Lotta reaction around the web this week about ESPN’s purchase of the BCS games. The money-grubbing college Presidents are thrilled! But what about the casual fans who don’t have cable? As many as 16 million people could be in the dark for the National title in a couple years, including a whopping 20 percent of people in cultural mecca known as Lubbock, Texas.

We’ll take the conversation in a different direction. Now that the ESPN is partnered up with the best of the best in college football, will this affect how the WWL investigates the top programs? Yes, we’re aware they aggressively reported OJ Mayo and popped an agent after the USC star had declared for the NBA. And yes, ESPN did a fine job of reporting all the criminal activity in the Penn State football program earlier this year.

ESPN has more investigative resources than any other sports outlet - it’s not even close, really - and you have to wonder … would ESPN be willing to go after perennial BCS contenders, like USC, Texas, Florida, LSU, etc, where some illegal activity may be taking place?

In year’s past, this was the job of newspapers. The St. Paul Pioneer Press collected a Pulitzer prize in 2000 for exposing fraud in the Minnesota Golden Gophers athletic department. Very few - if any - newspapers can now afford to dedicate the resources to major projects like this. And there’s absolutely no reason to believe newspapers will magically enjoy a reversal of fortunes and become prosperous once again, and start giving attention to investigative projects.

If ESPN doesn’t take the baton, who will?