Friday, October 05, 2007

ESPN's Clintonian Semantics

Just caught the end of a preview for tomorrow's game against LSU on the Worldwide Leader. At the end of the clip, which features sound bytes from Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow, and the talking head (Neil Everett) says that LSU is ranked number 1 and that that's bad news for the Gators because they have never beaten a top ranked team in the regular season. To emphasize, he then adds "I said never!"

I was taking in what the announcer said when I realized the trick. That little addition of two words "regular season". Of course the Gators have beaten a top ranked team. They've done it twice when it mattered most. Not in the regular season, but in a bowl game that would make the Gators mythical national champions. If the Gators had NEVER beaten a top ranked team you could argue that there is a tradition of choking in Gainesville. So what exactly does that statement about never beating a top ranked team in the regular season mean?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... wasn't FSU ranked #1 when they came into the Swamp and lost in 1997. Guess we can't count on ESPN to do their research.

Mergz said...

Best thing I heard on ESPN last night was Fowler's comment when the other two tools were "shocked!" that Illinois, unranked, could be favored over Wisconsin.

Fowler - "Vegas doesn't care about rankings".

Anonymous said...

Also, tOSU was ranked #1 heading into the National Championship last year; yes indeed, ESPN doesn't do their research - that, or they enjoy continuing to give the Gators short shrift.