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

[Hannibal]

No amount of excuses can hide the fact that college football is approaching a cliff when it comes to cultural relevance. The writing has been on the wall for a while. I'm not surprised that OSU failed to draw a full stadium for a tomato can game. Michigan's stands have been much sparser than they used to be too. The laundry list of ways that the sport has driven fans away is getting longer every year. I don't buy OSU having a "down" year as the reason why. God knows how many mediocre 8-4 teams Cooper fielded in front of packed stadiums against the likes of Purdue, Cincinnati, and Northwestern.

[Mike]

Occam's Razor. It's the price of tickets and associated costs. Like you say, the list is long and getting longer but dropping a car payment to take your two kids to a tomato-can game doesn't have a lot of appeal.

[Dr. Strangelove]

No amount of excuses can hide the fact that college football is approaching a cliff when it comes to cultural relevance. The writing has been on the wall for a while. I'm not surprised that OSU failed to draw a full stadium for a tomato can game. Michigan's stands have been much sparser than they used to be too. The laundry list of ways that the sport has driven fans away is getting longer every year. I don't buy OSU having a "down" year as the reason why. God knows how many mediocre 8-4 teams Cooper fielded in front of packed stadiums against the likes of Purdue, Cincinnati, and Northwestern.

I think there will probably be a gradual slide of organized sports in general. The entertainment options available today are enormous. Tens of thousands of movies and tv shows available any time. Can pretty easily find any music album and get it on demand. Allowing and acknowledging that gambling is a big part of the appeal of sports may help keep up interest. I had on some random ESPN radio show last sunday and was taken back by how upfront people are about betting lines nowadays. In the 80's Jimmy the Greek had to disguise the fact he was divulging betting information.

As recent as the late 90's I think probably half of Ohio State's games, maybe more, weren't available on tv even in northeast ohio.

[THE_WIZARD_]

CFB will never regain its glory of past. It's becoming a defacto farm system for the NFL...college basketball did it many years ago but that's a different animal. CFB was always very unique. Not so anymore.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Oh and UNL '97 >>> M '97

heh

[Hannibal]

Conference realignment has done much more damage to football than basketball.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Conference realignment has done much more damage to football than basketball.

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.

[lineygoblue]

College football is coming close to pricing itself out of its most desired market. That is the young family, that would like to spend a day at he stadium, watching their favorite team play. Especially, when as Strangelove said, you can sit in your favorite chair at home and watch the daggone game on TV.

This Saturday, my son and I are going to CMU to watch the Chips play. We'll arrive about 1.5 hours before kickoff, and we'll be able to park in the shadow of the stadium for $20. We'll be able to walk up about 200 ft to the gate, and purchase general admission tickets for $12 each. If we want to buy a beverage and a hot dog from the concession stand, we'll be able to do so for around $10. After the game, it will take us about 10 minutes to get to M-127 South, and head home. Its a Noon kickoff, and we'll be home before 5:00 pm.

Contrast that with the money I'd have to lay out for a Michigan game, and the hike I'd have to take from Scio Church Road, (at least a half mile walk) on my arthritic knees, .. and its no contest. If I want to see CFB in person, I'm heading to Mt. Pleasant or maybe even Kalamazoo for WMU.

[froot loops]

The continual conference realignments have taken then starch out of everything. It has made the game more insular. Nowadays it seems like literally about 6 or 7 of the same teams duking it out with little changeover in the top tier. Back in the 80s, you had 5 or 6 independents that could compete for a national title along with the members of the 6 or 7 top conferences. There just was a lot more variety in the top teams.

Nowadays it is always going to be heels like Swinney and Saban competing for the championship.

[Hannibal]

Another disaster that has yet to be recognized as such is the elimination of transfer sit-outs. Not content to do away with conference identity, the NCAA has more or less done away with team identity. And thanks to the same regime of piped in music everywhere, they’ve done their best to do away with stadium identity too. We replaced the Brown Jug games with annual matchups against Rutgers and Maryland. We replaced marching band music with Seven Nation Army. Gee whiz, I wonder why today’s youngsters don’t have the same sentimental feelings towards football that I grew up with.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The continual conference realignments have taken then starch out of everything. It has made the game more insular. Nowadays it seems like literally about 6 or 7 of the same teams duking it out with little changeover in the top tier. Back in the 80s, you had 5 or 6 independents that could compete for a national title along with the members of the 6 or 7 top conferences. There just was a lot more variety in the top teams.

Nowadays it is always going to be heels like Swinney and Saban competing for the championship.

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

[Tom W]

This Saturday, my son and I are going to CMU to watch the Chips play. We'll arrive about 1.5 hours before kickoff, and we'll be able to park in the shadow of the stadium for $20. We'll be able to walk up about 200 ft to the gate, and purchase general admission tickets for $12 each. If we want to buy a beverage and a hot dog from the concession stand, we'll be able to do so for around $10. After the game, it will take us about 10 minutes to get to M-127 South, and head home. Its a Noon kickoff, and we'll be home before 5:00 pm.
.

According to the Progressive commercial that I saw last weekend, linesman has clearly become his parents..

[Dr. Strangelove]

According to the Progressive commercial that I saw last weekend, linesman has clearly become his parents..

He watches all the Lawrence Welk he can and has a treasure trove of Perry Como records?

[JRB]

[Dr. Strangelove]

Haha that’s pretty amazing. A modern spiritual indeed