College Football is Serious Business*
For the first time in recorded history, the powers that be are blessing us with an unprecedented five-straight days of glorious college football to start the season. Last season there were 64 televised games on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday nights of opening weekend. For 2008, the number of televised games has jumped 13% to 72 and the addition of three games on the sabbath (including a Governor’s Cup battle between Louisville and Kentucky) leaves me wondering if I’ll leave the house that weekend.
| 2007 | 2008 | |
|---|---|---|
| THUR | 14 | 11 |
| FRI | 2 | 2 |
| SAT | 46 | 54 |
| SUN | 0 | 3 |
| MON | 2 | 2 |
All of this begs the question: Is college football on its way to becoming the 2nd-most popular sport in America? The sport has absolutely blown-up since the early ’90s and from my vantage point, three of the major pro sports have significant problems.
Major league baseball has the steroids issue and an entire generation of fans that find the game slow. The NBA has Tim Donaghy and a legion of cynics screaming “I told you so!” The NHL has Gary Bettman and a PR department seemingly run by Wile E. Coyote.
The ratings support the ascension of college football — the 2008 MNC and Rose Bowl each beat the most recent World Series and NBA finals. Hell, even the Meineke Car Care Bowl matchup between Wake and UConn posted numbers the NHL would kill to score.
The NFL is still clearly king in this country, but without autumn crack fantasy football, would it be?
For the moment, Eugene Clifford is still a Buckeye. Judging by our Diebold-certified blog poll results, only about 10% of you think he’ll survive his latest incident. Count Ken Gordon in with those that don’t. Evidently one of Clifford’s high school teammates at Colerain, Ravelle Sadler, was charged with aggravated menacing for “threatening to go to his car, get a gun, and shoot the bar employees”.
Tressel was in Youngstown on Monday and fielded a question about Clifford’s status:
“I haven’t really talked to him and I haven’t heard much about the situation that’s occurred. It’s never a good thing when you’re in the wrong places.â€
Pretty tough to parse that, but I’ll give it a shot: “I just haven’t had a chance to tell him he’s gone yet.”
* Deference to life’s most serious business, of course.
I love it that you see more and more CFB on. as much as I like the NFL College is still more pure football to me. and more exciting. Even watching shitty mac and sun belt, wac teams play are fun because those small schools are harder to predict who is going to win.
CFB is very serious business. The pessimist in me thinks it’s next on the media chopping block. Honestly, between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, how can it survive? Maybe schools can start merging, like corporations? Maybe the indentured servants that play it can unionize? Maybe we can outsource the whole thing to Mexico? Maybe Donald Trump can orchestrate a hostile takeover? I dunno, but something bad is going to happen … BUT, only after Beanie gets the Heisman!!
When is the Big11Ten contract up with the 4 letter? In the next year or two, I believe, which could mean more games for the BTN after that.
To expand on TLB’s post:
Since BTN is supported by FOX does it make since for the Big Ten to break away from ABC/ESPN and have exclusive national games on FOX with the overflow on BTN? It might not make sense today, but two or three years from now it may.
ABC/ESPN signed a 10 year extension with the Big Ten in 2007, so it will be a while before we see a Big Ten/FOX deal:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2494149
You should have added College Basketball to the poll….it’s to big to be filed under other.
i use to like pro ball but not today or ever again, ncaa football is number 1 in millions and millions of mens heart, the pros on the most part are not team players, some but most arent, its all about the benjamin to them, go dawgs
It’s regrettable to see the season expanding, year after year. I don’t know when any athlete worth a look from the NFL is supposed to study toward a real, marketable degree. I love college ball as much as anyone else – maybe more so – but it’s looking more and more like a minor league for the NFL. Too bad.
What impressed me most about Craig Krenzel wasn’t his uncanny ability to make a play when it was most needed, but his uncanny ability to get a meaningful degree (molecular biology) and quarterback a major college team to the national title. Astounding, considering the pressures these kids are under.
Joe…While I agree with you on Krenzel’s ability to get a ‘real’ degree, it boggles my mind that he’s done absolutely nothing with it. I just read he’s moving from 610WTVN to 1460WBNS to continue work in radio. The money can’t be that good. What’s the deal there?
The money is easier and the spotlight is much brighter. I’m sure it is hard to pass up.
I think the key being “the money is easier”.
I love the fact college games are on throughout the week, especially since we don’t have to worry about Ohio State playing other than Saturdays (although 8pm starts seem like Monday).
I understand the difficulty in being able to study towards a real degree when you play on any given night, but I also think if the student wants his degree, he will get it. The athletes have tutors, study tables and some leeway during the season, they can get a degree if they choose to.
I feel sorry for Craig, those two guys in the mid-day show for 1460 are complete idiots, who have absolute man-crushes on each other.
Uh, “2nd Most Popular”?
Are you trying to start the argument about defining “popular”?
Here in the south, CFB may be 2nd but its a nose to nose race with NASCAR not NFL.
After moving here from the Buckeye state, I still can’t get into NASCAR. But talk radio and weekend barbecues are either about the local SEC team or the next NASCAR race.
I hope for all our sakes that Fox does not start broadcasting Big Ten games often. Aside from the results of the last two Buckeyes games that I have seen on that network, the whole production stinks. The announcers are terrible, the in game graphics take up half of the screen, and they always have the gay computer generated mascots that spew out irrelevant stats. Watch any BCS game, NFL game, or the MLB playoffs and you’ll see what I mean. I’ll take Muss, Herbie and ABC everytime.
I’m not surprised that college football beats up the World Series and the NBA finals. There might be bias towards certain teams in college football in terms of coverage, such as USC, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, and (insert trendy southern team here), but at least you have between 10 and 15 teams that you can call juggernauts or contenders. That contention breeds excitement. There’s also no playoff, so every game is a potential elimination matchup (and I think that’s the biggest reason right there).
In baseball, you have 2 teams that get 80% of the national attention – NYY and Boston…it’s those two teams and everyone else, especially in salary. You should see how many Yankees and Boston “fans” come out when they travel, there’s no way there are that many transplants from Boston in every city in the nation. But they’re certainly the only teams on national TV these days. If baseball went to a salary cap system like the NFL, baseball would EXPLODE, and the attendance records this year are indicative of that – because it would guarantee a more wide open race. The NBA is also victim to “the best team money can buy,” with Boston buying talent and winning a championship this year – it almost seems faked, like “Oh well all I have to do is free up a bunch of soft cash and buy two all-stars and I’ll win it all,” and it happened.
There are also more people getting degrees these days, so that means more people who take a liking to their program. It’s massive, it’s wide open, its post-season is inherently controversial, the fans think they can influence the outcome (like SEC fans who have united to convince everyone they’re better), and each school has traditions that transcend and surround the game.
Go Buckeyes!
No argument from me Tyler. I love listening to Mussberger. However, the FOX BCS games are a one time a year thing for them in CFB. It would be refined over time. My desire to be the stand-alone conference on a network is based on what CBS has done for the SEC and NBC for Notre Dame. More money, better exposure, and very biased coverage.
If anyone doesn’t think CFB is big business, ask RichRod and UM after agreeing to pay $4 million to WVU.
RichRod just slow-palyed this long enough to make the University and the boosters foot part of his bill.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3480382
So Kevin Grady pleads ‘not guilty’ to his 3.5 times over the limit drunken driving charge. Clifford plead not guilty as well, but how do you plead not guilty to a breathalyser!?
Corey: Yeah, I’ve noticed that the two guys – Mike Ricordati and Scott Torgerson – are a lot more excited about baseball and hockey season than they are about Buckeye football. That’s fine and I guess it can fly in the Mistake and Nasty ‘Nati, but in Columbus? In the fall? If you aren’t all about the Bucks, Browns and to a lesser extent the Bengals from the start of the NFL training camp to the Pro Bowl, something is wrong. Both of these guys are imports too- Ricordati’s from Chicago and Torgerson’s from Minnesota (hence the annoying accent).
Hooley, Spiels, and Herbie (sort of) do a much better job than either of those two hacks.
You are right Poguemahone, Hooley, Spiels and Herbie is the best radio show 1460 has ever had. Those three do a great job when they are all on.