| Pittsburgh, PA Tuesday December 2, 2008 |
| |
|
News Sports Lifestyle Classifieds About Us |
 |
|
|
|
|
   
|
Finder: Pitt football appreciated by ESPN The Big Picture Thursday, October 26, 2000 By Chuck Finder, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
A member of the Bristol, Conn., branch of the University of Pittsburgh Football Fan Club is on the telephone. His name is Dave Brown. No, not the New York Giants quarterback who once battled Kent Graham for a job. This is the Dave Brown who holds the exalted title of ESPN Director of Brand Management, which, if you work on a cattle ranch, means you're the guy with the hot poker and the angry beef-on-a-hoof.
At the headquarters of the four-letter cable network, Brown handles college football programming, and he scorches a big thumbs up alongside the Panthers' collective posterior. With a little ESPN trademark underneath.
"This year, for sure, they're having a very successful season and they've definitely earned the right to be on," Brown was saying yesterday, his network already securing the North Carolina-Pitt fray on Nov. 4 for ESPN2 and salivating over that unscheduled Pitt-Miami clash a week later. "For instance, the Syracuse game [Oct. 7] was on the list, but it wasn't a definite. Pitt played their way on because they were undefeated [then 4-0].
"The North Carolina game, the same idea. They won't be any worse than 5-2 for that game." Brown was referring to the Panthers' CBS-televised date in between, Saturday at Virginia Tech. "If they were 0-7, they wouldn't be on. But since they'll be 5-2 or 6-1 at best, they'll be on."
The cable network long has appreciated Pitt. The team has been on its air 38 times, winning 14 times, tying once and losing all four instances on the Deuce. Even during the recent lean years, the 1992-1996 period between winning records, the Panthers were on ESPN 10 times -- an average of twice per losing season. They were on 20 times during the past decade, when only once were they a bowl team.
"Notre Dame, Penn State. ... we just had some big, big Pitt football games," Brown continued. "Certainly, their national reputation for excellence in football hasn't gone away. And I think Walt's done a great job bringing the program back."
Coach Walt Harris' teams are so telegenic, they are tying school-appearance records. Pitt went on the various ESPNs five times last season and on TV somewhere nine times, both highs. Sure, offense is part of it. TV types love scoring. Brown said: "We realize, hey, that they do have a passing offense. But the great thing about ESPN over the years is, we're able to do a good job following the story. When there's a developing story like the Panthers, we can really adapt our schedules to get them on the television."
The way Brown looks at it, somebody -- either CBS or ESPN -- will broadcast that Pitt-Miami game. Even if Pitt were to lose the next two televised weeks, "that's not necessarily going to take the Miami game out of the mix, certainly not from our vantage point.
"And I think we'll see them in one of our bowls at the end of the year."
Program notes
Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com
|
||||
Back to top  E-mail this story  | |||||
|
Search | Contact Us |
Site Map | Terms of Use |
Privacy Policy |
Advertise | Help |
Corrections |
|||||
We're No. 2. Pittsburgh finished second among NFL markets last weekend, the Browns-Steelers telecast getting nosed out by Buffalo's Bills-Vikings, 38-37.