No Tennessee fan would agree with me, without question.
And what I know about Summitt, aside from that she was a great coach....and how to spell her name correctly....is that she never specifically came forth with what she thought UConn/Auriemma did that was wrong and she ended the best rivalry in women's basketball (at that time) from existence.
ESPN has its faults.....aside from giving "Caitlyn" Jenner an award for "courage" (somehow "courage" has been redefined since the days of Normandy and Iwo Jima)...but its coverage of UConn basketball is understandable given UConn's incredible success, as much as its proximity to Bristol, Ct. No doubt it doesn't hurt UConn to be an hour away from ESPN, but Summitt's claim that it is an unfair advantage is weak, especially given her own success and legacy and Knoxville's great surroundings.
Personally, I don't require ESPN telling me how great a program Auriemma has after 22 seasons of watching his teams play. And it's okay with me if people hate UConn (or OU), but saying that UConn's success is due to ESPN is as wrong as it is unfair.
Connecticut, like all of New England, has its fan base tied much more into professional sports than college sports....by far....and the most popular college sport her is basketball. (Attempts by UConn's football program to achieve relevance have failed and not too many here care one way or the other, as long as they have their Patriots-Giants-Jets).
Auriemma took a program with no trademark, in a little town in a little state, in a sport that only a few other teams nationwide had any following and made it what it is today. His greatness has a coach created the monster, not ESPN.
Word has it that after Sampson left OU in 2006, it contacted Auriemma. That would have been interesting.....and disastrous for UConn's women's basketball.
The level of support that a program has is often exhibited by simple things. In today's world, a good part is message boards. The difference in message boards between various schools is a strong indicator.
The most negative message boards associated with OU (other than political) are basketball boards. Even when OU is in a Final Four run, as they men were last year, at least a third of the posts tend to be criticisms, usually by the same posters over and over. This year, they are in their element, complete negativity in an "I told you so" mode. Similarly, even when OU went to two straight Final Fours, the women's board had a handful of consistent critics who just seemed to hate Sherri or one or two players. The constant complaints that Courtney Paris was fat permeated the basketball boards. If Sherri had control of the team, Courtney wouldn't have been fat, and we would have won titles. The negativity associated with the basketball boards is unlike that which you usually see on college message boards, which usually tend to attack opponents.
The Summit tends to be the most rabid supporters of any of the message boards, The posters aren't so much fans as frenzied fanatics as though piranha at feeding time. They support all things Tennessee and hate the enemy, at least as long as Pat Summit was alive. They are supportive. Negative comments are typically met with a ban, especially if not an established member of the fanatics.
The best of the various college message boards is The Boneyard, the board of Connecticut. It is supportive of men's and women's basketball and tends to be very knowledgeable about the team. They seem to welcome posters from other schools as long as they aren't there to start a war. The boards are very active, as active as an OU football board, and very informed, more like an OU football board.
There are other college message boards concerning basketball, and most are positive about their team. Traffic tends to be lower than that of football boards. But, it is interesting that the intelligence of the posts tends to correlate with the success of the team.
When I want to see an intelligent discussion of an issue involving basketball, I tend to go to The Boneyard. There is some good stuff on OU basketball boards, but there is also a lot of very non-supportive crap.