ESPN Promotes Final Caitlin Clark Home Game At Iowa By Using Iowa State Logo Over Her Photo
The biggest sensation in the history of women's college basketball – Caitlin Clark – played her final home game at Iowa on Sunday afternoon -- a 93-83 win over Ohio State. Although Clark and the Hawkeyes' journey didn't end Sunday – they still have the Big 10 tournament and NCAA Tournament – the rest of their games will be played at neutral sites.
Clark had been chasing the NCAA all-time scoring record, men's or women's, after already setting the women's record. And, she broke Pete Maravich's record on Sunday against Ohio State after scoring her 3,668th career point with a free throw near the end of the first half.
Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark warms up before the game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
(Jeffrey Becker/USA TODAY Sports)
Practically every sports fan in the country is familiar with Clark thanks to her time with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Except, some graphics producer or operator at ESPN might not know the difference between Iowa … and Iowa State.
That's certainly how it looks after the network aired a Caitlin Clark promo -- prior to the Ohio State matchup -- that featured the Iowa State Cyclones logo instead of the Iowa Hawkeyes logo. Plus, no one else caught the mistake before it made the air.
Brutal.
It's important to note that this was a PRE-PRODUCED video. This wasn't a simple mistake made in the moment. This mistake was made beforehand and not one person realized it. That massively raises the level of incompetence.
This is the kind of thing that happens when a company decides that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are more important than, you know, ability, experience and knowledge.
ESPN hired me in 2012 after I graduated from college. There was a rigorous interview process that included many, many questions about my sports knowledge. In fact, for some production assistants, ESPN literally had a sports test that prospective employees had to take to make sure they had at least a certain level of sports knowledge.
They got rid of that, though. Why? Because it helped eliminate too many "diverse" candidates. The edict from upper management was clear: diverse candidates did not need to have the sports knowledge that the company previously required of its new hires. It was far more important that new hires checked a box based on their skin color or gender than needing to know how many strikes are needed for a strike out.
This became clear in the workplace, too. Before I left ESPN, I witnessed several new PAs in the radio department, unable to identify in which cities some MLB teams play. I heard one of them ask, "Wait, who's Aaron Rodgers?"
Those are true stories. I also recently told a story on Dan Dakich's OutKick show, "Don't At Me" about non-white employees receiving preferential treatment at ESPN.
It's not surprising that several employees at ESPN didn't realize that the Iowa State logo isn't the Iowa logo.
ESPN did this to itself, and the leaders have no one to blame but themselves.