ESPN’s move off Houston-Oregon State in favor of Texas-Texas State reveals confere…
Houston · Oregon State · TexasThe Cougars were able to build up to a 26–7 lead by the middle of the third quarter, but back-to-back touchdown drives by the Beavers cut that lead to 26–20 with nine minutes… The stage was set for a fun ending and a potential upset of a ranked team, with Houston entering the game as heavy favorites over Oregon State.
But fans who had invested the previous three hours in the outcome of the game received a jarring bit of news when ESPN cut in to jump to coverage of Texas ' season opener against Texas State . Those who wanted to keep following Oregon State-Houston were instructed to shift to ESPNews.
There was one extra and uncontrollable variable working against the Oregon State-Houston game. A weather delay in the third quarter had forced a half-hour pause in game action, pushing it closer to the start of Texas-Texas State.
Still, the decision to jump was a pretty telling move from ESPN in terms of where the true power of the power conferences lie. A competitive game headlined by a ranked team in a conference that has a partnership had its broadcast cut short so that another conference could get to kickoff live.
KEY POINTS
- ESPN’s move off Houston-Oregon State in favor of Texas-Texas State reveals conference pecking order.
- Saturday’s college football game between No. 23 Houston and Oregon State took a dramatic turn after starting out as a potential blowout.
- ESPN moved off the Oregon State-Houston game after a TD + XP in a 26-20 game with just over 9 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter, in favor of Texas State-Texas.
- Texas is a marquee program, and Arch Manning is the biggest star that college football has this year, but their game against Texas State was set to be a blowout, with the Longhorns entering as 29.5-point favorites.