This is a regular feature breaking down, minute-by-minute, the content that appears on ESPN's 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter throughout the week.
When last we met, Mike Trout finally got some love, the Tim Tebow slurpjob continued, and we prepared ourselves for the endless Lakers hype. What would this week bring?
Total time: 455.75 minutes
Time (minus commercials): 342.75
TIME DEVOTED TO INDIVIDUAL SPORTS
NFL: 118.25 (34.5%) (last week: 24.2%)
MLB: 101.75 minutes (29.7%) (last week: 30%)
SportsCenter staples (things like the "Top 10," "Encore," "What 2 Watch 4," etc.): 44.75 (13.1%) (last week: 13.3%)
Golf: 22 (6.4%) (last week: 3.5%)
Olympics: 16 (4.7%) (last week: 9.1%)
College football: 11.25 (3.3%) (last week: 5.1%)
NASCAR: 11.25 (3.3%) (last week: 3.1%)
NBA: 10.25 (3%) (last week: 7.4%)
Other sports: 7.25 (2.1%) (last week: 4.1%)
NHL: 0 (0%) (last week: 0%)
College basketball: 0 (0%) (last week: 0.3%)
MOST-COVERED TEAMS BY SPORT
New York Jets (NFL): 19.25 (5.6%)
Pittsburgh Pirates (MLB): 15.5 (4.5%)
Los Angeles Lakers (NBA): 7.25 (2.1%)
LSU Tigers (college football): 4.5 (1.3%)
MOST-MENTIONED SPORTS FIGURES
Rather than break down the amount of time a specific athlete or figure was covered, we counted how frequently names were mentioned in the transcripts from the week. The 15 most-mentioned sports people for Aug. 10-16:
Rory McIlroy: 47
Chad Johnson: 45
Tiger Woods: 44
Tim Tebow: 37
Peyton Manning: 28
Felix Hernandez: 28
Andrew Luck: 27
"Wildcat": 21
Tyrann Mathieu: 18
Brandon Weeden: 18
Cam Newton: 16
Ryan Tannehill: 15
Bobby Valentine: 15
Roberto Clemente: 15
Neil Walker: 13
CUMULATIVE STATISTICS: Jan. 7-Aug. 16
Total time: 14,408 minutes
Time (minus commercials): 10,824.5
NBA: 2,660 minutes (24.6%)
MLB: 1,959 (18.1%)
SportsCenter staples: 1,546 (14.3%)
NFL: 1,502.5 (13.9%)
Other: 1,356.75 (12.5%)
College basketball: 1041.75 (9.6%)
NHL: 447 (4.1%)
College football: 311.5 (2.9%)
Notes
The New York Jets are now America's Team: Andrew Luck played in his first preseason game this week. In terms of his career, it's not really that big of a deal, but it should be for ESPN, which has been hyping this QB class and the Colts' next dynasty for a solid year. When Indy played the Rams on Sunday, SportsCenter devoted 5.75 minutes, or 6.1 percent of the broadcast, to Luck's debut. Tim Tebow went 4-for-8 with a pick on Friday and was covered for 8.25 minutes, 10.9 percent of the broadcast. Tebow's second-string drives got nearly double the coverage of Andrew Luck. Was anyone asking for this? Maybe for the schadenfreude factor, but that's about it. Regardless, Tebow's the reason the Wildcat formation got 21 mentions.
Even worse, ESPN has already begun to tear down Mark Sanchez and stump for Tim Tebow to take over the starting job. One moment that stuck out: Someone asked NFL expert John Clayton and his ponytail about the chances of Tebow becoming the starter, and the corresponding headline, in all caps, on the left side of the screen read "WHEN IS TEBOW TIME?" Despite, you know, this being Week 1 of the preseason. Oh, and SportsCenter also spent nearly a minute on Tebow's birthday, which was actually showing restraint, given the network's antics earlier in the day. The result is that a team that went 8-8 last year has gotten far and away the most coverage of any NFL team since training camp began.
Chad Johnson still moves the needle: Chad Johnson hasn't been good since 2008, but he's still a big deal because he's goofy, I guess. Johnson's arrest for domestic violence and subsequent release from the Dolphins resulted in 17.25 minutes of coverage, almost all of it centered on Johnson, making the Miami Dolphins the most-discussed NFL team not named the New York Jets.
Holy shit, the Pirates were the biggest story in baseball: The surprising success of the Pirates has been one of the season's more enjoyable storylines. They're in the thick of the wild card battle, and may actually end the year above .500 for the first time in two decades. ESPN took notice, with a really good report by Jeremy Schaap about Neil Walker's connection to the plane crash that killed Roberto Clemente. I'd give you the link to check it out, but it was taken off ESPN.com.