OK, let’s say ESPN has anti-FSU/pro-SEC bias. Here’s who’d be to blame

Given the prevalence of media conspiracy theories on both the right and left, it only makes sense that a college football season taking place during an election year would feature accusations of a network favoring a particular entity because of commercial interests. In this case, the claim is that ESPN is in bed with the SEC. The accusation has been lobbed from a variety of sources, but the most prominent source of fire has been from Florida State fans.

One need only look at the collection of signs made by FSU fans when College GameDay came to campus for evidence. Or, one can look at the charges lobbed at ESPN by a Florida State graduate in Rolling Stone:

ESPN has invested heavily in the SEC of late - highlighted by its launch of the SEC Network in August - and needs at least one, ideally four, of the conference’s teams to make the inaugural College Football Playoff, to which ESPN holds exclusive broadcast rights (the first set of Playoff rankings will be unveiled tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET on the network as well).

It’s good business sense to do whatever’s in your power to advance and protect such an investment. Unfortunately, ESPN is the most powerful media brand in college football, managing a portfolio of broadcast rights to not only the Playoff, but every major conference and 33 of the 35 bowl games staged last season. This gives ESPN the power to control the narrative in the most subjective sport in America.

That narrative? “SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC!”

Now, there are a variety of reasons why this claim is dubious. First, the spots in the College Football Playoff will be determined by a committee of 12 insiders, with only one member professionally tied to an SEC school. That group is: (a) far less likely to be influenced by ESPN’s coverage than a large collection of pollsters; and (b) composed of a number of different interest groups that is more likely to engage in a consensus-building political process that will lead to a diverse Playoff.

Second, ESPN’s favorable coverage of the SEC is backed up by objective computer ratings. For instance, Bill Connelly’s F/+ ratings have SEC West teams in the top four spots.

Third, ESPN has the right to every single Florida State game, unlike the SEC, which puts its best game each week on CBS. Thus, ESPN has similar commercial interest in Florida State as it does in any SEC team, even including the SEC Network, a conclusion that is bolstered by the fact that this season’s GameDay has been to Tallahassee twice and at the Noles’ opener in Dallas.

But let’s assume for the sake of argument that ESPN’s commercial interests are such that ESPN has become an agent advocating for the SEC and against Florida State. Whom or what would we blame for this development?

Why is it that ESPN has an SEC Network to pimp while the “ACC Network” is really just a brand given to the same Raycom broadcasts that we’ve been watching for decades? Meet ACC commissioner John Swofford:

It’s rather surprising that a conference would so willingly take less TV money - the core source of revenue in collegiate athletics - just to keep a broadcast company from folding. There are, of course, plenty of conspiracy theories to explain Swofford’s irrational decision. Raycom Sports is based in North Carolina, and the ACC is often accused of favoring its four NC schools. Then there’s Swofford’s son, Chad Swofford, who is the Senior Director of New Media and Business Development at Raycom Sports (he was also employed by Boston College athletics when the school received an invite from the ACC). But regardless of what theory you choose to believe, the ultimate conclusion is that the ACC has not been the best at negotiating its TV rights contracts.

In short, the ACC has chosen to give its third-tier programming to Raycom instead of partnering with ESPN or Fox to form an actual ACC Network. And it must just be a coincidence that many of the functions of the “ACC Network” on Raycom are supervised by the son of the ACC commissioner.

Let’s assume a state of affairs in which the ACC had not been passed by the Big Ten for the mantle of the nation’s premier basketball conference. (Don’t fight reality on this one, ACC fans. According to KenPom, the Big Ten has been the best hoops league in each of the past four seasons, while the ACC has not finished higher than third.)

With a dominant basketball league, the ACC might have been more attractive to ESPN as a potential partner to create an ACC Network. The offer from ESPN to create such a network might have been enough to trump Swofford’s desire for a happy Thanksgiving table.

Instead, the ACC has declined in basketball, mainly because of weakness on the part of its traditional middle class: NC State, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, and (until last year) Virginia, plus the departed Maryland.

The ACC will never be on par with the SEC in terms of the number of programs with intense, football-obsessed fan bases. However, the league does have four members that ought to be able to form an elite, a vanguard of the hoops-focused proletariat. Florida State and Clemson are obviously healthy right now. Their counterparts in the Coastal Division, Miami and Virginia Tech, have been mediocre for a few years.

The Canes have not won a Coastal Division title, let alone a league title, since joining the conference in 2005. Miami’s fan support since leaving the Orange Bowl can be charitably described as lukewarm. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech is going through the sort of decline phase that Florida State experienced between Mark Richt’s departure at the end of the 2000 season and Jimbo Fisher becoming the head man in 2010. It’s damn near impossible to get rid of a program-building coach, so it’s not hard to understand Virginia Tech’s current predicament, but the end result is still a team that is punching well below its weight.

Put it this way: Florida State was not hurt by drawing Duke in the ACC Championship last year, because the Noles were so good that they were assured of a spot in Pasadena as long as they remained unbeaten. However, a conference that sees one of its lowliest programs win a division and then get served up as a ritual sacrifice in the league title game is not going to command much respect.

And this is where #FSUTwitter gets annoyed.

While there is some debate about timing and the degree to which the SEC tried to sell Florida State on joining its league, there is little doubt that FSU chose the ACC over the SEC in 1990. As Seminoles Boosters, Inc. President Andy Miller put it in The Florida Times-Union’s exhaustive history of Florida State’s decision to join the ACC:

There was quite a bit of feeling that we didn’t want to be entrapped; a feeling among some of the fans that if we go into that conference that has been dominated by the Alabamas, Auburns and Georgias we’d be kind of a stepchild, we wouldn’t get the respect we deserved.

By choosing to join a league that did not have “the Alabamas, Auburns, and Georgias,” Florida State realized the benefit of being a big fish in a small pond. As events played out after FSU’s first season in the ACC in 1992, the wisdom of the decision to join the ACC became obvious, as the Noles won a pair of national titles and finished in the top four for nine straight seasons (adding to the five-year streak that they had started before joining the ACC).

Florida State perceived its self-interest as being served by joining the ACC instead of the SEC, and that perception became reality. However, by making that decision, Florida State chose to associate with schools whose fan bases are not as football-crazed as those of the SEC.

ESPN, like Florida State, is entitled to act in its own self-interest. That self-interest is served by providing extra attention to popular teams, which means more attention to the SEC and less to the ACC. It does not mean paying less attention to Florida State, a team with a fan base that would fit snugly in the SEC, but it does mean paying less attention to most of the rest of the ACC.

FSU fans may not be inclined to do so, but when venting about ESPN, they ought to consider a decision that their school made in 1990 to walk away from the league that they now see as being ESPN’s sweetheart.