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01/31 2011

Urban Meyer Joins ESPN As Studio/Game Analyst. SEC Games In His Future?

Posted by Dan Levy.

Hot off the ESPN Press Release machine:

Former University of Florida head football coach Urban Meyer, who won two BCS National Championships in six years, will join ESPN as a college football game and studio analyst. He will make his debut Wednesday, Feb. 2 as a studio analyst during ESPNU’s 10-hour ESPNU National Signing Day Special.

As part of the agreement, Meyer will work a weekly regular-season game (specific assignment to be determined) and select post-season bowl games. He will also provide studio analysis throughout the year on ESPN’s dailyCollege Football Live program; NFL Draft, spring games; and bowl games, including during the network’s on-site BCS coverage.

In addition, Meyer will contribute to ESPN’s popular Saturday morning College GameDay Built by The Home Depot series (from his game site), make weekly appearances on ESPN Radio, and provide analysis onSportsCenter and additional ESPN outlets.

The life of a college football analyst is certainly less stressful than the life of a college football coach. Still a ton of travel, though. While CBS has a large chunk of  the SEC slate, it will be interesting to see how many games that involve one or two SEC schools — or Florida schools for that matter — ESPN schedules for Meyer.

On the one hand, Meyer has more intimate knowledge of the SEC players, coaches and stadium advantages than any other member of ESPN’s class of analysts, but he was just paid by Florida last year, recruited 75% of the talent and will always be linked to the school.

So it puts ESPN in a tough spot, considering it’s a pretty clear conflict of interest for Meyer to call games for Alabama, LSU, Arkansas and the rest of the conference. Heck, it’s even more a conflict for him to call University of Florida games. But what about the other Florida schools? Will FSU be happy to see Meyer in the booth for one of their games? How about Miami or even USF (note, they should be happy to get on national TV no matter who is calling the game.)

ESPN pulled Craig James from Big 12 games after his legal situation with former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach, so there’s a precedent set for analysts steering clear of conflicts, but it’s hard to get past the fact that nobody knows these teams better than Meyer. Thus, ESPN could be doing a disservice to its viewers whether they put Meyer on SEC games or not.

Certainly the brass at the WWL are aware of this and will have a plan for Meyer’s schedule that works best for the former Gator head man, and the viewers. In short it was a good, and obvious, hire.

(Photos via ESPN)

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Posted on January 31, 2011 at 3:47PM

 

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