Is ESPN Politicking for Alabama/Auburn Rematch?

If you venture over to the website of our friends at the 4-letter word (ESPN), you might see an interesting 1st page headline. (see right)

And while it's only a part of the content inside writer Gene Wojchiechowski's column on College Football's storylines this week, it raises some interesting questions.

The biggest is this: If you are NOT an SEC person, which few outside the Southeast are, does this sound like lobbying? Does it come across as portraying what would be best for ESPN?

To us, it kind of does...

But....if you actually READ Wojo's story, it's purely hypothetical based on the premise that Duke beats Florida State, Michigan State beats Ohio State and Auburn beats Missouri.

And while Duke is highly unlikely to beat Florida State, the other two scenarios could happen. Which means the headline is completely irrelevant. (note--we are fully aware of "hypothecial stories"---but remember, hypothetical does not equal real)

Read the full story from ESPN.com RIGHT HERE

Because by trade all of us here at OSG Sports are journalists, it's the headline that bothers us. While we and many others will certainly spend the time to actually read the story, not everyone will. And it will be taken the wrong way.

When the rest of the country sees Jay Jacobs on the Sunday SportsCenter saying: "To not have the SEC Champ in the BCS title game is...un-american and a dis-service to college football", aside from being laughably funny, is more or less an insult to everyone who is not an SEC fan or team.

The folks at ESPN have been and always will be willing to pander to whatever they believe will get more attention focused on themselves and create a debate where there should not be any.

It's what they are very good at.

That's why we wish they would have thought twice about making that particular subject their primary story of the day.