A-. Let me tell you why.

ESPN has plenty of irritating programming, and plenty of irritating employees. For whatever reason, with the exception of Ron Jaworski and Tom Jackson, the network can't find an NFL analyst that isn't either a mouthbreathing Ditka type (like, say, Mike Ditka himself) or someone whose main form of analysis is yelling and then laughing and then yelling again (hi, Keyshawn). Chris Berman remains detestable. And so on.

But for all of the network's issues elsewhere, their college basketball team is always on point. Rece Davis is perfect as the steady Chris Fowler type; Hubert Davis is good; Digger Phelps' tielighter is just strange, and he has his blind spots, but he's usually OK; and Bob Knight is the analytical steal of the year. It's impossible to listen to Knight and not learn something, anything, about the game of basketball. The in-game play-by-play guys are typically good, too, especially Dan Shulman. All in all, ESPN's talent and production on college basketball is excellent. It's one of the network's strengths.

Which, of course, brings us to Dick Vitale.

Vitale is the face of ESPN basketball, and few announcers have been as hotly debated in recent years. Some love him. Some hate him. Some think he's essential to college basketball, and some think his screams must ring over the public address system in Hell. Anyway, that was last year's debate. This year? After one night, it's safe to say Vitale has crossed the line from endearingly annoying to just plain insufferable.

Tuesday night's North Carolina-Kentucky game was Vitale's first of the year on ESPN. Last year, the worst part about Vitale's broadcasts were his bandwagons. No matter what the instance, no matter who was playing, Vitale would find a way to mention Tyler Hansbrough's player of the year campaign. That was one. Another was his ardent belief that he needs to moderate the standing Indiana-Bob Knight fued by screaming, whenever appropriate, that Indiana University should rename Assembly Hall "Robert Montgomery Knight Hall." Tuesday night, Vitale proved he didn't leave those bandwagons behind. (He also has a new one, which I heard him mention at least twice, something about the one-and-done rule and how kids should have to go to college for three years.) Vitale seems less interested now in calling games than in using his two hours on ESPN as a bully pulpit for his pet causes. I doubt many fans are interested.

Anyway, after UNC had sufficiently pulled away from Kentucky, I switched to the Davidson-Oklahoma game, and it was like this auditory crush had been lifted off my chest. I could just enjoy basketball. I didn't need to have someone screaming at me to just ... enjoy basketball.

That's where we are with Vitale right now. The man who helped popularize college basketball on ESPN is now the sport's biggest sore spot. He doesn't just annoy anymore. He actually makes it a challenge to watch. (It wasn't always like this. Check out ESPN Classic. Vitale used to actually be informative.)

So, ESPN gets an A-. As entrenched as Vitale is, I doubt we'll see an A anytime soon.

(UPDATE: Thanks to last year's throat surgery, Vitale is resting his vocal chords this year when he's off camera. Of course. He can't rest them on camera. That would be too much to ask.)

Related: College Basketball Media