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It's very clear there is a bias that ESPN has towards the east coast. There are many examples of it, but the most obvious is their coverage of the Big East/ACC conference tournaments. They show most, if not every game in the tournament. They do not show the SEC tournament, the Pac 10 tournament... so there bias is obvious.

The most clear bias, though, is towards Duke. There isn't a broadcast Dick Vitale has where he doesn't mention the Blue Devils, whether it's related or not. And, while he is a huge advocate for the sport and a great ambassador for college basketball, there's no room for that kind of favoritism.

For example, after Gerald Henderson of Duke broke Tyler Hansborough's nose in their final game against UNC, he was suspended for the next game. The next game Duke played against NC State, they showed Gerald Henderson in the stands in street clothes no less than 3 times. Regardless of your personal feelings about whether or not it was intentional, the refs believed it was, he was ejected and his punishment was to be shown on TV countless times the next time his team was on TV? I understand showing him once, but repeated times is useless- regardless of how he could have impacted his teams's performance. I guess he should have thought about that when he went up for that rebound with such malice and was subsequently suspended.

I understand that channels have contracts with certain conferences. While the ACC/Big East gets plenty of nationwide game coverage on ESPN, I know it is difficult to see teams like Arizona/UCLA and so forth on the east coast. Recruits know this, it is clearly an advantage. If you're 18, you want to go to a school that's on TV and on nationwide.

Learn more about this author, Holly Freeland.
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