<em>AJC</em> Blows ESPN's Cover -- Valdosta, Georgia Is Titletown, USA

Is there anything funnier than seeing ~~ESPN get egg on its face~~ a bunch of network suits get all wadded up about something leaking to the press? I would argue "No." I would also argue that Valdosta, Georgia is not "Titletown, USA".

ESPN clearly would argue with me, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has already announced (via Donny Chavez) that Valdosta will be crowned in about three and a half hours. Whoops.

For years, it's been called Winnersville. Now, the south Georgia town of Valdosta has another name: TitleTown USA, thanks to ESPN.

The cable sports network is coming to Valdosta today to declare Valdosta the winner of its summer promotion that earlier this month featured the city as one of its 20 finalists for the national award.

The trophy ceremony will be filmed at Valdosta High School's Bazemore-Hyder Stadium, where fans and citizens are encouraged to arrive by 2 p.m. Valdosta will be announced the winner on Monday's 6 p.m. "SportsCenter."

According to the Valdosta Daily Times, Valdosta High School has won 116 region and state championships, a large chunk of them in football. The Wildcats football team is the nation's all-time winningest program and has 23 state championships.

Well, I'll be. Maybe they do deserve the award. And frankly, I'm totally fine with that.

Heck, as far as I'm concerned, just keep Boston out of the winner's circle and make sure the announcement gets leaked just early enough to ruin the six o clock "celebration" and I hope they run this thing every year.

Or ... or.. and bear with me here, because this is crazy, hip and awesome ... what if they had a contest where a bunch of bands came on SC every night to try and create the best possible theme to Titletown? At that point you could just stop running highlights and show music all the time. It would be great!