Mark May (Blew 5 guys at Pitt)

[zincfinger]

Maybe you didn't see the connection between "72-0" and "Who did Mark May play for?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Ohio_State_Buckeyes_football_team. Ohio State played Pitt on 9/21/96 (I believe that was the last time they played each other), and won 72-0. On top of that, the score was CLOSER than the game was, as Cooper announced at halftime that he would have the Buckeyes throw any more passes. They didn't, and still continued to score points (though only 20 points in the second half), including a punt return for a touchdown with only 8 players on the field (7 blockers plus 1 returner).

It seems to me there almost has to be another reason for May's obvious dislike of OSU, though. Even if you credit May with being petty enough to hold a 15+ year public grudge over one game, which I do, OSU is not the only team to have annihilated Pitt since Mark May played there. While 72-0 is probably pretty rare, in that very same year, Pitt lost 60-6 to ND, 55-7 to 'Cuse, and 45-0 to Miami. That Pitt team was horrid, and proven so multiple times. So, of the probably dozen or more teams who have obliterated Pitt over the years (few to the tune of 72-0, but many pretty close), what makes OSU so special in Mark May's fevered mind?

 

[Buckeye86]

what makes OSU so special in Mark May's fevered mind?

a truly elite college football program that is a sure ratings booster for television and radio talking heads to discuss

 

[Bleed S & G]

It seems to me there almost has to be another reason for May's obvious dislike of OSU, though. Even if you credit May with being petty enough to hold a 15+ year public grudge over one game, which I do, OSU is not the only team to have annihilated Pitt since Mark May played there. While 72-0 is probably pretty rare, in that very same year, Pitt lost 60-6 to ND, 55-7 to 'Cuse, and 45-0 to Miami. That Pitt team was horrid, and proven so multiple times. So, of the probably dozen or more teams who have obliterated Pitt over the years (few to the tune of 72-0, but many pretty close), what makes OSU so special in Mark May's fevered mind?

I really don't think it's that far-fetched that it's an ESPN agenda. Between the Feldman Dan Patrick interview and the B1G Network story with Delany and the bottle of bubbly..

 

[Woody1968]

It is clearly an act at this point. It's going to continue as long as people pay attention and complain.

 

[zincfinger]

[May makes a point of castigating OSU because they are] a truly elite college football program that is a sure ratings booster for television and radio talking heads to discuss

Sure they are, but they're not the only one. There are probably close to a dozen programs with tradition, fanbases, and success at least in the ballpark of OSU's.

I really don't think it's that far-fetched that it's an ESPN agenda. Between the Feldman Dan Patrick interview and the B1G Network story with Delany and the bottle of bubbly..

I think it's very plausible that ESPN is employing a tactic of trying to diminish the BigTen, and particularly OSU as the most prominent BigTen power in recent years. But Mark May's obvious dislike of OSU seems to me more personal, and greater in magnitude, than the general fare on that network. Further, May's anti-OSU clown routine goes back at least to 2002, and as such it predates the creation of the BigTen Network (and the bottle of bubbly episode) by several years. I can see ESPN wanting to diminish OSU as a business strategy, due to the BTN. But May seems to harbor a personal animosity that has nothing to do with the BTN.

It is clearly an act at this point. It's going to continue as long as people pay attention and complain.

It probably is an act, at least in part. But I think there are other schools that Mark May could make a point of regularly disparaging and get a reaction similar to whatever the reaction is when he puts on his clown nose and trots out the "OSU is overrated. And dirty. And they smell" routine. I don't especially care, and I rarely watch the program that Mark May is on, but it seems to me that there is likely some other reason, aside from OSU having once embarrassed Pitt on the field, and OSU being an elite program that has enjoyed remarkable success of late, why he has chosen to make them the focus of his clown routine.

 

[BUCKYLE]

Further, May's anti-OSU clown routine goes back at least to 2002, and as such it predates the creation of the BigTen Network (and the bottle of bubbly episode) by several years. I can see ESPN wanting to diminish OSU as a business strategy, due to the BTN. But May seems to harbor a personal animosity that has nothing to do with the BTN

He was the Buckeye antagonist in 2002. He was the hater while Trev was the...wait...he was a cock smooch too. WTF.

Uh..hmm...I think May went off in 2002, got a shit ton of nasty, threatening emails, then decided he was going to have job security forever. So he started...and never quit...bashing the Bucks. Ratings climbed, he gets paid.

So fuck him, I'm not paying his salary any longer..and haven't for awhile.

 

[zincfinger]

He was the Buckeye antagonist in 2002. He was the hater while Trev was the...wait...he was a cock smooch too. WTF.

Uh..hmm...I think May went off in 2002, got a shit ton of nasty, threatening emails, then decided he was going to have job security forever. So he started...and never quit...bashing the Bucks. Ratings climbed, he gets paid.

So fuck him, I'm not paying his salary any longer..and haven't for awhile.

That explanation probably makes the most sense to me, but at the same time, as you point out, Trev Alberts was at least as enthusiastic a rider in 2002 on the "OSU is overrated and a truly good team as going to prove it any second now" train as Mark May was, and where did that get him? On some internet-only "network" whose name I, like everyone else, can't remember on the rare occasion that I think about it. I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm skeptical of broadcasters' career enhancement/attention garnering being truly and uniquely tied to an "I hate Ohio State" performance. And even if it is, if I were Mark May in that situation, I'd think, "Hey, I profited from making a point of consistently disparaging one program. Why don't I add another one to my portfolio of public dislikes and see if that doubles my profit?". But he hasn't, and it's not because of stupidity; even a rat in a Skinner Box can respond to positive stimulus.

 

[Woody1968]

That explanation probably makes the most sense to me, but at the same time, as you point out, Trev Alberts was at least as enthusiastic a rider in 2002 on the "OSU is overrated and a truly good team as going to prove it any second now" train as Mark May was, and where did that get him? On some internet-only "network" whose name I, like everyone else, can't remember on the rare occasion that I think about it. I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm skeptical of broadcasters' career enhancement/attention garnering being truly and uniquely tied to an "I hate Ohio State" performance. And even if it is, if I were Mark May in that situation, I'd think, "Hey, I profited from making a point of consistently disparaging one program. Why don't I add another one to my portfolio of public dislikes and see if that doubles my profit?". But he hasn't, and it's not because of stupidity; even a rat in a Skinner Box can respond to positive stimulus.

Trev was fired for reasons unrelated.

 

[zincfinger]

Trev was fired for reasons unrelated.

Of course he was. Nobody at ESPN is going to be fired for being excessively anti-Ohio State. My point, on that particular issue, is that being overtly anti-Ohio State didn't protect him; didn't provide job security. At least not enough to protect him from whatever it was he was fired for.

 

[Zurp]

At least not enough to protect him from whatever it was he was fired for.

IIRC, the public story was that he wanted to be a rock star like Herbstreit and Corso. He refused to go to work until they bumped him up to that status, and they fired him for it.

 

[BUCKYLE]

That explanation probably makes the most sense to me, but at the same time, as you point out, Trev Alberts was at least as enthusiastic a rider in 2002 on the "OSU is overrated and a truly good team as going to prove it any second now" train as Mark May was, and where did that get him? On some internet-only "network" whose name I, like everyone else, can't remember on the rare occasion that I think about it. I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm skeptical of broadcasters' career enhancement/attention garnering being truly and uniquely tied to an "I hate Ohio State" performance. And even if it is, if I were Mark May in that situation, I'd think, "Hey, I profited from making a point of consistently disparaging one program. Why don't I add another one to my portfolio of public dislikes and see if that doubles my profit?". But he hasn't, and it's not because of stupidity; even a rat in a Skinner Box can respond to positive stimulus.

I think, in part, that it was personal. 72-0 personal. Then when he spouted off at the mouth, and Buckeye fans flooded his inbox with yo momma jokes, he got more fat and angry. It's a vicious cycle.

 

[swopes6]

Did someone tell this dumbass you don't HAVE to make field foals when you still win 42-0? And I'm sure he forgot to mention Bama's 5 turnovers. Serious douche.

 

[zincfinger]

I think, in part, that it was personal. 72-0 personal. Then when he spouted off at the mouth, and Buckeye fans flooded his inbox with yo momma jokes, he got more fat and angry. It's a vicious cycle.

That explanation makes as much sense as any. The nexus of the personal dislike resulting from an enormous bitch-slap of his alma mater, and and the attention garnered from ragging on a prominent program. And yet, neither bitch-slappings of Pitt nor CFB prominence is unique to OSU. Perhaps the nexus of those two things is somewhat unique, but not completely so. Hell, Notre Dame bitch-slapped Pitt nearly as badly as OSU did that very same year, and talk of ND (pro or con) is certainly going to generate a response from viewership. To my limited observation, "MayDay" doesn't make a point of putting on his curmudgeon clown nose for Notre Dame (or any of the other probably several programs who fit the combined criteria of having bitch-slapped Pitt, and being high-profile programs). Maybe he just happened upon OSU as a bete noir in 2002, and has stuck with it, or maybe there is some obscure, personal reason why he particularly dislikes the Buckeyes.

 

[Onebuckfan]

Even if he started slurping over tOSU he is still a piece of<Mark May>

 

[knapplc]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Honestly, how many times do you guys have to watch this tool to know what you're going to get? I haven't intentionally watched ten minutes of Mark May's schtick in the last decade.

You can't continue to complain about him if you're going to continue to watch him. At some point you either stop watching or admit complicity in the perpetuation of his/ESPN's agenda.