ESPN Pulls Savvy Move With College GameDay As Battle With YouTube TV Hits Boiling Point

Today may just be a DOOZY in the world of the internet. It's a mammoth college football Saturday on the first Saturday of November, and most fans won't be able to watch any of it. 

I'm not one of them, because I don't bend the knee to any of these dumb streamers, but a lot of folks do. And they're about to be PISSED this afternoon. 

That's because ESPN/Disney and YouTube TV are currently fighting like a 20-year-old married couple over stuff that you and I don't know nor care about. I'm sure it's money-related, but that's the extent of my knowledge. 

Anyway, they're fighting, and YouTube TV recently DROPPED all ESPN networking on the eve of today's big day of college football. That means anyone who wants to watch a second of SEC football is shit out of luck today, because ESPN has all of those games and YouTube TV told them to piss off. 

Obviously, there are a ton of layers to this. Again, I don't really care about any of them. BUT, what I do find funny is ESPN utilizing all their big guns to put the pressure on YouTube TV. 

Stephen A. Smith, when he wasn't being a racist idiot on First Take, shilled for Disney. Greeny did. SVP did. And now, mere minutes before another big College GameDay, Kirk Herbstreit has bent the knee:

ESPN leaves no stone unturned 

NO!!!!!!! Herbie! Say it ain't so! Don't shill for ESPN. You're bigger than ESPN. You, McAfee, racist Stephen A. – you all don't need ESPN. Don't let them use you for THEIR dirty work. 

And that's what ESPN is doing here, by the way. They LOVE this little dispute. They're all in on it. You know why? Because they have a new fancy streaming service that they want me, you, and our poor mothers to all buy. 

They don't want you watching college football on ABC via YouTube TV. They want you to buy an ESPN sub, and watch it through that. 

And if you don't believe me, let's go ahead and check in on the last few posts over on the ESPN PR Twitter account:

Hilarious. Is that an all-time community note, or what? ESPN is just trying to lie to you about what you can and can't get at this point. Hey, YouTube TV customers – come watch the NWSL, the NYC Marathon, and some college basketball games! Sure, you need an ESPN sub to watch those specific events regardless, but that's just semantics. 

Amazing. I will say this, though: it's a SAVVY move by ESPN to make College GameDay available for free this morning, but then put all the games behind the paywall. That's the good stuff, boys and girls. You have to respect it. 

Anyway, none of this applies to me. I have black market streaming (allegedly) for $30 a month (allegedly) that gives me every single channel known to man (allegedly). 

And if you don't have that same thing (allegedly), that's on you.