Hate to think about it down the road but I am really gonna miss Bill Raftery when he finally retires. I have always enjoyed his announcing of UK games. He shows no real detectable bias and always sticks to in-game discussion vs blabbering about ice cream and other BS that has nothing to do with the game at hand. He is so good I have zero idea what teams or conferences he pulls for. He is a class act and a professional.
CBS does it better
- Thread starter RACdad
- Start date
CBS is the king of college basketball. From the theme music and presentation to the announcers. ESPN is way more of a gimmick. It’s more like Entertainment Tonight, just a ton of crap thrown in with the “games”
I like everything about CBS more...except for Bill Raftery. He annoys me far worse than Jay Bilas or anyone at ESPN outside of Vitale.
While this is true, never forget that ESPN was the network that started showing all tournament games even if on a delayed basis. That’s when things changed for the better and eventually led to all games in live.
I imagine you’re in the minority on RAFTERY one of the best.
No way Raftery is worse than Bias. Raftery talks about the players and teams on the court without any blathering about Duke, Coach K, the ACC, the refs, the NCAA rules or ice cream.
I'll take Raftery all day and any day over Bilas.
The Sat. afternoon 3:30pm SEC football game not being on CBS will hurt the conference image. That game and CBS's efforts to paint the SEC in the best possible light were instrumental in building the "SEC brand" into what it is today. The SEC is going from being the premier brand on CBS to the flavor of the week on ESPN. Everything about the CBS productions is better. Sound, commentators, graphics, camera work...everything.
And yes, look for the Big 10 to replace the SEC on CBS pretty quickly. Then you'll have all those quality productions featuring OSU, Michigan and Penn State instead of SEC programs.
It was a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE move by the SEC to leave CBS.
And yes, look for the Big 10 to replace the SEC on CBS pretty quickly. Then you'll have all those quality productions featuring OSU, Michigan and Penn State instead of SEC programs.
It was a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE move by the SEC to leave CBS.
cBS has improved in their coverage since acquiring the tourney rights in the 80s. At first they didn't provide sufficient coverage of the afternoon games so as not the interrupt the soaps.
The other big thing that has helped them is packer retiring. An annoying little man he was.
The other big thing that has helped them is packer retiring. An annoying little man he was.
ESPN is going to have to step up their game in order to even equal the production level of CBS, especially in football.
A lot of ESPN announcers are just awful. Sean McDonough (sp?) is probably the best they've got. ESPN really needs to step up and get Gus Johnson on board along with someone like Tim Brando. Although, the SEC might blackball Timmy. After he called out the conference for scheduling FBS teams on the same day. LOL!
A lot of ESPN announcers are just awful. Sean McDonough (sp?) is probably the best they've got. ESPN really needs to step up and get Gus Johnson on board along with someone like Tim Brando. Although, the SEC might blackball Timmy. After he called out the conference for scheduling FBS teams on the same day. LOL!
I'm fine with that.
I hate his schtick. I don't think he likes us, seems to be depressed any time we're on a run. I don't think his analysis adds much.
The only real thing he has going for him, IMO, is that he's been around forever and people like nostalgia. And he's on CBS, which is generally a much better product. And he's generally next to a top notch play by play guy, CBS has plenty of those. Be it Nantz, Nessler, or my favorites Ian Eagle or Gus Johnson.
My God will somebody please smarten up and bring Gus Johnson back to March Madness?
Commentators are better and HD technology is better. Has been that way for a long time, 25 years or more.
I understand cord cutting is killing ESPN slowly and there are rumors that Disney is trying to find a buyer for ESPN. However, there camera quality is unacceptable for anything other then the “1” marquee game of the day like the UK/KU game. Anything on ESPN2 is not good. Buy some better cameras ESPN I re-watched the AU/FL game on ESPN3 and it was rough.
CBS/Turner has a mostly great crew that does the NCAA Tournament. I think Chris Webber left last year which is addition by subtraction. I'm not a Reggie Miller or Grant Hill fan. Seems like Grant Hill's catch phrase is "fun to watch!" Most people are tuning in because they enjoy watching.