Yesterday, CNN aired a “report” on Illini athletics that was universally ripped by both University of Illinois sports fans and Illini sports journalists.
That ripping was well deserved.
“The Lead with Jake Tapper” accomplished nothing but a regurgitation of what the Daily Illini published weeks ago and the theft of time away from our lives. Their segment was a pointless exercise that added nothing worthwhile to the discussion.
CNN reminded us why they’re the worthy and consistent butt of so many Jon Stewart jokes. Their final product looked as if it was constructed by following these directions:
1. Send somebody to Champaign-Urbana to shoot footage of some Illini athletic buildings.
2. Sit down with Illinois Athletic Director Mike Thomas and air clips of him espousing the same exact corporatespeak gobbedly-gook that you would find attributed to him in a press release.
3. Repeat everything that’s been reported by multiple outlets over the past two months.
4. Don’t publish any new meaningful revelations.
5. Waste Sarah Ganim’s talent; let everybody down who was aware of the elite level work she did on both Penn State and North Carolina athletics.
6. Claim that your outlet’s work was solely responsible for the University beginning a second investigation.
7. Hype up the whole production as if it contained something Earth-shattering. Keep bumping it back in the show due to irrelevant Presidential election “coverage.”
8. Again claim that you did something very worthwhile here, and at the same time give zero credit to the outlets that actually did the heavy lifting.
Yet it wasn’t CNN who saw their brand get damaged the most by this fiasco; it was University of Illinois athletics.
Yesterday was essentially much ado about nothing in the world of Illini athletics, but it did give us pause to realize how dismal things have truly become. It gave us an opportunity to realize that some kind of resolution is needed.
Preferably that comes sooner rather than later.
Big Ten football Media Days will begin three weeks from now and it’s time to for the school to look really hard at itself in the mirror and ask themselves- “what do you want the trending Illini news topics to be?”
You already know about the allegations being made against the head coaches in three sports: football, women’s basketball and women’s soccer. You already know about the $10,000,ooo lawsuit that’s been filed. You’ve heard the claims by former players of racism, bigotry, segregation and physical abuse.
While we wait to see if Illini athletics will win or lose in court, we already know the result in the court of public opinion. The brand identity of Illinois sports has been beaten badly. How badly?
Think about those football game last fall versus Nebraska, Ohio State or Washington. Or, if you prefer, how about the way Illini men’s basketball finished the season by not even showing up versus Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament or at Alabama in the NIT.
Let’s say Thomas, Football Coach Tim Beckman, Women’s basketball Coach Matt Bollant et al are somehow found completely innocent here and totally vindicated. (Not a realistic scenario, but indulge this idea for a minute).
What will the conversation shift to then? The outlook for the football team? Well, there are sports books who have placed the Illini season win total over/under wager at 3.
In today’s college football landscape, no high major program should win less than 4 or 5 games in a season and expect the coach to be retained.
How about football attendance?
How about Thomas’ “good” hire, men’s basketball coach John Groce? How’s that program doing?
Groce “guided” them to back-to-back non NCAA Tournament seasons. The last time that happened, 1991-92, it only was able to occur because the program was on probation.
If Groce doesn’t make the dance this year, he has to be dismissed.
When you add all of these Illini athletics failures into one depressing concoction, you realize there’s just only recourse left.
Burn it all down; and collect the insurance money. (Proverbially; not literally of course) It’s time to slash and burn the entire enterprise. Total tear down to preceded total rebuild. Thomas, Bollant, Beckman, Groce all must go; and the sooner the better.
Maybe CNN did actually accomplish something yesterday. Perhaps Jake Tapper’s show did provide an exercise in actual journalism. After all, news is supposed to help us better understand the world we live in.
That piece helped us better understand the current nadir of Illini athletics. We tuned in to see if the cable news network had the goods to blow the place up or not. Instead we realized that we’ve been staring at a steady but slow implosion all along.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook