Chip Brown: Expansion's Edward R. Murrow or Austin's Baghdad Bob?
by Husker Mike on Jun 16, 2010 6:00 AM CDT
in Conference Realignment
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One of the more amusing sideshows of the entire conference realignment saga is the rise of Chip Brown. Two weeks ago, Brown was best known as a former reporter for the Dallas Morning News. Then, on June 3rd, Brown broke the story that Texas and five other Big XII schools were considering joining the Pac-10. Brown's Twitter feed went from 1,800 followers to 11,931 at last count. Brown has been interviewed on radio stations nationwide and his reports have been featured prominently on ESPN throughout the last week.
Yesterday, Brown was one of the first to report that Texas was planning to stay in the Big XII, even as ESPN's Joe Schad reported that Texas was accepting a Pac-10 bid. Hours later, Schad changed his story and by the end of the day, Brown's report became reality as the remaining ten schools in the Big XII began to announce that they were staying in the Big XII.
But as the story developed, an undercurrent of criticism of Brown began to fester both in the blogosphere and in the mainstream media. Almost immediately, Brown began to take advantage of his new-found notoriety to promote the Texas Rivals.com site and his own celebrity. Free trial subscription offers were promoted via Twitter once or twice each day; other plugs revolved around promoting Brown's Austin radio show. As the story broke, he promoted his ESPN media appearances and even began to call out Erin Andrews and Kim Kardashian in his tweets.
And while Brown nailed the initial Pac-10 story and the final reclamation of the Big XII yesterday, Brown's reporting hasn't been always on target. Brown's initial report indicated that Nebraska was not in line to receive a Big Ten berth, a position he maintained for several days. He then indicated on Twitter that "Tom Osborne [was] not enamored with direction of pass-happy fball in B12 and prefers down-dirty B10.", though he tried to deflect that comment to Rivals' Texas Tech site.
Brown wasn't done trying to paint Osborne in negative light, calling him "disgruntled" with Texas and that the "Media has probably let Tom Osborne's view of Texas infect the perception of the relationship between UT and Nebraska. It's good at top."
Brown's criticism was strong enough that Osborne felt compelled to respond both on last week's radio show and in the Board of Regents meeting:
"We certainly don’t have anything against anybody in the Big 12. This decision is not going to be based on animosity, on petty jealousy. I mean, you’re talking about something that could maintain for the next 75 or 100 years. I mean, this is a big deal in terms of the University of Nebraska. This is a big deal in view of many other institutions.
"So you don’t ever make a decision based on personal likes, dislikes. And frankly, I get along very well with (Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds). I’m a great admirer of (Texas football coach) Mack Brown. And Texas has obviously done very well athletically and you have to admire them for that. So this is not a case where we’re somehow reacting to any one school, particularly to Texas."
Then last Wednesday, Brown erroneously reported that the Nebraska Board of Regents had voted to join the Big Ten, even though Nebraska media debunked the report. ESPN picked up the erroneous report and ran with it the rest of the day.
Brown certainly had two of the bigger breaks in the story, but he hasn't been the most reliable source in conference expansion. (Sorry, Timmy Rose.) That honor goes to Illinois' blogger "Frank the Tank" who not only corrected Brown by saying that Nebraska not only a lock for the Big Ten, but added that Nebraska would join for the 2011 season. Frank was first to debunk the notion that media markets were driving expansion by illustrating that a nationwide following really matters. That's where the whole "Nebraska to the Big Ten" momentum really got started.
The Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein has been a consistent good source as well. Dave Matter of the Columbia Daily Tribune might deserve even more credit for breaking the potential Fox/Big XII contract story last week. Seems that report got lost in the hoopla over the impending Big Ten invitation to Nebraska.
Truth be told, Brown's two stories might be best attributed to his sources in Austin, as the reliability of his information obtained outside of Austin has been questioned. In fact, many people now consider Brown to be merely the mouthpiece of the Texas athletic department, seeding the message that Texas wants you to know. The Journal-Star's Steve Sipple indicated just that last week in a particularly scathing tweet:
A little slow today on the Nebraska/Big Ten expansion front. Maybe UT-selected Texas media can invent a few tidbits to toss out
Has Chip Brown lost his credibility? Or has he enhanced his reporter's resume with the expansion story?
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I've commented before the Schad-Brown Twitteroff
… that DeLoss Dodds’ arm must have gotten pretty tired from making Chip Brown’s mouth move.
Nothing I’ve seen yet has changed my mind.
This whole situation reminds me a little bit of the movie "Wag the Dog"
where Chip Brown is essentially Dustin Hoffman’s character – by using various forms of media to spin the story whichever [Dodds] way. It’s this very reason why I think Chip Brown’s career will eventually die…
Surgeon General's Warning: K-State-Mizzou basketball may increase the risk of high blood pressure. Please consult your doctor prior to watching any of these games.
I have a little insight on this...
“Media has probably let Tom Osborne’s view of Texas infect the perception of the relationship between UT and Nebraska. It’s good at top.”
This tweet was literally minutes after he appeared on 1033espn in dallas oh which he said that UT officials scolded him about earlier comments he said about the relationship between UT and Neb. If you go to 1033espn in dallas, listen to the podcast on the 8th or the 9th. I actually doubt that there really was that much, if any, ill feelings between Neb. and UT regarding the power brokers. I would bet that the UT admin would honestly say that if put in that situtation, they would have acted exactly the same way as Neb.
Besides, most of those 1-11 votes were 16 years ago and in the big scheme of things, I am sure Osborne would have to admit that Solich and Cahallan had much, much, much more to do with Neb. football struggles than the rules, regulations, and structure of the Big 12, even if they weren’t good rules.
But yeah, UT fed Chip Brown info, not all of it was right, sure, but he knew the situation better than anyone else in the media.
The biggest
part of all his stuff that bothered me was his early report that Nebraska didn’t have a Big 10 invite, that the target was Notre Dame. I said at that time –
The biggest reason to believe it’s bullshit – there’s too much information in here for one guy to know.
I notice Dr Saturday linked to us as “”http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Headlinin-Kansas-accidentally-killed-the-Pac-1?urn=ncaaf,248851" target="new">haters". That’s fine with me. The guy did put Orangebloods.com on the map – if you’re one of those that believes the ends justify the means, then that’s all that counts.
If you’re not, then I guess you can be a hater along with us. Maybe we should make some t-shirts?
Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
Twitter!
cornnation@gmail.com
Oh sure, he was UT's lapdog,
But what person in the media wouldn’t want to be that guy? Very similar to what Big XII school not named “longhorns” wouldn’t kill to be in Neb. position right now?
Sure, we probably won’t get our TV revenue share in 2010 and lose out on $10 M or $15 M, but hey, freedom isn’t free.
It's interesting to juxtapose these concerns about Brown as a Texas lapdog
With Brown’s blow-by-blow of how the whole thing went down. In it, he actually hints that he found out about Texas considering staying in the Big 12 from outside the school “during routine calls to my Big 12 sources.” Hmmm…
But I think the biggest clue to Brown’s reporting process might be in his description of Bill Byrne’s disappearance to a family reunion on Saturday. Here’s how Brown describes the situation: “Suddenly Texas’ best source for information from A&M is in doubt. How connected is he to the situation?”
For most reporters giving this account, the fact that Byrne is Texas’ best source for information would be irrelevant: Forget that he’s Texas’ best source of information – is he your best source of information from A&M? But if virtually all your sourcing is coming via UT, then Texas’ best source of information is automatically your best source of information. Maybe I’m reading way too much into that, but I just found it…weird.
That being said, isn’t this kind of what all college football reporters were doing on this story? I’m guessing that the only reasons we weren’t seeing the Journal Star or World-Herald acting like Chip were that 1) Nebraska isn’t nearly as powerful as Texas, so its inside info didn’t have the ability to make things happen like Texas’ did; and 2) Nebraska officials were much more tight-lipped and much less cynical in their approach to the media.
Believe me, if either of those two papers were getting dished out valuable daily scoops by multiple sources at NU, they would’ve been running with it, too.
Jon’s right in that Chip didn’t do enough to sort out Texas’ arrogance from the actual facts, especially early on with its dismissal of Osborne and Nebraska. All in all, though, the UT folks made it really easy for him to take the lead on this story, but it’s not like he sat back and let this stuff happen to him – his scoops probably resulted from years of cultivating relationships with UT sources (read: sucking up, but that’s how it’s done) and then long days of chasing down leads almost 24/7. He worked for this one.
Your name
sounds both disgusting and intriguing. Is it an actual dish or are you simply a Packers and Huskers fan?
Northwestern Football - All games decided on the last play or your money back.
Probably an actual dish somewhere
But I’m just a Packers/Brewers/Badgers/Huskers fan.
by Cheeseandcorn on Jun 17, 2010 8:51 AM CDT up reply actions
but I can attest
that BeerCheese Soup with corn in it is awesome (if kind of unhealthy)
No one is getting Rubio's rights unless they pry them from our cold dead fingers.
by TheEvilProfessor on Jun 17, 2010 2:37 PM CDT up reply actions
Also
Chip Brown has also maintained that UT has had no contact with the Big Ten when we know that to be false. His Texas holier-than-thou savior-of-the-Big 12 article was despicable. And I had no ill feelings towards UT before all of this, and it seems as though that sentiment is echoed throughout the country.
In fact, the exact same scenario played out with the Big Ten (in secret) that did with the PacTen (virtually public). Each step closer to a deal, UT came back with more demands, eventually wanting a bigger piece of the pie and their own TV network from conferences that distribute TV and bowl revenue equally.
Eventually, a few Big Ten presidents had enough, got together, and decided not put up with UT anymore and agreed to vote against any concessions to UT ensuring no vote pro-UT would carry. Of course, Chipper won’t discuss this b/c it paints his only reason for being in a negative light.
UT wasn’t going anywhere. All of those negotiations with both conferences were to 1) see what they could get away with, and 2) use Chipper to tweet and write about it to threaten the rest of the Big 12 into giving over a bigger piece of the pie.
Anyway, welcome to the Big Ten, Huskers. As a Penn Stater I’m happy to have you guys. I was at both 2002 and 2003 games and always tell anybody that will listen that UNL fans were the friendliest, most hospitable I have ever encountered.
I had similar thoughts
but your post is a lot better researched and I had on a tinfoil hat:
http://www.doubletnation.com/2010/6/16/1520567/conference-realignment-chronicles
Go Raiders . . .
Double-T Nation
Each step closer to a deal, texas came back with more demands, eventually wanting a bigger piece of the pie and their own TV network from conferences that distribute TV and bowl revenue equally.
Eventually, a few Big Ten presidents had enough, got together, and decided not put up with texas anymore and agreed to vote against any concessions to texas ensuring no vote pro-texas would carry.
Now this is fascinating; is there any links that back this up, or is this information you just received from a source? So the Big Ten was considering texas, enough to talk about a vote, at least?
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