sports bloggers want to personify themselves as reputable and their subject as holding an important place in modern society we are going to have to hold ourselves to a higher standard than these two bloggers demonstrated.

The first post I discovered is about a blogger named Pete Gaines who commented on ESPN’s reporting of Stephen and Seth Curry, two current basketball stars who are not, mind you, on star teams. The second is Rick Chandler’s “report” (And I use that word rather loosely), on E!’s newest show entitled Hot Girls in Scary Places. What does that have to do with sports you ask? The three stars just so happen to be USC Song Girls. Though one would accuse my previous blog on the world of marching bands to be just as tangential, I urge you to take a look at both blogs and my comments before making that judgment. Even tangents can have substance which is something these two blogs seem to lack.

“ESPN Presents Stephen Curry’s BracketBusters, Starring Stephen Curry”
My response:
After reading your post, there were two questions that came immediately to mind:
1. Are you surprised?
2. Can you blame ESPN?
Let me elaborate…
First and foremost what is ESPN? They are quite possibly the world’s largest, and without question, the most popular source for sporting news. A company does not find itself there by accident or over night. They learned to find a story and capitalize on it. ESPN uses its resources. In this case they have taken two basic rhetorical story lines of college basketball and exploited it. Combine the two, and you might just have a story that could go beyond the boundaries of your a typical sports fan. The alumnus that would not know where to begin to look for his or her own school’s athletic website might even read this. ESPN knows that.

Its first element is The Cinderella Story that “March Madness” has become famous for. Even if the said “Cinderella” doesn’t win it all and live happily ever after, the entire country will still know their name by the time the clock strikes midnight. By creating a “Bracket Buster,” ESPN has found a way to extend the popularity of that concept well and beyond the month of March. Brackets alone are intriguing, especially by this time of the year. Who is going to subsequently destroy such brackets have everyone, even fair whether sports fan, riveted to the TV screen.
Its second element finds roots in American values – family, teamwork, tradition. You mention these brothers are partially intriguing due to their “NBA dad and hot mom.” ESPN, or any other network for that matter, might see it as two young men carrying on the tradition set in place by their father. They are brothers, sticking together in the world of sport, both succeeding, both carrying on the “family name.” Can anyone in their right mind consciously scoff at that concept? So why then, are you even surprised, that this is all you heard about through the various ESPN portals you accesss? In the end it is a business, and this is a story. A good one. Don’t you think you would blame them for not seizing the opportunity?

On another level, these boys do not go to schools that are considered powerhouses in the world of college sports. Texas’ and Oklahoma’s showdown tonight was possibly as well viewed as when these two schools met during football season. Those are two schools with well rounded athletic programs and each probably have public relations offices working over time to go with it. Can you say the same for Old Dominion or Liberty? If ESPN hadn’t taken special care in scouring the ranks of college basketball for not only the top players not just on the highest ranked teams, maybe these two boys would have remained relatively unknown. ESPN not only brought attention to two good players, but two schools that often get overlooked. Your issue might seem to have more validity if they were continually talking about two brothers who decided to go to Duke and UCLA. Why report about that? Everyone knows they are good. There is no story. The Curry Brothers might not be on teams that are as strong as the aforementioned, but that is not why they are being reported on. It’s the ideas, rhetorically speaking, that they represent. The added bonus is that two smaller schools are getting the publicity they deserve for working just as hard as a larger one. Everyone benefits.

If you truly have an issue with ESPN, it would be that though they are bringing attention to smaller schools both from this story and the entire entity called “Bracket Busters,” they are not bringing any extra revenue to go with it. Still, I could hardly call that taking advantage of the Curry Brothers or any of the “Cinderella” schools this season. There is usually some sort of income involved with making the post season to begin with. I doubt the players are going to tell their children about that one day. I will almost guarantee you they will tell them about the time ESPN interviewed them after they clinched an at large bid to the NCAA tournament. Even despite the fact that both brothers school’s lost, there is still a story, still a memory not just being capitalized on, but by captured by ESPN. That is something not even extra revenue from an ESPN story or a run in the post season can buy you. If you think they are over rated, then change the channel, but there is no harm in this story – only heart warming.

“ ‘Hot Girls in Scary Places’ to Change TV As We Know It”
My response:
May I ask you something? Are you a sports blogger? Are we not weeks away from the modern day media phenomena more commonly known as “March Madness?” Do we not have the NFL combines coming up and the subsequent draft? Isn’t there a BCS system that could take the entire off season to rework? And if I’m not mistaken, college baseball is also right around the corner. And you decide that the most interesting thing to post in is three USC Song Girls in an abandoned hospital? Let us just stop for a moment and point out the fact that the show itself has to have the most clever title ever imagined: Hot Girls in Scary Places. I’m in awe. I could easily comment on the obvious objectification of women here that E!, and in a way, that you are promoting, but that is not the injustice I wish to comment on. Accuse me of abandoning my gender if you will, but if you join any cheer or dance team, especially one as famous as USC’s, you have to realize that it comes with the territory. This post brings to mind another issue entirely: Useless tangents.

Now I for one don’t mind an occasional good tangent. I’ve reported on mascots and written on marching bands, but those are two elements that are integral to a school’s traditions and a game’s atmosphere. USC Song Girls, not in uniform, not holding pom poms and not dancing and supporting their highly ranked football team to victory has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with cluttering the sports blogosphere with information that no one is going to care about two hours from now, much less two weeks from now. What benefit is this to the college sports arena? Though blogs do have the element of entertainment to it, let’s ground our tangents in school spirit, history and talent instead of cup sizes and pretty faces. I will credit you for not giving any real creative kudos or round of applause to E! for this creation, however by commenting on it I can’t help but feel you are jumping up and down inside that someone out there was bold enough to make such mindless programming. There are enough comments on this blog to make believe that you are not the only one though.
I will be the first to acknowledge some of the mystique surrounding USC and its famous song girls. Even the college football commentator Beano Cook declared them a “national treasure” that should be shared with the entire country, traveling to different sporting events around the nation. Their classic white sweaters, pleated skirts and over sized poms poms that haven’t changed for decades could make any young man have to reach for a Kleenex to wipe the drool from his mouth, but the USC Songs Girls still have their place in sports society that goes beyond looks. They represent storied tradition. Where there is USC football, there are song girls, there is the marching band, there are thousand of “V’s for victory” being held up in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. They are part of a bigger picture the represent what is right with college sports today. Unfortunately this post represents what I feel is wrong with college sports blogs today. All entertainment; Not even an attempt at substance.

I can understand during “dead spots” when there is little to comment on in the realm collegiate activity that one might be desperate enough to turn to a story like this, but this is an active part of the season. And if you insist on commenting about something that has to do with USC, how about their inconsistent basketball team or their ranked football recruiting class? Better yet, who is going to be their next quarterback: Mustain, Corp or Barkley? For a lesser known story, how do you think Rebecca Soni is going to top off her senior year in swimming after winning an Olympic Gold medal? This is one school’s news. We could get into the conference (What do you feel about Washington State’s upset over UCLA today?), or the NCAA as a whole (With as many rules and regulations as they have there is always a scandal brewing around the corner), but I think you have gotten the point. The next time you choose to post on something that is not directly about the game itself, choose something slightly more substantial.