During Tuesday’s broadcast of the Russell Athletic Bowl, ESPN posted a graphic for an Outback-sponsored segment called Hot Topics, intended to highlight the major story lines from recent college football bowl games.
The graphic includes quick hits on three major bowl games and what happened. It’s the kind of thing ESPN inserts into its coverage all the time and you don’t even think about it. This time, however, the graphic commanded the attention of fans watching because one of the games listed didn’t actually exist.
That’s an effusive Mike Patrick saying that “Boise State held Northern Iowa to 31 total yards,” which is an amazing stat but mostly because it didn’t actually happen since Boise State and Northern Iowa didn’t actually play one another. Boise actually played Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl last week while Northern Iowa, which is an FCS school, ended its season back on December 12 with a loss to North Dakota State in the FCS playoffs.
These kinds of snafus are bound to happen but it’s the commitment from whoever prepared this graphic that really stands out. Not only did they say Northern Iowa instead of Northern Illinois but they also referred to them as the Panthers (and not the NIU Huskies) in a separate line.
Hopefully that department gets it together ASAP. Otherwise, get ready to watch Central Michigan take on South Alabama in the College Football Playoff on Thursday.
[Deadspin]
