Wake up call: Grobe "runs the gantlet" at ESPN

Head football coach Jim Grobe spent Tuesday in Bristol, CT interviewing with multiple ESPN outlets, including ESPN2's First Take, ESPN's College Football Live, ESPN Radio's Scott van Pelt Show, ESPN News' Overdrive and a chat on ESPN.com. Dan Collins writes about Grobe's experience here.

This whole concept of spending a day at Bristol is an interesting one, and it speaks to the power of ESPN these days. Not only is this one of the best ways for Wake Forest to get exposure, but according to the article, it's incredibly beneficial for Grobe to "make friends" with the ESPN talent and personalities so that they'll be more likely to cover Grobe and Wake in the future.

When you step back and think about it, that's really a pretty crazy concept. ESPN has so much power these days that the best way for a team to get relevant national media exposure is to send it's coaches and/or players to Bristol and buddy up to their talent.

We all know ESPN has what nearly equates to a monopoly on the sports TV market, but the whole thing just doesn't sound quite right to me. It's one of those things where you'd like to think that performance on the field is all that matters. I'm not saying I blame Grobe or the media relations staff for having him go up there and do it - you've go to cater to what works - I just wish it didn't have to be that way.

I've read Grobe's ESPN.com chat and look forward to seeing some of his other segments later in the week - it should be fun to see him in-studio at ESPN - but I look forward to the day where Wake can get the coverage it deserves just by performing on the field.

I think I'll have to stick to dreaming; that day is unlikely to ever come.