One Great Season is marking its one-year anniversary this week with interviews of several sports media personalities. Today's subject is ESPN college football reporter Joe Schad, who does in-studio work as well as sideline reporting for the Worldwide Leader. Feel free to suggest future interview subjects by clicking here.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

One Great Season: You've covered the NFL and both major college sports. It seems you've found a home with college football. What is it that you love so much about it?
Joe Schad: A lot of people would ask, "How did a guy from Queens, New York, end up covering college football for the biggest sports media entity in the world?"

It goes back to when the Orlando Sentinel sent me up to Gainesville. It was the first Division I game I ever attended. It was Florida vs. Florida State at The Swamp and it really opened my eyes. It was great to see 100,000 people descend upon one stadium, make a lot of noise and really cheer on a bunch of 18-to-21-year-old kids. There are many things about pro sports that are great, but they don't have the rivalries, traditions or the pageantry of college football.

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One Great Season is marking its one-year anniversary this week with interviews of several sports media personalities. Today's subject is Ryan Burr, who anchors "SportsCenter" and other shows on ESPN, and hosted the network's in-studio preview show before LeBron James' "The Decision" on July 8. Feel free to suggest future interviews by clicking here.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

One Great Season: You were part of ESPN's studio pre-show for "The Decision." What was your reaction when your superiors told you earlier that week that you'd be hosting that studio show?
Ryan Burr: Obviously I was excited, first and foremost. Whether I agreed with LeBron having a one-hour show for himself or not, I knew there would be a lot of eyeballs on that show. Just like a player who wants to play in the big game, as an anchor, my goal is to be in the biggest spots that are out there, and as far as I knew, that was going to be the biggest of my career so far.

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NBA Star Enjoys Media
Treatment Fit For A King

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I just got done watching the third and final part of Rachel Nichols' interview with the Miami Ego Machine and I have only one thing to say: Nichols, Jim Gray and Michael Wilbon all have failed with LeBron-A-Palooza over the last week. Which means, ESPN has failed in covering perhaps its biggest story of the year.

Is anyone going to ask LeBron if he thought he could have broken Cleveland's heart without the circus? And if someone does, will he or she follow up with some much-needed pushback when he gives his emotionless PR spin that he gives every time he speaks?

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MORE LEBRON COVERAGE

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+ THE SINGLE LIFE: LeBron James Hopes For Better Sex From Miami
+ LIST: Who Thinks LeBron James Is An Attention Whore?

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As Cleveland prints up Quitness T-shirts, the traumatized masses there and everywhere are calling James a traitor and hurling other similar insults. I'm a Cleveland native and as disappointing as this has been, my problem will never be with James' decision to leave. It's how he did it. Why hasn't he been pressed on this?

I don't forgive Gray or Wilbon, but I think Nichols is even more guilty because she interviewed LeBron -- along with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh -- after a few days of fallout. Surely she knew what needed to be asked after countless columns (particularly scorchers from Adrian Wojnarowski, Jason Whitlock and Matt Taibbi) ripped LeBron for his tragically misguided self-celebration. And she sat down with them for presumably much more time than Gray and Wilbon had with James on the night of "The Decision."

ESPN gets most things right, but sometimes the right questions are the hard ones, and they must be asked from time to time. If you're the worldwide leader, maybe think about asking the one question to which every one of your viewers wants an answer.

ESPN Moves To Extend Popular
CFB Show To Three Hours

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

ESPN made a great decision and announced Monday that the best program on its family of channels will expand from two to three hours.

Beginning Saturday, Sept. 4, "College Gameday" will kick off at 9 a.m. ET on ESPNU, before the popular show moves over to ESPN at 10 a.m. ET. It's assumed, but not confirmed, that the familiar Big & Rich video will open the 9 a.m. hour, but I doubt there'd be any complaints if ESPN played the anthem at the top of each hour. This video gets many college football fans out of bed on Saturday mornings in the fall, and is really the only time you'd ever want a country act to announce it's coming to your city.

In another smart Disney move, popular sideline reporter Erin Andrews will join the GameDay crew on Saturday mornings. Here's to hoping she might down a few cheeseburgers between now and then; her turn on "Dancing With The Stars" appeared to have turned her into an aspiring Hollywood anorexic.

For those scoring at home, host Chris Fowler has the best job in television, analyst Kirk Herbstreit is the best at his job, Desmond Howard has become a pretty likable on-air personality and everybody loves Andrews. Surprised it's taken this long to adopt the three-hour format.

USA-England Match
Most Watched USMNT
Game Since 1994

By MIKE MUDD
One Great Season

ESPN released some weekend World Cup ratings details Monday night. Here are a few key takeaways:

+ ABC's telecast of the United States-England match was the most-watched World Cup first-round match among households and viewers, and the most-viewed U.S. Men’s National Team game since 1994. U.S.-England enjoyed a 7.3 rating. The two-hour match window (2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET) averaged a 7.3 household rating, 8.4 million households, and almost 13 million viewers.

+ Through eight weekend matches, ESPN and ABC averaged 3 million households and 4.25 million viewers – up 75 percent and 80 percent, respectively, from the first eight games of the 2006 World Cup (1.7 million and 2.4 million viewers).

+ The most-watched game from Sunday was ABC's Germany-Australia debacle – a 2.8 household rating, 3.3 million households, and 4.7 million viewers, while Serbia-Ghana delivered a 2.3 household coverage rating with 2.2 million households and 3 million viewers earlier in the day on ESPN.

Below are the top five most-viewed FIFA World Cup telecasts (1994-present):

1. U.S.-China, Women's World Cup Final (ABC, 7/10/99) – 18 million viewers (11.4 rating)
2. Brazil-Italy, World Cup Final (ABC, 7/17/94) – 14.5 (9.5 rating)
3. Brazil-U.S., World Cup Round of 16 (ABC, 7/4/94) – 13.7 (9.3 rating)
4. Italy-France, World Cup Final (ABC, 7/9/06) – 12.0 (7.0 rating)
5. U.S.-England, World Cup First Round (ABC, 6/12/10) – 10.8 (6.1 rating)

Click here for Mike's bio and an archive of his previous stories.