ESPN Has Egg On Their Face
Oops.
ESPN reported, citing an anonymous source, this morning that LSU head coach Les Miles had accepted the vacant head coaching position at the University of Michigan. Kirk Herbstreit and others spent much of the morning discussing the ramifications of this move.
“Not so fast my friend!”
Apparently, the anonymous source was not so reliable. Miles called an angry press conference prior to the SEC title game to address the issue.
“I am the head coach at LSU. I will be the head coach at LSU,” Miles fumed. “I have no interest in talking to anybody else.”
Miles, a Michigan-alum and coaching progeny of Bo Schembechler, has been speculated for a long while to be the leading candidate to replace Lloyd Carr at Michigan. LSU had granted permission to Michigan to contact Miles about their coaching vacancy, on the condition that it occur after the SEC title game.
LSU had anticipated the potential for Miles to take the Michigan job when he signed his contract. His contract has a “termination by coach” clause stipulating that he would have to pay the university $1.25 million should he seek employment at the University of Michigan.
Miles is 32-6 in three seasons at LSU.
For a network that so cavalierly ridicules bloggers for rumor-mongering and failing to follow journalistic standards for source integrity, this is, at the very least, an embarassment.
Tags: ESPN, Les Miles, LSU, Michigan
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1 December 2007 at 11:55 pm
Every day that passes makes me think ESPN is more of a joke. Several times they have made reports that have been false. They have about as much actual sports news as MTV does music videos.
4 December 2007 at 9:00 am
If this were Dan Rather, he would have lost his career. Oops…I think that did happen, in fact.
ESPN is the fox news of the sports world. Has anyone ever considered that 90 percent of all college football games air on either ESPN or ABC (same company), and that the “national champion” is crowned in part due to the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll.
I say this to all that are fed up with the ESPN monopoly. Watch CBS sports on Saturday; Go to SI.com for general sports info; and buy a ticket to see a local D-IAA or DII football game in person. Going to see the lower divisions play live will support those programs that are not polluted by the almighty Budweiser dollar and the posturing by Kirk Herbstreit.
4 December 2007 at 4:37 pm
I don’t agree with your solution to the problem.
CBS doesn’t show all of their NFL games in HD, which is a dealbreaker for my patronage.
SI doesn’t have any women or anyone under the age of 45. They also rely too much upon their swimsuit photos to generate website hits.