In the latest domino to fall in conference realignment — at least while writing this — Gonzaga officially announced its move to the Pac-12 on Tuesday.
But the real drama regarding the move had nothing to do with the conferences or the team involved. Rather, it centered on the media members reporting on it.
Taking to X on Tuesday morning, NBC Sports’ Nicole Auerbach reported that Pac-12 leaders had approved the addition of the Bulldogs overnight. Auerbach followed up her post with a reply to her own report, writing, “It’s important to both be accurate and precise in reporting news.”
It wasn’t difficult to read between the lines.
While Gonzaga’s move didn’t become official until Tuesday, the Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported last week that the Bulldogs were leaving the West Coast Conference to join the Pac-12. That report was quickly refuted by Auerbach, who posted , “the report stating that Gonzaga is headed to the Pac-12 is not accurate,” before noting that the two sides were “having serious discussions.”
She wasn’t the only college football insider to refute the initial claim and Gonzaga’s AD also strongly refuted the report .
Auerbach’s subsequent post on Tuesday appeared to be a thinly veiled way of saying that just because McMurphy reported the news a week ago doesn’t mean it was accurate at the time. Meanwhile, McMurphy responded by quote-tweeting Auerbach’s jab, adding “Is Mel Tucker firing official yet?” — a reference to his report regarding the former Michigan State head coach, which the two had previously feuded over last year.
(While Tucker was suspended by Michigan State at the time of McMurphy’s report. His official firing didn’t come for a few more weeks. He later clarified as much).
Auerbach responded by taking a dig at McMurphy wishing the coaches he covers happy birthday , before writing two more posts clarifying her issues with his reporting.
“Reliable journalism means what you report is accurate *when* you report it,” she wrote. “You can’t say a coach has been fired when he’s on leave and doesn’t actually get fired for a month. You don’t get to take a victory lap because something eventually happens. Words have meaning.”
“Now, I’ll go back to ignoring the person I have muted on this app,” she added. “I’m sure he’ll keep talking about me behind my back, though — that’s something he actually does reliably. Sorry you all had to deal with this on your timeline.”
On the surface, the heart of this issue appears to be two reporters having a difference of opinion regarding when news becomes reportable.
While Gonzaga’s move wasn’t made official — or formally agreed to — until Tuesday, McMurphy clearly felt confident enough in the information he had to run with it more than a week ago. And while that can be a dangerous game in a sport with so many moving pieces, his confidence was ultimately rewarded as his report was proven correct in the end. Was it because he had the goods or because (as almost every other reporter indicated) discussions were moving in a positive direction before finally becoming official this week? It’s almost impossible to say for sure, although both reporters will claim their way is the right way.
Auerbach, meanwhile, clearly feels more comfortable waiting until such transactions become formally agreed to, which is understandable — but also doesn’t necessarily discredit McMurphy’s report. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time a college athletics move was actually made in the shadows.
Had his report been proven incorrect, that would be one thing, but that’s not what happened here. And if Auerbach wanted to accuse him of throwing s**t against the wall and hoping it would stick, she would have been better off citing an example where it didn’t.
All things considered, there’s something wild about seeing two professional colleagues actively engaging in such mudslinging against each other on social media. And while they may have been doing so in the name of journalism, their personal disdain for each other appears to be the real root of their dispute.
[ Nicole Auerbach on X ]
The post Nicole Auerbach and Brett McMurphy publicly feud over Gonzaga reporting appeared first on Awful Announcing .
Local News
Comments / 0