Announcers Are Annoying

-When did it become a rule that if an announcer is calling a game, he's suddenly not allowed to give his opinion on who he thinks is going to win? Up until the last couple of years it never seemed to be a problem, but now whenever a guy is calling a game he refuses to offer a guess as to who will win the game he's at. Are we to believe he doesn't have an opinion? I'm sure it's because in some studio executive's head the guy has been talking to coaches all week and so he might have "inside information" that gives him better insight into the game plan. Yeah, that's kind of the point. Would it aid a person who was wagering on a game? Sure. But it would also make it seem like the guy knew what he was talking about. It's ok, we all know that people gamble on sporting events.

-The other thing that annoyed me yesterday was when an announcer seemed to focus on one thing and hammer the point home repeatedly. As a result, the people in the studio seemed to latch on to that same point because they are trying to watch 4 games at once and assume the guy at the game has a good grasp on the action. Only if the guy is way off on his point, now the people in the studio look stupid by association. Here's why this is in my head - yesterday as the Notre Dame/Purdue ending was coming to a close, Notre Dame had the ball 3rd and goal from the 2 with no time-outs. The announcers were convinced that the Irish were going to spike the ball and waste a down despite having plenty of time left on the clock. Purdue called a time out to make sure the right personnel was on the field. The announcers started ripping the Purdue coach, saying he gave Notre Dame a free down. Only the Irish were lining up with tons of time left on the clock so you have no idea if they were actually planning to spike the ball or not. I then had to listen to 15 more minutes of them talking about a scenario that probably wasn't even going to happen.

-About that Notre Dame game: Charlie, I like some gambling on 4th down. I understand that being aggressive is part of your style. But, when it's 4th and 10, you're using the unproven back-up quarterback and you're close to mid-field, take the delay of game penalty to give yourself some more room and punt. You were up 10, play the field position game.

-Next time Penn State wants to plan a promotion where everyone wears white tee-shirts, perhaps they should check the weather report. Just a thought.