In Chicago, Phil Rosenthal notes former MLBer David Ross worked with the "Sunday Night Baseball" crew this past weekend, showing ESPN is still "infatuated with Ross as a celebrity." With less than three weeks' experience under his belt, Ross "seems to be a pretty good analyst, though having him do Cubs telecasts may not be a great test." He "still gets under the skin of Cardinals fans" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/6).
TALKING HEADS: In N.Y., Phil Mushnick noted NBC's coverage of Andy Murray-Juan Martin del Potro from the French Open on Saturday "delivered on television's tacit promise to deliver the best seat in the house." Mushnick: "NBC went with a triangle offense, surrounding us with three speakers who spoke to us after every point, and often during points. ... It's not that I don’t regard Ted Robinson, John McEnroe and Mary Carillo as credible speakers of tennis. Quite the contrary. But after every point?" Mushnick wrote, "We tuned in to watch, why make it a talk show?" (N.Y. POST, 6/5).
MOVING MOUNTAINS: In Las Vegas, Mark Anderson writes how the Mountain West Conference addresses its next media rights deal will be "critical to the conference's viability." Deals with ESPN and CBS Sports Network run through the '19-20 academic year, and under the current deal, each MWC school receives roughly $1M annually. That is "far short" of the approximately $20M that many Power Five universities take in. The inequity "creates a series of problems" for the MWC and other Group of Five conferences, "most notably recruiting against Power Five programs that can show off flashy facilities because of the TV money" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 6/6).
