Dear ESPN: Could Your New Site Make Things More Difficult?

I woke up Tuesday morning and literally bounced to work from my new apartment. I woke up early, stopped by my neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts, got my iced coffee, put on the iPod, put on Kevin Rudolf’s Let it Rock (my obsession since October) and bounced to work.

I bounded up the three flights of stairs to my office, jumped through the door, smiled to the student who was working the main desk, skipped into my office, and fired up the trusty laptop. I fired off a few emails, and then opened up Google Reader to catch up on the morning’s recaps of the event that had made me full of so much bounce – BU’s blood-pressure-raising win against Harvard in the Beanpot semifinal the night before.

And then, there it was, in the Terrier Hockey Fan Blog. Yet another BU Beanpot goal had made the Sportscenter Top 10. In 2006, it was Chris Higgins’ crazy “How’d He Do That?!” slide into the boards goal.  Monday, it was his classmate from down Route 1 North, Jason Lawrence’s game-winning goal that made the Top 10.

It’s a rarity that college hockey makes Sportscenter.  Sportscenter just recently rediscovered the sport of hockey in general, so for them to pay attention to anything but bare bones NHL coverage could be asking a little much.

And of course, the one time that Sportscenter shows BU Hockey, and shows one of my favorite players no less, I do not yet have cable set up in my new apartment.

Of course, I immediately go to ESPN.com. I search the recently redone site, looking through the glossy clutter for any link to the Top 10. All I see is coverage of Kobe Bryant’s 61 point performance at Madison Square Garden. I click the “Videos” tab. Nothing. I click the “Sportscenter” tab. Nothing. I use the search function. Nothing. I go to the NHL page, and the College Sports page, and still nothing.

I give up for the time being.  I go back to doing my real work.  At lunchtime, I scour the ESPN site again, repeating my steps from the morning and adding even more.  A waste of time – no Sportscenter Top 10 online.

Was I just missing it?  Is it on the site, but just not easy to find? The new ESPN site is definitely cluttered, and some of its organization leaves much to be desired.  Is it available to Insiders only?

Eh, I’m okay with not being able to find it – I mean, I was at the game, I didn’t need to see it on TV – but it leads me to a bigger issue.  If ESPN wants to make a truly multimedia experience, one where their “SportsNation” can comment, blog and interact with their content, why not make a well-known part of their flagship program available on their website?  I’m not saying make all of Sportscenter available online – I understand that as a cable network, that would be counter-intuitive to their bottom line.  But if ESPN is going to place selected shared content online, why not include the Top 10?

Thoughts? Am I just missing it and looking like a complete idiot?