News-Record.com

That's the time I spent watching ... a televised college football practice. Mind you, I was eating at the time, but still that's no excuse.

ESPN, apparently unable to find a World's Strongest Man contest to fill the 1-2 p.m. Friday time slot, instead, opted to televise an LSU football practice.

This raised all sorts of questions in my mind.

First, why would LSU consent to do something like that? You'd have to pluck out all of Chuck Amato's eyebrow hairs before he'd let someone televise his practice on national television. I'm assuming the Tigers ran a very vanilla practice, but since coaches view each preseason session as a precious commodity, I'm still surprised coach Les Miles was willing to give ESPN the go-ahead.

Two, was this thing live? I'd be stunned if it was. And if not, how did the editing work? If - just for example - Miles went ballistic and spent five minutes cursing out his starting QB Jamarcus Russell, would ESPN run it anyway? Or would they bow to LSU's wishes and remove that little bit? Or did LSU tell ESPN, look you can tape our Oklahoma drill, but not the part where we explain the intricacies of our passing game?

Third, who would want to watch this? Trust me, unless you're deeply involved in a football practice, it's very, very boring to watch. Very.

But hey, if you don't believe me, tune in next Wednesday at 1 p.m., when ESPN visits an Ohio State practice.

Every time I think I have a grasp on just how powerful ESPN is in college sports, they raise the bar another notch.