Saturday, September 08, 2007

A Gameday That Doesn't Suck

I've stopped watching "ESPN Gameday" entirely this season. The show was always on the light-and-fluffy side of football analysis, and over the last three or four years it's just devolved into a morass of schtick, host posturing, vapid hype for teams with ABC contracts and outright homerism from the likes of Kirk Herbstreet and Lou Holtz.

Fortunately for all of us, there remains a department of the Worldwide Leader that hasn't surrendered to the crapitalization of college football on television, probably because that department isn't on television. I refer here and once again offer an unabashed plug to ESPN's College Football Insider podcasts, which are available for free at ESPN's website and from iTunes. The podcasts, hosted by the likes of Ivan Maisel and Todd McShay, and featuring regular guests like Beano Cook and Jim Donnan, are everything Gameday should be but isn't: Funny, detailed, entertaining, and chock-full of actual meaty information about the games of the week past and the week to come.

I've gotten into the habit of pushing an entire week's worth onto my iPod for driving around town, or while I'm on the road going to games on Saturday. I just finished listening to this week's Maisel-Cook show while mowing the backyard this morning, and it was better than anything Fowler, Herbstreet, or Corso have managed to bleat out, well, ever.

So turn off the tube, fire up your Pod of choice, and listen in. Trust me, it's much better than waiting around to see which mascot head a failed loser coach is going to put on.

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