Over the past five years, Scott Van Pelt quickly became an ESPN favorite for more than tag lines like “Oh happy day” or “Get to the chopper.” His work on “Sportscenter” and his coverage of the four majors in golf has paved the way to radio.
Recently he took a second from his busy schedule in Bristol, Connecticut, to talk about the new show, the ACC and his beloved Maryland Terrapins.
Congratulations on your new nationally syndicated radio show with Mike Tirico.
It’s something I’ve been very interested in doing for a long time. The format, to me, just affords you an opportunity to do something that “Sportscenter” doesn’t by definition, and that is to have an opinion—just to talk about things.
Wait for the meat on October 15 when ACC basketball resumes, says Van Pelt.
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I’m not one of those people who thinks my opinion is necessarily better than yours, and I’m not one of those people who’s going to try to scream and yell to try to make you think my opinion’s more valid. I think you can have interesting discussion and make your points. You know, there are things we’re all passionate about and I think that’s where the idea of sports talk radio started. I think somewhere along the way, you’ve had people turn into bombastic buffoons, and I’m not going to be one of them.
It seems as if both you and Mike can be more laid back and relaxed on the radio than TV.
What it really does is give you the chance to let [opinions] breathe and let it all air out.
Let’s get your opinion. You are a Maryland alum and die hard fan. Speaking purely on the sport of football, is the current state of the conference what you expected when the ACC went after Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College?
[The ACC] doesn’t have a single defining team that’s a power. I thought VT was overrated coming into this year, and I think we’ve seen that they just haven’t found their stride. They’ll get better as [Tyrod] Taylor gets his feet under him at the quarterback position.
But then, Miami, Florida State—they’re just not what they once were. Miami gets beat by a million in Oklahoma, Florida lost six games last year, Clemson might be good, and Boston College is very good, and I don’t think a lot of people have given them a lot of love. Obviously, Virginia’s playing a lot better since that first game.
My feeling is, there’s a bunch of decent teams, there’s just not a transcendent team, and they’ve just been getting beat upon by Big East, SEC, Big 12 and other foes and it just makes the conference look poor.
Being an old school, pre-ACC expansion Maryland Terp, is this still a basketball conference to you?
As an ACC guy, the one thing you can always count on is that on October 15, they’ll start rolling out the round balls again, and the conference is always going to be the defining conference in the country in basketball. I always think it was a basketball conference. You know, whatever you get out of football is just gravy, and at the moment, it’s just lousy gravy I guess.
Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN AM840, Monday-Friday, 4pm-6pm.