"Whichever TV Network is Covering Which Conference" – Curt Cignetti Called Out National Media for Favoring Conferences Their Networks Have Contracts With

Say what you want about Curt Cignetti, but he's one of only a handful of college football coaches who are willing speak their mind in an interview. Especially in interviews with sideline reporters heading into halftime. Those things are consistently the worst, most uninteresting, most "let me give the most canned answer possible so I get the hell out of here" conversations in the history of the world. But Curt Cignetti will always gives you a little something. 

And you gotta appreciate Curt Cignetti not being afraid to say one of the #1 things college football fans complain about on a yearly basis. Whether how real it is or not, college football fans always complain about national media members being in the pockets of certain conferences. Specifically, ESPN and the SEC. ESPN has a contract with the SEC... ESPN drives so much of the college football conversation... because of that, many people believe the SEC gets favorable treatment in the polls. 

I have no idea how much favorable treatment the SEC actually gets, or how different things would look if ESPN had a contract with the Big Ten instead. It's definitely some. Although at this point, in certain situations, I feel like the collective voice of everybody on the internet might have more of an impact than anything. The final at large bid in the college football playoffs last year came down to Alabama and SMU. The internet was so aggressively adamant with their, "SMU LOST TO CLEMSON ON A LAST SECOND FIELD GOAL!!! FUCK YOU IF YOU DARE PUT ALABAMA IN!!! THE SEC IS HITLER!!!", to that point that the college football playoff committee probably feared their conference room would be set on fire if they gave Alabama the nod. 

But one thing is unequivocally true – the media has a major impact on the way poll makers vote. They impact the way the selection committee seeds the playoffs. ESPN might be the single biggest entity with the strongest voice. They're probably able to steer the conversation better than anyone else. But FOX has a contract with the Big Ten too. Each fan base has their own army of voices on the internet advocating for their teams. It's gotten to the point where it would be irresponsible for Curt Cignetti to not get on a mic and talk shit about how great his team is, how Indiana is being treated unfairly by the media, how they're better than whatever SEC team they're being compared to at the time... because whether or not he even believes what he's saying, the voters are 100% influence by whatever the prevailing college football narratives are. 

Which is really fucking stupid. You can't help but wonder if the members of the selection committee are truly the best "ball knowers" we have to offer. We clearly know the AP voters aren't.

But we live in an era where any human being can watch any D1 college football game they want from the comfort of their couch. That used to not be the case. We used to rely on media members and boots-on-the-ground beat writers. But nowadays, there's no way college football media personalities who work for major networks all Saturday long, or voters who are responsible for attending games and covering a specific team for 5-6 hours every Saturday, are watching as much football as the Liam Blutman's of the world. Sure they can go back and watch the games on their own time. But are they ALL really doing that? When they could just as easily watch a quick highlight, and then through social media & word-of-mouth get a general idea of how good the general public thinks teams are? 

I can't say for sure. But there's a guy on the selection committee named Troy Dannen. He's currently the AD for the University of Nebraska. Another member is Baylor's AD, Mack Rhoades. Those are busy jobs. Maybe they really do have time to sit down and watch all the college football in the world every weekend. And carve out time to watch games they missed during the week. But you can't help but wonder if those people are really best suited for that job, when there's others out there (who don't have a direct financial interest in the teams their voting on) who will be watching and evaluating college football until their eyes bleed whether they have a vote or not. 

Narratives are a huge part of college football, and the major media companies play a huge role in steering them. Since college football is a sport where we've decided a room of people voting on "who's the best team", is the best way of deciding who's best… that gives the media SO MUCH power. So if media members are incentives to talk about teams they have contracts with… that's pretty fucking ridiculous when you think about it. 

P.S. How about Joel Klatt just completely ignoring what Cignetti said and moving on to a new topic? I went and watched the interview to double check that's what happened, and it absolutely was. Good job, Joel. Way to prove his point and quickly move off the most interesting thing Cignetti gave you that whole interview.