M-Borg vs. THE Flavortown U Thread, Orig. by Buckeye Paul, absconded w/by talent.

[lineygoblue]

I wonder if those people even knew what a "toke" is ...

[Mike]

Who are you calling "those people"??

[Hannibal]

See my impression of the 1970's is that it was the exact same small group of schools competing for the national title every single year.

Alabama, USC, Notre Dame, OSU, Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. Penn State hovering on the edges but as an independent everyone considered them inferior to the others.

The 80's were the last hurrah for the Independents

You listed nine teams, which is about double what it is now. Nowadays, it's Clemson, OSU, Alabama, and then a rotation of about three or four teams that sneak into that group of four but that nobody realistically thinks have a chance at winning (e.g. Oklahoma, Georgia). It's hard to find a stretch of college football history where parity has been as nonexistent as it is now. If the NCAA was hoping to generate more excitement with a four team playoff akin to the "Anything can happen" atmosphere of March Madness, then it goes without saying that they have failed miserably.

In the 80s and 90s, fifteen different teams won national championships over the course of 20 years. With a playoff, that probably would have been 13. Maybe 14. So far this century, only 10 different programs have won a national title, with one conference winning 12 of them. The deemphasis of the bowls has made it so that NCs are all that matter, and unless I cheer for Clemson, OSU, or one of about four SEC programs, my university has absolutely zero chance of winning a national title in my lifetime. I suppose that Texas and USC could get resurrected and added to the mix, but that's about it. What exactly makes me watch my team now? With transfer rules relaxed, the players no longer represent my alma mater. With piped in music and a focus on spectacle, the stadium experience is no longer unique. The uniforms change every week. The bowls are now named after corporate entities and barely have any semblance of the regional flavor that they used to have. Traditional rivalries have been ditched as part of a scheme to milk cable subscribers for more money. What's left? The answer is hard to come up with. Maybe that explains why only 75,000 people watched OSU play a tomato can now that it's obvious that they won't win the national title. As opposed to the John Cooper years, when the stadium would be packed to watch an 8-4 team play Miami, OH or Indiana. I don't know about OSU, but at Michigan, it has been obvious for quite some time that the football program no longer has the hook on the younger generation that it had for my generation. There are a lot of reasons why, and most of them revolve around the tendency of college football to shit on everything that once made it unique and special.

[Hannibal]

Eh...you may think that way more because the two premier Midwest leagues (Big10 and Big8) had such a stable memberships for so long. Between 1918 and 1993 the only changes to the Big10 were Chicago dropping out and Sparty joining in the early 50's.

The landscape of east coast, southern, and west coast football changed a lot more over the years.

The problem with conference realignment in college football is that it placed unreasonable demands on an already short schedule. In basketball, you play enough games to make a 14-team conference viable. With football, a 14 team conference is essentially two conferences. Add on top of that the nature of college football to punish your second loss pretty severely and it inevitably led to the situation that you see now.

[Mike]

Hanni, all your points are valid. Sadly.

That said, I still love CFB. Maybe not as much as I used to but there's still appointment viewing every Saturday and I still enjoy going to games. What I don't envision going forward is ever spending $150 or so for a marquee opponent. Especially the last game of the year. I've gotten my night game fix as well. Don't need to attend those either unless there's some crazy situation where we're like 8-0, #3, playing PSU or something.

I've recalibrated my expectations for Michigan football (none) and balance my personal investment of time and energy with family life now. Seems to be working pretty well. I'll be down there tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

American culture is being continuously nationalized. CFB no different. Technology made it inevitable, IMO.

[AlabamAlum]

I personally think this is the golden age of CFB. Everyone quit your bitching and hopefully Bama can win a few more NCs before I slip off this mortal coul.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I personally think this is the golden age of CFB. Everyone quit your bitching and hopefully Bama can win a few more NCs before I slip off this mortal coul.

Fair

[lineygoblue]

Alabama as part of the playoffs is a sure as the sun rising in the east. Before all is said and done in the 2021 season, they will be one of the four.

[AlabamAlum]

We have our bet. This year, it won’t happen unless we get much better.

[lineygoblue]

Alabama will get much better. I think I've only seen one year in the last 10 where they faded a bit at the end. Nick is a great coach. He rarely gets caught unprepared.

[AlabamAlum]

We just lost too much. See; 2010 and 2019.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Gee whiz, I wonder why today’s youngsters don’t have the same sentimental feelings towards football that I grew up with.

Why are you asking me?

..and it's Wiz...not whiz...dumbass...

[AlabamAlum]

Whiz,

How is your plastic hip doing?

[THE_WIZARD_]

fucktard