What I am about to talk about will be heavily focused on MLB but it is also something that I also want to highlight in other sports too. I am sick of having the same big market teams force fed to us sports fans on national tv channels not only for MLB but other sports like NFL, NBA or even college every single season. I know I am not the only fan that has thought about this but I also am not saying lets get two last place teams every night either which ironically is partly why I am writing about this.
In MLB there are seven teams that get a lot of national tv games every year. Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, San Fransisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Saint Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves. Oh wait, I just named the lineup of the teams ESPN used to show almost every week when they had the rights to Sunday Night Baseball. The problem is over the last six years, only three of these teams have been perrenial contenders every year (Dodgers, Yankees, Braves). At least now the Cardinals are having a good year and the Cubs are in playoff contention for the second straight year. But besides an ALCS appearance in 2021 and a postseason appearance last year. The Red Sox haven’t really done anything since. The Giants really besides a flash in 2021 where they had the best record have been mediocre to bad since their last World Series in 2024. And the Mets, outside of the 2024 run that was powered by Grimace and the OMG Mets. All that followed after was a historic collapse in 2025 and a really bad 2026 despite having one of the highest payrolls in MLB.
Baseball needs to advertise their stars I do get that, but big market bias exists in that standpoint. MLB has gotten better at it, like just last night, TBS aired Dodgers at Twins cause it is Shohei Ohtani vs Byron Buxton. However, that game unfortunately lost some luster because Twins starter Joe Ryan was sick and had to get moved the next day so Minnesota was in trouble from the start. NBC, who just took the reins at Sunday Night Baseball has gotten somewhat better at advertising different teams. But they still have the same issue that ESPN had and other major tv networks still have. Feeding big market matchups that just are not good. Almost every year, the Yankees-Red Sox rivarly takes a lot of national tv windows, and while there has been past history it is not really a rivalry now. Especially with this year and Boston being an absolute dumpster fire. Or this past weekend, Mets and another team I didn’t mention in the Philadelphia Phillies had all three games on MLB Network, FOX and NBC. But why do I want to watch a Mets team with poor roster construction even with the payroll play a Phillies team that hasn’t been not performing to what we thought? Again I get big stars especially the ones that both of those teams have but that matchup is literally worse team wise than a Cleveland Guardians vs Tampa Bay Rays matchup.
I remember in 2024, FOX did a matchup between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. Milwaukee was leading the division when they weren’t “projected to” and St. Louis was a couple under .500. But my Dad and I were making fun of how John Smoltz kept on saying “The Cardinals will get better they just have to” meanwhile the overperfomlng Brewers who weren’t supposed to be good because they lost Manager Craig Counsell and then ace Corbin Burnes were getting little to no love. Maybe it was more both teams were playing at the time on how good they truly were.
The same thing I see in NFL and College Football and Basketball too. The Dallas Cowboys get a lot of the 3:25 FOX and CBS “America’s Game Of the Week” slots or primetime games. While they have had occasional success in the regular season, Dallas has won FOUR playoff games total since the 2009-10 season. And last year, Dallas had a 7-9-1 record which caused them to miss the playoffs for the second straight year. But that doesn’t stop them from starting 2026 off with the Sunday Night Football week 1 window against the New York Giants who went 4-13 last season. Again, what is so special about this matchup?
College Sports issue is the networks main broadcast partners get a lot of the attention. Yes, FOX airs a lot of Michigan and Ohio State games for college football. But they do also air some other interesting matchups like last season when they sent their Big Noon Saturday crew to do Iowa at No. 16 Iowa State. ESPN however has had more of an issue recently. Their College Basketball coverage has been known to be ACC biased, especially towards Duke and North Carolina and now since they signed a deal with the SEC, it’s affecting their coverage too. One of the big things that is really noticeable is how their flagship pregame show College Gameday has been. In College Basketball, they always go to Duke v UNC every year no matter how good any other game is or how bad both are. But the football College Gameday used to be known for picking some wild games like 2019 when they went to the Dakota Marker game between No. 1 NDSU and No. 3 SDSU in the FCS division. Now it’s just a lot of SEC games no matter how big or unique any other game is. And one of the most notable things I noticed last year was during the Conference Championship weekend. In the Big Ten Championship, it was No. 2 Indiana vs No. 1 Ohio State. All that was on the line was only the B10 chip, the No. 1 seed in the CFP, the potential Coach of the year race between Curt Cignetti and Ryan Day, and the hiesman race between QB’s Fernando Mendoza and Julian Sayin. You would think that would have nearly every eye on it right? Nope, not ESPN’s eye! Gameday instead went to the SEC Championship for the rematch between No. 3 Georgia and No. 8 Alabama. The Bulldogs blew out the Tide 28-7 in the game to win the SEC. Yes I know that is where their No. 1 crew with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit would’ve been but why send everyone to that matchup over No. 1 vs No. 2. I know that they also had Ohio State the week before in their game vs Michigan too, but again it is No. 1 vs No. 2 so I don’t really know what else to say.
As a sports fan I love uniqueness and parody, I know eventually that sometimes when a sport suffers from too much parody it might create a matchup that not many may care about. But a Milwaukee Brewers at Tampa Bay Rays matchup or a Detroit Lions at Seattle Seahawks matchup sounds a lot better then San Francisco Giants at New York Mets game or a New York Jets at Dallas Cowboys game.
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