NYT Pg 1, ESPN turned Louisville From A Commuter-School To A Powerhouse College

[Tugg Speedman]

This was the lead story in The New York Times on Monday (August 26), page 1 above the fold.

The story has tons of graphics, pictures and statistics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/sports/at-louisville-an-athletic-boom-made-for-and-by-tv.html?ref=sports

From The Story ...

Over the past dozen years, to feed its unending appetite for live football, ESPN has made Louisville Cardinals midweek games a mainstay in prime time. In turn, Louisville has made exposure on ESPN the centerpiece of a campaign to rise above its commuter-school roots and become a powerhouse in college sports.

“If it wasn’t for ESPN, we would be a fraction of what we are today,” Tom Jurich, Louisville’s longtime athletic director, said in an interview in his office on April 1 as the university savored its latest basketball success: the men’s and women’s teams were each on the way to the Final Four. The men went on to win the N.C.A.A. title.

 “We owe them so, so much,” Mr. Jurich said of ESPN. “They were willing to take a chance on us.”

Louisville’s ascent is a case study of how an institution of higher learning can become all but inextricably conjoined with ESPN, an institution of higher profits. It illustrates not only ESPN’s power to make kings among athletic programs, but how profoundly its presence can affect an entire university and its institutional priorities.

[Pakuni]

Wait .... Louisville football is a powerhouse?

[Coleman]

Wait .... Louisville football is a powerhouse?

Powerhouse on the level of Alabama, no.

But they will compete for the ACC every year and make plenty of Big Bowl games.

[Tugg Speedman]

Powerhouse on the level of Alabama, no.

But they will compete for the ACC every year and make plenty of Big Bowl games.

Sports powerhouse ... last year they won the Fiesta Bowl and Men's basketball.  Women made the final four.

If they does not qualify as a powerhouse, what does?

[Coleman]

Sports powerhouse ... last year they won the Fiesta Bowl and Men's basketball.  Women made the final four.

If they does not qualify as a powerhouse, what does?

I agree with you.

[Pakuni]

Sports powerhouse ... last year they won the Fiesta Bowl and Men's basketball.  Women made the final four.

If they does not qualify as a powerhouse, what does?

Louisville had an elite basketball program long before the advent of ESPN and, unless ESPN had a direct hand in the hiring of Pitino, the network has had no part in the program's success.

Even with last year's team, Louisville football is 40-35 in the post-Petrino era, playing a soft Big East schedule. Except for the four years when coached by Petrino, the program has no top 10 finishes and only three top 20 finishes in the last 20 years.

In fact, eliminate the Petrino years, and UL football has been no better since ESPN supposedly decided to give them more focus than they were in the years before ESPN supposedly decided to give them more focus. The numbers don't support a claim that UL's rise is a result of ESPN. The number do support a claim that Bobby Petrino is a really good college football coach (just ask Arkansas).

If you're argument is that Louisville's women's basketball program has improved because the football program is on TV more often, I'd like to see some kind of data to support that.

[MarsupialMadness]

I think the article is more about how the institution has grown - in terms of applicants, enrollment, academic prestige, etc - and how the success of the sports programs (and in turn ESPN) greatly aided in the transformation.

[Tugg Speedman]

I think the article is more about how the institution has grown - in terms of applicants, enrollment, academic prestige, etc - and how the success of the sports programs (and in turn ESPN) greatly aided in the transformation.

+1

Pakuni is focusing on the wrong metric.  The metric the article was talking about was number of times on national TV (where is Avenue MU??) and how this REGULAR exposure help transform Louisville.

The definition of National Powerhouse is number of times on TV.  See ND, they are a national powerhouse because every game is on NBC.  Record is of secondary importance.

From the article ....

“Louisville came to us and said, ‘We’ll play anyone, anywhere, anytime,’ ” said Mark Shapiro, a former head of programming and production at ESPN. Indeed, “anytime, anywhere” became Mr. Jurich’s motto in his early years as athletic director.

When he took over in 1997, the athletic department struggled on an annual budget of about $14 million and attracted little outside attention for sports other than men’s basketball. Today, the budget has swollen to about $77 million, and it will increase significantly with the move to the A.C.C. in 2014.

The arrangement has also been a boon to ESPN. The Cardinals’ prime-time games quickly became ratings winners, convincing others that playing at midweek, while unconventional, could be a blessing in the form of exposure.

“It was a programmer’s dream,” Mr. Shapiro said. “We already had N.F.L. on Sunday nights, N.H.L. and M.L.B. on multiple nights, Thursday night college football. We were all filled up. So I said, ‘How about Tuesday nights?’ They seized it, and over time their results have been spectacular.”

and this ...

 “When I see the University of Louisville on ESPN and getting the name recognition, it makes you proud,” said Dr. Lynn, who has committed $5 million to the project. “It is not just good to see and fun to watch. You feel very proud you are a part of that university.”

Athletic acclaim, of course, was never supposed to be an end in itself at Louisville. The idea was to jump-start a transformation of the university as a whole. These days, the 30-second advertising spots shown during ESPN telecasts of Cardinals games announce the university’s academic advances to the world: the students who perform better, graduate more often and more readily choose to live on campus. The 36 total Fulbright scholarships in 2010, 2011 and 2012 — more, university officials point out, than the total at Dartmouth or M.I.T. The swelling research budget and the fivefold increase, since 1998, in the number of endowed professorships and chairs. All of this helped by the donations that have increasingly poured in, about $1 billion since 2004.

[Pakuni]

The definition of National Powerhouse is number of times on TV.  See ND, they are a national powerhouse because every game is on NBC.  Record is of secondary importance.

What?
What?
What?

No, the definition of national powerhouse is not how many times a team is on TV, nor has it ever been.
You can't just create a new meaning for a word or phrase and then use it to defend a clearly incorrect premise.

You guys are completely shifting the focus of the story because you know you can't defend it's premise.
The nut graph of the story - i.e. the paragraph that explains what the story is about - is:

Over the past dozen years, to feed its unending appetite for live football, ESPN has made Louisville Cardinals midweek games a mainstay in prime time. In turn, Louisville has made exposure on ESPN the centerpiece of a campaign to rise above its commuter-school roots and become a powerhouse in college sports.

No mention of institutional growth, applicants, enrollment, prestige, etc. The story is laying claim that UL is a "powerhouse" of college sports because of it's relationship with ESPN over the past decade.
I think that's a pretty easily refutable point.

[Tugg Speedman]

Getting past the definition of "powerhouse"  here is another part of the story ...

“Louisville came to us and said, ‘We’ll play anyone, anywhere, anytime,’ ” said Mark Shapiro, a former head of programming and production at ESPN. Indeed, “anytime, anywhere” became Mr. Jurich’s motto in his early years as athletic director.

When he took over in 1997, the athletic department struggled on an annual budget of about $14 million and attracted little outside attention for sports other than men’s basketball. Today, the budget has swollen to about $77 million, and it will increase significantly with the move to the A.C.C. in 2014.

[TallTitan34]

Sounds like Louisville will be a great fit in ESPN's chosen ACC.

[muwarrior69]

Sounds like Louisville will be a great fit in ESPN's chosen ACC.

They will always be third fiddle to UNC/Duke.

[Sunbelt15]

Maybe ESPN could turn us into a powerhouse if we start caring about what they think. That's why we can never get the 5 star players, because no one here cares about ESPN's opinion except the 5 star players and me.

[GGGG]

They will always be third fiddle to UNC/Duke.

That's better than where they were.

[🏀]

They will always be third fiddle to UNC/Duke.

Forth FIddle, ESPN Still Loves Syracuse.

[GGGG]

Maybe ESPN could turn us into a powerhouse if we start caring about what they think. That's why we can never get the 5 star players, because no one here cares about ESPN's opinion except the 5 star players and me.

I'm trying to parse this and I'm having trouble.  So you think that MU doesn't care about ESPN's opinion...and that is why it doesn't land 5-star players?  What proof do you have of that?  Prior to this year, Marquette played on ESPN regularly. 

[Sunbelt15]

I'm trying to parse this and I'm having trouble.  So you think that MU doesn't care about ESPN's opinion...and that is why it doesn't land 5-star players?  What proof do you have of that?  Prior to this year, Marquette played on ESPN regularly. 

Yeah, but every time someone quotes an ESPN analyst, there's nothing but negative comments afterwards on this board. And we're constantly saying that new recruits are reading this forum to get the feel for the school. I'm a newcomer to this and my conclusion is that MU Scoopers are totally negative toward ESPN and it's analyst and their opinions. Don't let them say something negative but true about MU; that person becomes the biggest idiot or moron ever.

[GGGG]

Yeah, but every time someone quotes an ESPN analyst, there's nothing but negative comments afterwards on this board. And we're constantly saying that new recruits are reading this forum to get the feel for the school. I'm a newcomer to this and my conclusion is that MU Scoopers are totally negative toward ESPN and it's analyst and their opinions. Don't let them say something negative but true about MU; that person becomes the biggest idiot or moron ever.

I think ESPN is fantastic at broadcasting live sporting events.

I think most of their sports commentary basically sucks.

That isn't the reason we aren't getting 5 star recruits.  They don't care what some random 45 year old thinks of ESPN.

[real chili 83]

+1

The definition of National Powerhouse is number of times on TV.  See ND, they are a national powerhouse because every game is on national tv....

Good lord, turn in your diploma!  

I know you are an ND fan from the south side...but my god, a powerhouse?

I grew up in SB, so don't give me that touchdown Jesus crap.  Nothing but a bunch of prima Dona's that think their farts smell good.

Their rating last year was such a farce.  Refs gave them three games....undeniable.  Then Bama's outed them in a way that made even Lou Holtz's spinchter twitch.

An then, poor Manti Te'o.  ND wanted you to think HE was the victim.  Please....

Ya, I get a little wound up with ND crap. Denver, what say you?  

[Tugg Speedman]

Good lord, turn in your diploma!  

I know you are an ND fan from the south side...but my god, a powerhouse?

I grew up in SB, so don't give me that touchdown Jesus crap.  Nothing but a bunch of prima Dona's that think their farts smell good.

Their rating last year was such a farce.  Refs gave them three games....undeniable.  Then Bama's outed them in a way that made even Lou Holtz's spinchter twitch.

An then, poor Manti Te'o.  ND wanted you to think HE was the victim.  Please....

Ya, I get a little wound up with ND crap. Denver, what say you?  

I'm not from the Southside.  I'm a northsider, can walk to Wrigley from my house (and yes, a Sox fan)

The article called Louisville a Powerhouse, not me.  I agreed and likened them to ND, yes another powerhouse.

And, if I'm reading your comments correctly.  The definition of Powerhouse is Alabama.  Every other program is crap and should be closed down.

PS Domers farts do not smell, Check out LW's office after a Mexican lunch!!

[real chili 83]

I'm not from the Southside.  I'm a northsider, can walk to Wrigley from my house (and yes, a Sox fan)

The article called Louisville a Powerhouse, not me.  I agreed and likened them to ND, yes another powerhouse.

And, if I'm reading your comments correctly.  The definition of Powerhouse is Alabama.  Every other program is crap and should be closed down.

PS Domers farts do not smell, Check out LW's office after a Mexican lunch!!

If you are a cub fan, then we have some common ground!

Let's just agree on one thing.  ND sucks.

[Otule's Glass Eye]

Wait .... Louisville football is a powerhouse?

They won the National title in MBB, made the WBB F4, and have a top 10 football team with one of the top QB's in the nation.

[brewcity77]

They will always be third fiddle to UNC/Duke.

Disagree, because in the ACC, football drives the bus. UNC/Duke still suck at football and if UL can bring the football numbers up and field a nationally contending football program (which at least this year they seem to be doing) them they will be the ACC darling.

UNC/Duke is nice and all, but it's still a basketball game. ESPN cares far more about even minor bowl games than they do major basketball games, hence UL is in prime position to surpass Duke and UNC as the school ESPN really cares about in the ACC. And far more marketable than Clemson, IMO.