ESPN graphic shows CFB team had fewer losses overall than in conference

During ESPN 2’s broadcast of Friday night’s college football game between Rice and Memphis, it was hard to ignore a mistake in one of the graphics.

When watching a college football game that doesn’t involve an independent team, two records, overall and conference, will be displayed for each team. The conference record will usually be listed after the overall mark and will be put in parentheses.

The Owls, who have not had a great season, went into the game at 3-6 overall and 2-3 in American Athletic Conference play. Things have gone better for the Tigers in 2024, as they entered the game at 7-2 overall.

Conference play, though, has been tougher on Memphis who, according to the same graphic, came into the game at 3-3 in conference play.

Something looks slightly off here. https://t.co/TrFiOL0Lfj

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 9, 2024

Of course, whoever put the graphic together made a slight error. Memphis’ overall record coming into the game was correctly identified as 7-2. That said, the Tigers did not have a 3-3 conference record, as having fewer losses overall than in conference is mighty difficult to accomplish.

That mistake was fixed later in the game and Memphis’ records — both overall (7-2) and conference (3-2) — were displayed correctly.

The mistake was fixed to show Memphis’ correct record. https://t.co/8JiuArJlKo pic.twitter.com/g3OwMWq7zf

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 9, 2024

The Tigers went on to win the game, moving to 8-2 overall and 4-2 in AAC games.

[Photo Credit: ESPN 2]