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ButlerHomer wrote:

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Why was he fired? I always enjoyed his work and his stuff on ESPN.com introduced me to his website.

According to a friend who has an internship doing college basketball research up there, the official reason was ESPN couldn't afford to pay Hubert, Digger, Bilas, Andy Katz, Dick Vitale, Fran Fraschilla and Pat Forde (who also does pigskin coverage) during a recession. I would say they should have just gotten rid of Jay Bilas and Digger Phelps but I don't work in Bristol and after this incident I'm rather glad I don't. My friend said it took him two seconds to figure out why those who work there call it a campus. Apparently, everyone there behaves like they never graduated.
He also told me that those who run ESPN.com believed most of his best writing went to midmajority and not ESPN. The World Wide Leader never would have fired him for that it just made it easier. The straw the broke the camel's back was the story he posted on midmajority about his impending dismissal. Self-fulfilling prophecy or just incredible irony there, take your pick.
Either way, Dana O'Neil does some coverage of the midmajors and Andy Katz will likely do a few stories about our Bulldogs since we are ranked so high, but basically ESPN covers what will get people to watch TV, listen to radio, visit their website or subscribe to their magazine. Unfortunately, more people watch, listen to and read about Kentucky, Indiana, Duke, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina et cetera. For most, college basketball and football are nothing but NFL and NBA minor leagues; figuring out who is eventually going to get paid to play. Finally, and maybe this is the biggest reason of all, Kyle works in an incredibly broken system of journalism in which people are no longer willing to pay for information. That's a whole other story, but let's be honest all of these had something to do with the firing of the best writer ESPN ever had.