I went to law school and lived in Connecticut for about 7 years until a few years ago, and got to know quite a few ESPN employees. It’s all about ratings/web site traffic, etc. It isn’t journalism, it’s entertainment.
Their talent doesn’t typically follow rigid scripts, but they do plan ( and sometimes assign) specific positions/views to specific people. Of course someone is going to make the argument for every far—fetched view to drive traffic. It’s all about $’s.
Think of Lou. He was always assigned the pro-ND viewpoint even when he knew better.