Turn off your televisions and wake up for a minute. The sports programming being watched is garbage, and it’s time people recognized that.
ESPN, the channel every sports fan watches religiously and the network that changed the way society views sports, is losing its ability to produce quality content. The process began with laziness, and it ends with a mindset more focused on sports than dollar signs.
ESPN calls itself “The Worldwide Leader in Sports,” but the title is a bit misleading. For ESPN to be a leader, it would need competition to lead. Nobody challenges ESPN in terms of ratings and revenue brought in.
In business, when you lack any competition for what you sell, you become a monopoly, and that is exactly where ESPN is at this point. You cannot blame the network for its success leading to this point. The problems arose once ESPN attempted to handle the power.
The thing about a company that’s a monopoly is that at some point, it becomes lazy. When you don’t have anyone to outdo, you begin to lose interest in trying. ESPN has fallen hard into this trap, and it starts with its trademark show. 
“SportsCenter” is still a quality program, but I wouldn’t exactly call the content hard-hitting analysis. Whether it’s bringing celebrities on as guest hosts or refusing to talk about sports ESPN does not televise, the show no longer gives you the full story and focuses far more on entertainment. 
Entertainment is actually what the “E” stands for in ESPN, and the network is really taking that to heart with its shows. ESPN is no longer a network, it’s a corporation. And as a corporation, ESPN will air any program that can bring in revenue, no matter how mindless the premise. 
A classic example is “First Take,” a show where two personalities — usually Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith — jabber about the daily sports cycle. You can’t learn anything about sports by watching “First Take,” but you can learn how to win a conversation by being obnoxious. 
The show has gotten in trouble for discussing race and domestic abuse multiple times, but it doesn’t matter to the worldwide leader in sports. Some people will always be dumb enough to watch those morons yell at each other, and that is the only thing concerning ESPN. 
The network has made critically acclaimed content like its “30 for 30” documentary series, but the network only kept the series going for the ratings. If the Bassmaster Classic suddenly gained more popularity, it would have the event in prime time slots, too. 
The only way ESPN will change its ways is if upstart sports networks like Fox Sports 1 rise up. FS1 is only in its infant stages, but if it can get even close to ESPN, viewers may see a little more creativity in the programing.
However, it will be a long time until something like FS1 is as culturally ingrained as ESPN is currently. People wear T-shirts with “ESPN” and “SportsCenter” written on them, as if they support the corporation and its inane decisions.
What I fear most is that sports fans will begin to forget the difference between quality and trash. I’m afraid people will become so used to whatever crap ESPN spits out, they won’t notice any reason to be displeased.  
For now, all you can do is go home and watch a little bit of “SportsCenter” before going to sleep. Some of the highlights may intrigue you, and you might enjoy the top-10 plays at the end of the show. 
Just remember the reasons you’re watching in the first place. You should be a fan of the sports being shown, not the corporation providing them.
Tommy Romanach is a 22-year-old mass communication senior from Dallas, Texas. You can reach him on Twitter @troman_92.