Joe Schad

I love Mark Schlabach's stuff. Could read Bruce Feldman all day. Ditto for Pat Forde. And Ivan Maisel.

But the other member of ESPN's college football writing crew is just awful, IMO. Has anyone else noticed Chris Mortensen stepping in and cleaning up Schad's messes, breaking both the Brian Kelly-to-ND story and one of the big Nebraska developments.

Earlier today, he said the 16-team Pac-10 was "imminent." Said it over and over. Now it's not.

How does someone get away with such awful reporting? He's not a great writer. Horrible on TV. And he gets more stories wrong than anyone on college football.

 

I would bet Schad has broken more college football stories in the past year than the rest of ESPN's college football team combined.

He clearly whiffed on this one, but he definitely wasn't the only one. Give credit where it's due. Chip Brown has owned this story from Day One.

 

Love Schlabach. Love Feldman. Love Forde, although if it's not related to college sports, his knowledge and coverage is lacking. Maisel is great, but doesn't break news.

 

Anyone notice that Joe Schad was really quiet through most of the conference stuff and then all of the sudden last week on Wednesday or so he started throwing shit at the fan like most reporters on this and hoping to get something right? Someone in the box in the sky whispered something in his ear to get his shit together...

 

Other than Chip Brown, almost every other college football reporter has done a piss poor job on this story.

 

Yeah, Schad has been out on a limb at least couple of times lately. The limb snapped both times.

 

And he's the worst writer on TV I've seen in a long time. I still remember his first appearance on ESPN. He was so nervous, I'm pretty certain he soiled himself on camera. It was painful to watch.

 

Chip has driven a lot of the coverage of this story and done some excellent work -- but he was on ESPN after the Nebraska news pronouncing the Big 12 "dead."
Not "in jeopardy" or "in trouble" or "in crisis".
Dead.
What about that?

 

That's a good point. He also reported that Baylor would be going to the Pac-10 and not Colorado. How'd that work out for him. That report was refuted almost immediately.

 

Mizzougrad, you have no idea what you're talking about with that crack about Schad breaking more news.

In fact, as someone who tracks this stuff with college football, I bet he's been wrong on more stories than he's broken. And he was wronger than anyone on this. Said it time and again — imminent, 100 percent, for sure, etc.

 

Chip Brown is simply repeating whatever he's told by the Texas AD that suits the school's needs at the time.

He floats the Big 12 to Pac-10 rumor to try and force Nebraska and Colorado out of the conference, then floats the "saving the Big 12" angle to make Texas look like the conquering hero. Meanwhile, the school winds up with a huge TV deal, still has the disparity in TV revenue that existed before, and looks like it's the one to thank for the Big 12 still being together. Not to mention there are now 2 less schools that Texas needs to share its TV revenue with. Oh and it can still start its own TV network.

It's actually quite brilliant by the Texas AD, but that doesn't mean what Chip Brown has done is great reporting. He simply repeats what he's told by the university. Congrats, that takes a lot of hard work to be a mouthpiece for one source.

There's a reason Rivals reporters often break news. It's because they get it straight from the athletic department and it stays on message. Same reason they get recruiting breaking news. Because it's positive news.

 

Well, it can take years to get the higher-ups to trust you enough to let you be the university's mouthpiece for positive news. ;D