The Evil Empire Strikes Again

BCS is coming back to Disney, but it won't be on ABC. ESPN has won the rights to the BCS and the national title game (sans The Rose Bowl) starting in 2011.

Add that to ESPN's lists of conquests, which also includes a 15 year deal with the SEC.

I kind of address why something like this is bad for sports when I talked about how ESPN shoved the lameass, not-so-exciting, did-anyone-other-than-old-white-guys-pay-attention-to-this Ryder Cup in the summer.

The same goes here. ESPN is slowly becoming a monopoly and is slowly becoming the place for sports and sports entertainment. I have no no problem of the "World Wide Leader in Sports." I do have a problem when it acts as if it (ESPN) should be the only place anyone can go to watch quality sporting events on television.

Again, it's all about the money. Sure, ESPN, in its own press release, sites that 86 percent of televisions in America have basic cable, which ESPN is on. But what about that other 14 percent? With the BCS exclusively on ESPN starting in 2011, it gets to charge higher fees to cable companies in order to carry ESPN, which in turn leads to higher cable bills for all of us.

But shouldn't everyone get to watch the biggest games of the year?

And even ESPN wants the rights to the English Premier League in the United States.

I am sure that ESPN won't stop until it has every major league signed to a deal that lets the network show their games.

In the world of television sports, ESPN is the Yankees. No, they're worst. They're the Yankees without the competition. Because ESPN has been branded as the sports network in America, other networks like Fox Sports or Comcast Sports have no chance of breaking through.

When the average American thinks sports they think baseball, football, cheerleaders and ESPN.

At least the Yankees lose every now and then. Maybe George Steinbrenner should ask ESPN president George Bodenheimer how the network does it. The Yankees could use the help.