ESPN U – Its time for a little education

First off, I love the fact that ESPN is carrying more and more high school football games on national television. I was however surprised at a couple things. The game this week was a battle of two New York area schools - private school Christian Brothers Academy versus nearby public school, Corcoran.

In the first place, it was a HORRIBLE matchup as the 42-14 victory by CBA showed. The other thing that dismayed me was that the announcers seemed to know very little about high school football across the USA. This is despite the fact that one of them, Tom Luginbill, is from ESPN Recruiting. The comment that stood out the most was their love of the Hoover, Alabama team. They claimed that "Hoover is not afraid to take on the top teams," citing an Oklahoma squad and others on their schedule. I haven't seen them show their face in Texas - and as EVERYONE knows, THIS is the home of the best football in the world. The Bucs of Hoover may have a TV show on MTV, but lets see them try to hang with a Southlake Carroll or Lufkin squad.

In a turn of bad luck, or lack of team knowledge in scheduling for ESPNU, the game was a total blowout, and bad sportsmanship marred the entire contest. The "Christian" Brothers not only ran the score up, but did an onside kick when leading 35-0. This was in response to getting penalized after a player body slammed a runner out of bounds. The body slam started a brawl that included players, coaches, and fans and delayed the game for 10 minutes and injured one of the officials. The coach of Corcoran who was smarting from the defeat also acted unsportsmanlike when it came time to shake hands at the end of the game. He hurried past the CBA coach looking quite miffed... they did a shake in passing, but he refused to make eye contact and continued to show his disgust.

Nice job, New Yorkers - way to show the nation what you're made of.