Allen Murray: ESPN owns their souls

Regarding the Jan. 30 Sports article “ ‘Green room’ gab has Williams seeing red” on UNC basketball coach Roy Williams and Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim’s dissatisfaction with ESPN: I agree with both in their comments about ESPN’s marketing of the “green room” and in their comments about scheduling.

However, when they have sold their soul to the devil, they forfeit the right to complain about customer service. Long ago university athletic departments decided that they would do pretty much whatever ESPN asked in order to chase the dollars.

These coaches command salaries that make them the highest-paid person on the campus only because of ESPN. They play tournaments in the Bahamas, in Hawaii and on the deck of an aircraft carrier – all on national television.

The days of games on Saturday and Wednesday night were also the days of games televised only locally (no national coverage) on Raycom-Jefferson.

They can’t have it both ways. If they take the money, they really shouldn’t complain about the person who handed it to them.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Allen Murray: ESPN owns their souls."