It is rare that the obscure athletic programs at Portland State ever gain any of the national spotlight. But over the next few weeks, three prominent media figures may be watching to see just how the Vikings are doing. Should the Portland State women’s basketball team defeat their first three opponents this season–BYU, Binghamton and Syracuse–three of the talking heads on ESPN’s Monday Night Football set may have something new to discuss: their mutual distaste for Portland State.
Archie’s wry hook
It is rare that the obscure athletic programs at Portland State ever gain any of the national spotlight. But over the next few weeks, three prominent media figures may be watching to see just how the Vikings are doing.
Should the Portland State women’s basketball team defeat their first three opponents this season–BYU, Binghamton and Syracuse–three of the talking heads on ESPN’s Monday Night Football set may have something new to discuss: their mutual distaste for Portland State.
Each Monday evening, Steve Young joins the NFL All-Time leading rusher Emmitt Smith and host Stuart Scott on the sidelines for pregame, halftime and postgame reaction and analysis.
Young, a Hall of Fame quarterback, is prominently known as the man who replaced Joe Montana in San Francisco but played collegiately at BYU, the school in Provo, Utah is named for his great-great-great-grandfather Brigham.
Young was nearly converted to defensive back after struggling at passing. Turns out, he could sling the rock a little bit.
After the two Hall of Famers and Scott are done kicking topics around, they turn the airtime over to the three-man team of Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser, the trio that handles the play-by-play duties and commentary for MNF.
Tirico attended Syracuse University as another prominent media figure that took advantage of one the nation’s premier sports broadcasting programs. Syracuse has produced several of the voices of sports in Marv Albert and Bob Costas.
The third man of the MNF booth, Anthony Irwin Kornheiser, attended Harpur College, now Binghamton University, and roots on the Bearcats occasionally during his daily talk show, Pardon the Interruption.
Call it a scheduling quirk, call it coincidence but one thing is clear: If the Vikings are successful in their goal of having a successful preseason and winning the Big Sky Conference, they may dishearten half of the on-air talent for Monday Night Football in the process.
It is unclear if this trio of games is unprecedented, but I would venture to say that even with deliberate action, this scheduling feat would be hard to replicate.
What undoubtedly would be unprecedented, and I almost called head coach Sherri Murrell to see if she could arrange a couple extra games, is if the Vikings were somehow able to squeeze in a game with Youngstown State in Ohio, North Carolina and Florida before they headed back to the West Coast.
That way all six of the on-air personalities’ colleges would have a crack at Claire Faucher, Kelsey Kahle and the rest of the Vikings.
