If they wanted to hype their upcoming college football blockbuster games, they should buy commercial time.
Instead they blathered on over many Cal possessions. Players names were completely ignored (I'm sure their
families were annoyed), and graphics were displayed obscuring several plays at a time (Cal was playing quite fast).
At times, you could not tell a football game was going on.

Agree. Especially being the first game of the year with so many new players on offense it was really irritating that they wouldn't announce who caught the ball. And a couple times they did announce it and got it wrong. They were terrible.

Yup. C- or D+

Yeah but if you send a team to that game with the quick turnaround and jet lag they aren't going to be in top shape for the start of the college football season

Yeah, at times it seemed like ESPN had mic'd up a couple of guys sitting at a bar with the game on in the background.

But they suck usually anyways right?*

LastGameForElway;842718761 said:

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Yeah, at times it seemed like ESPN had mic'd up a couple of guys sitting at a bar with the game on in the background.

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They did sitting in Bristol CT.

LastGameforElway - that is a perfect description of the announcers - they sounded like they were a couple of college fb pr guys who took only a passing interest in the teams playing. One of the worst "play by play" announcers I have heard in the past 60 years.

Truly pathetic announcers. I guess they were hired to pump up viewing for next weeks games because they had very little interest about what was going on on the field. I don't need announcers to watch Cal football so i muted the sound and did my own analysis, much more accurate.

Fred Clerici;842718773 said:

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Truly pathetic announcers. I guess they were hired to pump up viewing for next weeks games because they had very little interest about what was going on on the field. I don't need announcers to watch Cal football so i muted the sound .......

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Yup, I shut off the sound about midway through the 1st quarter.

march2397;842718758 said:

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Yup. C- or D+

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You'r too generous. D- or F.

ESPN insulted Cal and Hawaii fans with that total garbage production.

GBMARIN;842718750 said:

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If they wanted to hype their upcoming college football blockbuster games, they should buy commercial time.
Instead they blathered on over many Cal possessions. Players names were completely ignored (I'm sure their
families were annoyed), and graphics were displayed obscuring several plays at a time (Cal was playing quite fast).
At times, you could not tell a football game was going on.

---

Is there anywhere we can write complaints? Even directly to announcers themselves?

OneTopOneChickenApple;842719252 said:

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Is there anywhere we can write complaints? Even directly to announcers themselves?

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https://twitter.com/allenbestwick

https://twitter.com/BellottiESPN

Also found this on ESPN.com. It's a form you complete.

http://www.espn.com/espn/customercare/tvindex

GBMARIN;842718750 said:

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If they wanted to hype their upcoming college football blockbuster games, they should buy commercial time.

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It's so stupid what they're doing. I don't blame them for not airing a 4-hour "next week preview" in place of the game - nobody would watch that with all the other previews they've already done - but anyone tuning in to our game is probably interested in Cal and Hawaii and what was happening on the field.

Or maybe not. Maybe they've focus-grouped it and found out that most people watching were casual fans who just wanted any football game on their TVs, but were really more interested in the "real teams" playing next week.

It's still unethical to pretend to offer one thing (a broadcast of a Cal vs. Hawaii football game) and actually offer another (a giant infomercial for next week). Bait and switch, very bush-league for ESPN.

GBMARIN;842718750 said:

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At times, you could not tell a football game was going on.

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We got their "D list" announcers, unfortunately.

Any of you watch the North Dakota State game last night? The announcers on that game said over and over that it was the first real game of the college football season. It was odd - almost like the Cal - Hawaii game hadn't happened.

Then there was the glowing ESPN write up of the actual game that started like this -

"Thanks for hosting college football's season opener as California rolled to a 51-31 win over Hawaii. Good on ya, mate. However, there are a few things that we should probably clear up.

The point of college football these days is to get into the College Football Playoff. Neither team you saw on Friday is destined to get there this season. But Cal could make a bowl game, which will be kind of like its season-opening trip Down Under, but far less exciting. (Orlando in mid-December is nice, right?)"

I didn't know that if you are not a top ranked team to start the season, there is no point to your season. What an odd article.

Yeah that Heather Dinich article was crap.

WhipItOutJoe;842719259 said:

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Any of you watch the North Dakota State game last night? The announcers on that game said over and over that it was the first real game of the college football season. It was odd - almost like the Cal - Hawaii game hadn't happened.

Then there was the glowing ESPN write up of the actual game that started like this -

"Thanks for hosting college football's season opener as California rolled to a 51-31 win over Hawaii. Good on ya, mate. However, there are a few things that we should probably clear up.

The point of college football these days is to get into the College Football Playoff. Neither team you saw on Friday is destined to get there this season. But Cal could make a bowl game, which will be kind of like its season-opening trip Down Under, but far less exciting. (Orlando in mid-December is nice, right?)"

I didn't know that if you are not a top ranked team to start the season, there is no point to your season. What an odd article.

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If Heather Dinich is the one who wrote that, ESPN should call her out. Their business model is based on trying to pull in as many fans as possible, not telling them their teams (and their games) don't matter unless they're in the hunt for a playoff spot. So dissing last night's game isn't just something that offends those poor Cal and Hawaii fans, it's also dumber than dumb.

Reminds me of 2003-04 when a lot of sports outlets tried to shove the Red Sox and Yankees down everyone's throats, only to learn that most of the country still cared about their local teams and wasn't crazy about that.

WhipItOutJoe;842719259 said:

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Any of you watch the North Dakota State game last night? The announcers on that game said over and over that it was the first real game of the college football season. It was odd - almost like the Cal - Hawaii game hadn't happened.

Then there was the glowing ESPN write up of the actual game that started like this -

"Thanks for hosting college football's season opener as California rolled to a 51-31 win over Hawaii. Good on ya, mate. However, there are a few things that we should probably clear up.

The point of college football these days is to get into the College Football Playoff. Neither team you saw on Friday is destined to get there this season. But Cal could make a bowl game, which will be kind of like its season-opening trip Down Under, but far less exciting. (Orlando in mid-December is nice, right?)"

I didn't know that if you are not a top ranked team to start the season, there is no point to your season. What an odd article.

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I believe what they said during the North Dakota State and Charleston Southern game was that it was the "first college game of the season in the U.S."

ESPN commentators in general are terrible, unless you get the A-team (Herbstreit and whoever). Cal-Hawaii is obviously not getting that. Par for the course.

510Bear;842719281 said:

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If Heather Dinich is the one who wrote that, ESPN should call her out. Their business model is based on trying to pull in as many fans as possible, not telling them their teams (and their games) don't matter unless they're in the hunt for a playoff spot. So dissing last night's game isn't just something that offends those poor Cal and Hawaii fans, it's also dumber than dumb.

Reminds me of 2003-04 when a lot of sports outlets tried to shove the Red Sox and Yankees down everyone's throats, only to learn that most of the country still cared about their local teams and wasn't crazy about that.

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I agree. If I were ESPN, I certainly would be all over whichever editor allowed that article to be printed. Espn's entire business model depends on as many viewers as possible, so making every game seem important and compelling should be their goal. Here is the actual article -
http://www.espn.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/102937/dear-australia-thanks-for-the-football

As for the game last night, I think it is correct that they said it was the first game in the U.S. But at least from my seat (on an airplane no less, where I was a very captive audience) they were very dismissive of the Australia game. But, perhaps they were doing their job and just pumping the game they were covering.

pretty pathetic that they couldn't send two people to australia for the game. i guess they're really hurting over there at espn. i didn't mind hearing about the games, though. this was the first game of the season for all of football, and indeed, it was meant to be an ad for college football in general. we were on prime time tv, the only show in town, and i thought they did a good job hyping us up. people who watched that game saw a potent offense and are pumped for this weekend's games, too. it's all good. we aren't in the conversation. if we were a top 25 team, they would have focused on us even more. it's ok.

RichyBear;842719241 said:

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You'r too generous. D- or F.

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I concede. You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. I was drunk. Sorry.

sycasey;842719295 said:

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ESPN commentators in general are terrible, unless you get the A-team (Herbstreit and whoever). Cal-Hawaii is obviously not getting that. Par for the course.

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They are all suspect

don't you say anything negative about Herbie :mad:

I am a little surprised we didn't get someone a little better. And sending someone in person shouldn't have been that big a problem. Its one thing if there are competing games but come on. And this is the mothership (ESPN), times must really be tough if they can't send a crew to announce the only college football game of the weekend in person...

I wonder if part of the lack of discussion about the game (during the game) was that--not actually being there--they had no spotters. Makes me wonder how much of what they say is just fed to them during the game by the spotters. Whatever the reasons, that was maybe the worst Cal sports broadcast I have seen.

Well they are sending a live team to cover the BC vs Georgia Tech game in Ireland- though it is a lot closer to the east coast than Australia

GB54;842719479 said:

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Well they are sending a live team to cover the BC vs Georgia Tech game in Ireland- though it is a lot closer to the east coast than Australia

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Does that count as home gam e for BC?

march2397;842719523 said:

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Does that count as home gam e for BC?

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Yes but if they want to get drunk and meet ginger girls who live with their parents they could just go to South Boston

GB54;842719547 said:

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Yes but if they want to get drunk and meet ginger girls who live with their parents they could just go to South Boston

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Well that's why it's a home game. :P

I turned off the ESPN announcers toute suite and listened to Joe Starkey. The radio broadcast was 10 seconds or so ahead of the TV, so I heard what the play was and then saw it (when ESPN didn't have a board blocking it). It's fashionable to knock Starkey but I enjoyed his broadcast, and have for many years.

The ESPN article on how the only thing that matters in college football is getting to the playoffs was utter nonsense. ESPN and their allies who want to make college football nothing but a farm system for the NFL will never succeed. There are too many college fans, such as the ones who are on this board, who like the college game for what it is.

Here's Bruce Feldman, Joel Klatt, and Stewart Mandel going off on how terrible the announcing was @ the 6:34 mark in this podcast:

http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/podcast-why-ohio-state-is-being-overlooked-week-1s-biggest-games-082916

Filled out the form and tweeted one of the announcers. Boycott the USC Alabama game. Thats what I'm doing and I told them. I could care less about that game.