It’s one of the oldest rivalries in college sports, but an ESPN announcer somehow mixed up his college nicknames by referring calling Minnesota the “Badgers.”
ESPN announce refers to Minnesota baseball as the Badgers (h/t @nater79a) pic.twitter.com/7079suGQXo
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) June 4, 2018
It happened late Monday night during ESPN’s broadcast of the regional final between Mississippi State and Oklahoma, with the play-by-play guy saying “first time for the Badgers into the supers.”
He was clearly referring to Minnesota because the analyst in the booth next to him had just complimented the Gophers’ ability to hit the ball, and then a graphic flashed on the screen showing that Minnesota had advanced to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
What makes this story hurt a little bit more is that the Wisconsin Gophers, um, sorry, Badgers, don’t even have a baseball team – they discontinued baseball at the college way back in 1991.
This is as bad as saying the Ohio State Wolverines have a rivalry with the Michigan Buckeyes, or that the Duke Tar Heels and North Carolina Blue Devils are favorites to win next year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
We’ve got no clue who the announcer is, but he clearly doesn’t subscribe to the “better dead than red” philosophy.
