The Rest of College Football

[Wild Hoss]

I think that they would let him get away with that even with the tighter standards of today. I could be wrong though. The type of stuff that I have seen get flagged is high-stepping/Deion Sanders type crap.

There ain't no way that'd fly today dude.

I don't support taunting, but IMO that's not what Howard was doing there. Pointing a finger at one of the guys chasing him, or gesturing to the opposing sideline? Flag the son of a bitch.

Pointing to the home crowd during a moment of supreme acccomplishment? No.

[The Oracle]

I don't DVR the games a whole lot anymore .... because I forget to set the record feature. This despite paying outrageous amounts to have DVR. Most of the games are available on Bit Torrent feeds. You can download them and watch at your leisure on your PC.

Still, I'm disappointed in what's happened to TV productions of the games .... DVR, Bit Torrent, whatever. The productions suck.

Last night, I watched what was probably an original live feed recording of Iowa v. SDSU in the 1986 Holiday Bowl on BTN. Iowa won 38/37 on a game ending FG. If I'm not mistaken, it was Chris Schenkel who did the play by play. That voice is unmistakeable. He did have some moron doing the color but, Schenkle was so good at what he did, the moronocy of the other guy didn't matter.

But the production was seemless. The game was the feature. No stupid side-line interest stories, no dumb graphics, just football. They had replay but it was in its infancy so, we didn't have to see telestrator outlines being made of plays that proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the guy trying to cram this analysis between plays, had no clue of what he was talking about. These guys are just blabbering to the great unwashed sea of viewers these day who alos don't understand wht the hell they are watching ........ which explains why, I suspect, ESPN/ABC and the rest of them can get away with the shit they put on these days and call it college football on TV.

Dumb graphics like down and distance? The time? How a team is faring on 3rd downs? Are you fucking kidding me? Watching games in the 90s and especially the 80s sucked. Watching a game without knowing even what quarter it is is a joke. You can say it goes too far sometimes, sure, but overall it's not even a comparison.

[Mike]

Yeah, that feature is a pain in the ass. Or, I wish that they would at least make the jump back smaller. My wife laughs at me when I watch hockey now, because you have to fast forward past the faceoff to watch the faceoff. But sometimes somebody scores a goal right after the faceoff, so you spoil it for yourself. I have to look away for a second before pressing "play" when I watch hockey.

Same thing happened to me several times during the past playoffs. The game could finish 2-1 and it seemed like almost every goal was scored 10 seconds after a TV TO so by the time you even hit play you saw that someone scored. I really wish that feature was customizable.

[entropy]

I have to agree, today, that TD is called back. And that would be wrong

[Tony G]

In the graphics dept I like the first down line graphic.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Dumb graphics like down and distance? The time? How a team is faring on 3rd downs? Are you fucking kidding me? Watching games in the 90s and especially the 80s sucked. Watching a game without knowing even what quarter it is is a joke. You can say it goes too far sometimes, sure, but overall it's not even a comparison.

Clearly, you haven't listened to Keith Jackson or other stalwart play-by play guys of CFB in their hayday.

In games they called one never had to look at a graphic because, strange as this might seem today, Jackson, among others, doing the play by play actually knew the quarter the game was in, the down and distance for the play at hand and the score of the game. They told you when it was appropriate to do so.

Amazing!

[whodean]

And they announced it just at the time Jeff (and every other viewer watching) needed to know too!

[iam416]

I miss analog broadcasts, too, and the pre-CFA broadcast schedule/rights. Those were the days.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Prefer having the time, down/distance on the screen personally.

No graphics was fine for when there were only three networks and there was only one game, maybe two, on at any one time. You're stuck watching the one game for a couple hours. But when you're flipping around a lot to multiple games, I like being able to tell at a glance what the score is, how much time is left, etc.

[madootra]

Finding a nice balance would be great. I enjoy, and appreciate seeing the score, quarter, time left, etc at a glance......but the constant barrage of graphics, and various other on-screen annoyances are a complete pain in the ass. And yes, the announcers of the 60's, 70's, 80's were far superior to the dolts we're forced to listen to now.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The most annoying intrusion is the relentless promotion of a network's other tv shows.

But that's the way tv has gone over the past 20 years. The three networks no longer have a captive audience; there are 10,000 channels to choose from, and you've got to capture the casual viewer's attention in less then a minute or he's turned it to 'Pawn Stars'.

TV in the 70's and 80's also didn't have to compete with the internet. Speaking personally, it's amazing how much smaller of a role tv plays in my life now versus growing up in the 80's.

[madootra]

All true......

Still annoying. I feel a "Hey you kids! Get offa my lawn!" coming on......;-)

[Dr. Strangelove]

CONSENSUS REACHED ON PLAYOFFS

CHICAGO -- The BCS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick on Wednesday endorsed a seeded four-team playoff model for college football that would begin for the 2014 season.

The commissioners' consensus must be approved by the BCS presidential oversight committee, which meets June 26 in Washington D.C. If approved, the four-team playoff would replace the BCS system, which has been in place since 1998.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8078786/commissioners-reach-consensus-four-team-college-football-playoff

[drok]

Reading that article, it sounds like nothing has actually been decided yet. Plus-one is still on the table, the method of selection is still undecided, and most importantly no decision has been made on revenue split. The commissioners have basically made news out of what they have been telling the press for the past 6 months already. I think we still have a long way to go.

[DennisT]

Graphics are handy when you have Pam Ward or Musberger or whoever muted.