Investigative Sports Journalism Buried At ESPN.com: Secret to SEC's Football Success Uncovered

I want to preface this by stating that I really struggled on whether to post this entry.  The colors of TNS like to think of this special webspace as a safe place to visit for competition, pageantry, and the occasional worship/mockery of Deion Sanders.  We have yet to really use it as a political stump, mostly in attempt to keep the mystery of our true color(s) identity intact.

We are, however, sports enthusiasts (we like sports) and fans with allegiances.  And as such a partisan, I could not help but scoff at ESPN.com yet again.  Whether it's letting YAHOO! Sports break all of very true allegations about ESPN LA's darling USC, or burying NCAA banned substance usage as the third fourth link on the offseason espn.go.com/college-football webpage, ESPN never ceases to amaze.

I want to make one point very clear: I do not think that some guy convincing a bunch of people to buy a spray that will help them grow deer antlers is newsworthy, nor do I think it realistically gave LSU or Alabama advantages over opponents.  The main thesis of this post, however, is three-fold:

1. It is being reported the nearly 25% of the Alabama players purchased and used a substance banned by the NCAA at the hotel of which they were staying awaiting the National Championship Game

2. After approximately 18 hours of this story breaking, it has found its way off of the ESPN.com homepage.  Exactly where the Ray Lewis story, documenting similar antler growing attempts, sat for 2 days

3. Were this any conference other than the SEC (the only schools that have been named so far)*, I have a hard time believing it would not be more readily available through ESPN's online content.

Thoughts?

To Read More on This Story, Please Navigate to:

-ESPN.com
-Click on Fifth Sport Tab in the menu bar, "NCAAF"
-Look in the news links on the right column
-Fourth link from the top, "Deer-antler seller saw Bama players use it"

Or Just CLICK HERE


*Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss are all implicated in the ESPN article.

Draft Analysis

TEAMS

Seed

Red 29.00

Orange 32.00

Blue 33.69

Green 35.31

Game Ranking

Red 29.92

Orange 30.32

Blue 33.62

Green 34.67

Poll Average

Red 29.30
Blue 33.27

Orange 34.52

Green 35.45

Game "GPAs"

Red - OVR: 3.42, OFF: 3.38, DEF: 3.10, SPT: 2.88

Orange - OVR: 3.33, OFF: 3.33, DEF: 3.15, SPT: 2.94

Blue - OVR: 3.27, OFF: 3.33, DEF: 2.92, SPT: 2.90

Green - OVR: 3.21, OFF: 3.27, DEF: 2.98, SPT: 2.71

QBs

QB OVR

Blue 87.80
Red 86.20
Green 85.93
Orange 85.19

QB THA

Blue 88.87
Red 86.27
Green 85.64
Orange 84.50

QB Buoyancy
(# of QBs w/ SPD>78; avg QB SPD)

Red - 13; 82.69
Green - 10; 84.40
Blue - 6; 84.00
Orange - 6; 82.67


HBs

HB OVR

Green 88.14
Orange 88.00
Blue 88.00
Red 87.53

HB SPD

Orange 90.94
Red 90.60
Blue 90.33
Green 89.07

*These figures do not include the at-large teams: Ohio, Temple, Arkansas St, and La Tech

If you enjoyed this post, get your popcorn ready...

Tomorrow: 1st round info
Thu-Fri: All-time stats

The Pageantry Of TNS

Another season is upon us
Freshmen arrive wide-eyed with dreams of future glory
While seniors prepare for their last chance at immortality
There are only a handful of these opportunities in a man's life
A handful of chances to distinguish yourself from the rest

It's on these fields where history is made
Where legends begin and heroes triumph
Traditions tell the story what of you represent
Of those that forged the legacy you uphold

When you come charging out of the tunnel, 100,000 people will be watching your every move
How you respond to that pressure is what defines you
These are the moments that reveal your toughness, your determination, and your pride

The roughnecks on the Sooner Schooner
Ralphie charging out of the gate
And Chief Osceola planting his spear

The time has come
Your time is now

Dreams Really Do Come True

1-60, PreDraft Bracket

How The Colors Voted

Heated Lab Sesh

Offseason College

A Look Back, Sensationalizationalism Pre-2010

Date: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 8:32 PM

I think this might be a good time to take a look back, reflect on all our accomplishments, and remember that it only takes one team to win the title. Perhaps no color better embodies this fact than Red. I went back and tabulated wins and losses as well as number of appearances in later rounds for each of us and every school with at least five wins over the course of our 4+ tournaments. It's difficult not to notice the fact that Red has the fewest wins, twenty fewer than Green and about half as many as me, but also has as many championships as me, Green, and Orange combined. Chalk it up to a 4-1 record in the Final Four, the same as UConn men's basketball. In our first tournament together, 2005, Red's 53 seed Missouri lost to LSU in the National Semifinal. Since then, he's 4-0. Green, conversely, is 1-5. In general, it seems like I have historically played well in the first round or two, Green has done a lot of damage in the middle rounds, and Red has been basically unbeatable in the Final Four when he gets there. And I think we would all agree that success in this tournament is determined not by wins and losses, but entirely by number of championships and perhaps to a lesser extent number of Final Four appearances.

Blue out.

Special Hello To Our Ukrainian Audience!

Offline.

Let's See If This Makes It Through The Night . . .

Are We Famous Yet?

EA Janitors To Pull The Plug On NCAA '11

The first day of #TNS' ambitious 2013 campaign was dealt a harsh (yet possibly more realistic) blow.  According to EA's service update web page, the NCAA Football '11 servers will be discontinued on January 11th, 2013, joining the ranks of predecessors past.

After a quick consultation between Green and Red where a 2/4 quorum met with voting rights, it was determined that the rankings, figures, and brackets for 2011, 2012, and 2013 tournaments shall still be drawn.  After at large selections have been made for all years, gameplay will kickoff first with the 2012 edition, in a race to beat the evil will of EA's janitorial staff.  The 2011 tournament will be played, in person, as life permits.  It shall be an ongoing endeavor, a constant reminder to every fan of Moms and Sensationalizationalism that our work at #TNS is never complete.

Stay tuned.

Turning It Up To 11

Slowly but surely, the gears are turning, worlds are colliding, and real football can distinctly be seen on the horizon. While the world is busy watching Alabama win another boring, uncontested title, work has begun on the 2011 edition of Thursday Night Sensationalizationalism, with Lord Tebow gazing on from above. The first wave of figures is on the way.