Is Jimmy Dykes Paid on Commision by Tim McGraw?

Just wrapped up watching a phenomenal SEC Championship game between the ‘Cats and Dogs. I would’ve loved to have seen Mississippi St. win it in regulation and punch that automatic bid ticket. After this afternoon’s game, it will be actually brutal for those kids if the committee leaves them on the outside looking in. As Calipari said, if Kentucky’s a #1 seed, then how good is this Miss. St. team? Certainly tourney-worthy one could easily argue following today’s performance.

All that said, did anyone else watching that game pick up anything strange regarding the telecast? To kick off the game, ESPN/ABC showed one of those pump-you-up highlight reels set to Tim McGraw’s “How Bad Do You Want It?” Makes sense. Good country song for the SEC tilt down in Nashville with the thematically appropriate lyrics in the refrain: “how bad do you want it? how bad do you need it?”

In most cases, the opening montage would be the last you hear of those lyrics. Except for this afternoon, Jimmy Dykes adopted those 10 words and repeated them – AD NAUSEAM – throughout the game. Seriously, it was easily uttered 10 times to the point where you could almost subconciously feel Brad Nessler inner monologue decrying: “Really, can we not think of any other way to put context around the action on the floor?”

My only logical conclusion is that Dykes was part of a clandestine marketing deal to help spur sales of McGraw’s single. I wonder how much he gets for each sale on iTunes. How bad do you want it? How bad do you need it?!

Editor’s Note: This is a blog that often leans toward satire, so I wanted to make it clear (amazing these disclaimers are often needed) that this is in jest. Although, it was a whole lot of times, you’ve got to admit.