The way conference networks cover their teams will always be critiqued for bias. In some ways, that means there’s no difference between a purposeful action and a coincidental one because they’ll always be perceived as the same.
Case in point, the way that the ACC network cut away from Saturday’s North Carolina-James Madison game moments before the Dukes dropped 70 points on the Tar Heels .
It was a brutal day for Mack Brown’s squad, who paid JMU $500,000 to visit Kenan Memorial Stadium. Despite putting up 50 points of their own, the Tar Heels got completely out-classed by the Sun Belt team, ultimately losing 70-50.
With a little over six minutes left in the game, the score was 63-44 and the Dukes were driving deep in Tar Heel territory. After almost scoring a touchdown on a play called back for illegal formation, JMU found itself with a 1st-and-15 from UNC’s 16-yard-line. It seemed probable that the Dukes would eventually find their way into the end zone.
Just as the offense approached the line of scrimmage, the ACC Network announcer told viewers “To watch the rest of this game, you can switch over to ACC Network Extra.” And with that, ACC Network switched away from this game for the start of Virginia Tech vs. Rutgers.