The Outland Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Fame member is arguably the most polarizing personality on ESPN's extensive roster of college football analysts. While knowledgeable, his aggressive on-screen style has turned off many viewers who simply view May as smug.
May, 50, got his broadcasting break in 1995 when he was hired as a studio analyst for TNT's Sunday night NFL telecasts. In 2001, he joined ESPN and has settled in as fixture on College Football Scoreboard and College Football Final.
May steadfastly maintains Boise State simply isn't challenged on a week-to-week basis like teams from BCS conferences, and that criticism has earned him Public Enemy No. 1 status among Bronco fans.
In 2005, May was discussing the upcoming West Virginia-Virginia Tech game and said when he was a player at Pittsburgh, his coach told his team that West Virginia fans would throw pennies at visiting players because they were too cheap to throw nickels.
"Mark said the remark was not made to offend but to relay what he'd been told by a former coach," Mo Davenport, ESPN's senior coordinating producer for college football, said. "He now knows what he said was derogatory to a group of people and a state, which was not his or ESPN's intent."
There you have it. Do you like Mark May? Do you not like Mark May? Let us know.
Sadly, many of May's approval votes will be based solely on the fact that he openly hates Boise State. While Generic_SEC_Fan1287 also hates Boise State, don't be swayed by this fact alone. Mark May, much like Craig James, rarely gives any credible and/or useful analysis to a college football game. He's another ESPn mystery employee. I'm not sure why they keep him on other than the polarizing factor. Is that really enough, ESPN?
Posted by: LoqueBSU | October 26, 2010 at 07:14 AM
I'm okay with May, but he's got a pretty easy row to hoe. Let's face it, any carbon-based life form would come of as intelligent if you sat it down next to Thenator Holtz.
Posted by: Will Collier | October 26, 2010 at 11:35 AM
while sitting across from Holtz, May comes across as a hotheaded and rude pr*ck, not intelligent.
May and Craig James are everything that is wrong with ESPN. The fact that those two are given free reigns on a mic is a tragedy to the entire football world.
Posted by: josh | October 26, 2010 at 05:33 PM
Mark May can go shit in a hat. That is all.
Posted by: B | October 26, 2010 at 06:29 PM