One of the talking heads who argued for what college football has become has a question about what college football has become:
If anything, it’s worth checking out the comments to his question. Seems he takes umbrage to anyone claiming that Saturdays do not feel the same, and he gets skewered in doing so. I’m guessing he may have wished he hadn’t asked, but I’m sure he does not care.
How’s your Saturdays in the fall feel now? Are you as eagerly looking forward to college football as you’ve been in the past?
I’ve gotta say the enthusiasm is fading. The costs, the not knowing my roster from year to year, the greed of college presidents and general NIL feel make me feel like the end is nearing. The Senator was spot on.
No, it feels like a money grab that has it’s stench drownded in Axe Body Spray. The South Park creators’ commentary on what Disney did to the IPs they bought up certainly extends to CFB. UGA thinking we were put on this earth to be ATM machines is buttcheeks, too!
The ONLY remaining decent thing about CFB are the Saturday afternoons, and the money-chasers who now run the sport are hard at work trying to fuck that up too. I quit watching CBB because of similar crap and the only thing keeping me engaged with CFB (which is now basically watching UGA and bits of other SEC games) is 40 years of muscle memory. I like Josh, but he has a way of rationalizing and defending the destruction of the game that is disappointing and clearly motivated by his own self-interests.
How you feel about CFB today. Probably has a lot to do with how successful your team is at navigating the current system.
I’d hate to know how much less I’d be interested when my team made the playoff.
I still love coming to Athens (youth football currently making that a lot harder notwithstanding), so the non-football part of it feels pretty much the same. The traditions are mostly still the same. You could take early 2000s college me and drop me in the stadium and my response would be “so, this stadium is looking good…WAIT, WE WON BACK TO BACK NATTIES?!?!?”
But the games just feel less important overall. Even the SECCG last year was for seeding, and none of the regular season games feels nearly as critical. I get that people didn’t like the idea that the season was probably shot after a September loss to South Carolina, but it always made the second game feel HUGE.
I’ll reserve judgement on the brackets. My experience at the Sugar Bowl was probably too affected by the truck attack, so that probably has a lot to do with why it felt so dead. Even the ND fans were subdued. But the ticket prices of the first and second round games last year tells me most fans are viewing them as fluff.
In Pate’s defense, he wasn’t a fan of playoff expansion. Not sure about conference realignment … I’m too lazy to go back into the archives on that. He seems to think the portal and NIL need to be reformed but supports them.
I can’t wait to be back in Athens on Labor Day weekend (even though playing Marshall at home over UCLA in Pasadena sucks). I’ll watch the Dawgs from home on the road. I plan to be part of the Dawg invasion of MBS on Thanksgiving weekend. Other than that, I really don’t give a rat’s ass about the sport any more.
Said differently, when Georgia’s season is over, my viewing interest will be as well.
I think Pate’s point is that fall Saturdays are still the best thing going no matter what the powers that be do to screw it up.
Despite Micky Mouse and the so called pundits trying their best to screw it up, and have succeeded in many areas, I still enjoy the hell out of watching the Dawgs run out on the field and spank some ass.
I don’t think Mickey and the pundits will screw it up. They have too much financial risk around the demise of college sports.
Judges, college administrators, lawyers (sorry, esteemed members of the bar who hang out here), agents and politicians will be the ones who screw this up. The brave new world where athletes will not be students or be subject to academic standards and potentially have unlimited eligibility (there’s a lawsuit going for that right now) and a future work stoppage will be what brings the whole system to the ground.
Pate seems like a pretty thoughtful guy, but I’m way past tired of media people who make a living from hyping college football telling me why the continuing oversaturation of college football is great for me. It really is like Disney buying up IP, and then proceeding to crank out all the movies they can to capitalize on the name recognition. They don’t care if the movies are good (so many are garbage), let’s just slap a Star Wars tag on it, and hope nostalgia makes it a hit.
Conference expansion is awful. 12 is a bit unwieldy, but it got us the SECC, which has been great. 14 and 16? Not really a conference any more. I am not afraid to play any of the last 4 additions in a non conference game, a bowl, the cfp. But I don’t care about any of them per se. I care about our geographic, traditional rivals. It seems to be “let’s improve college football by ruining what made it special.”
Sure, let’s beat each other to death all season for ESPN, then move into an expanded CFP against teams that don’t have to do what we do. Ohio St had 3 decent conference games, lost 2 of them. Clemson played one good team in the regular season and got smoked. And how did Texas end up with the easiest SEC schedule, but still lost 2x to us?
They’re trying to calibrate our emotional connection to CFB, and use that to maximize how much money they can get from us. This is the same model as Disney World, right? Play in the emotions. Open the wallets. Do players deserve some of the billions college suits have feasted on? Sure. That’s fair. But the mini NFL model we seem headed toward? Collective bargaining? Work stoppages? Private equity firms poking their noses into the tent? Nope. Not for me.
I grew up with game or two a week on tv, and Munson on the radio. I like UGA being on tv every week, but I can survive without it. I’m not quite there. Yet. But I feel like we are headed there. The suits and the bean counters won’t miss me.
Disney Parks actually provide a guest experience for the time being worth every penny I give them.
Yes, ESPN is the devil.
I still like it but they are trying so hard to make me not care about it anymore. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said on this subject. They could have their NIL and portal and still make it where it wasn’t a total free for all but they don’t want to do that. That’s the biggest issue for me rigjt now. I can’t keep up with who is on the damn team because it’s constantly changing. That’s aggravating as hell to me.
There’s no point in trying to g to talk sense to a guy like Pate. He’s young and thinks he knows everything. If you poo t out how the sport is being ruined he will just dismiss you as old and afraid of change. And he will gleefully point out that the sport is more popular than ever before. The problem is that will only remain true for a while. People will put up with all this until they can’t anymore and then they will leave either outright or will only watch games that they really feel are worth watching. They aren’t going to force everybody to excited about these games that don’t mean anything and those are increasing in number.
He did say on his show this week (or with David Pollack) that the sport is at risk of going the way of NASCAR or professional wrestling.
I was just about to comment on NASCAR when I saw your comment. For me, once the powers that be decided that rubbin’, in fact, was not racin’, I just about decided I’d had enough. When Jr. decided to tow the corporate line, unlike Sr. and when they basically ran Tony Stewart out of the sport for racing like it was meant to be, I was out. Never went back.
Both great comparisons that I think about all the time.
I think Pate is absolutely a traditionalist when it comes to the sport. He’s one of the few talking heads I’ll listen to. His take on Georgia right now is really poor, but I’ve generally agreed with much of what he has said.
If you listen to the clip, he’s not being a talking head douche.
His question ignores the effects of time. I was age 70 last season. The 3 hour round trip drive on game day is harder. The walk to the stadium from my car and back takes more energy. No one is left from my game day crew from 40 years ago. My interests in life and my responsibilities have changed. The sport could be just as it was in 1984 and for me at age 70, no, Saturdays did not feel the same.
The factor that those of us answering the question have to consider is how much our loss of enthusiasm on Saturdays is due to being 20 or 30 years older.
I’m 69 and right there with you. Once we went to every game home and away. We had a large tailgate crew making every Saturday in the fall special. This season probably Bama, TU maybe OM and I’ll never get tired of beating FU. I am staying on the post season train as long as this ride lasts.
For the first time since March 1980 I waited until literally the last hour to make the contribution and order tickets. I decided to do it because of the Alabama, Texas and Mississippi tickets. I debated up until the end, however.
Me too. Only reason was the schedule and the thought that I can pay for my 4 with my extra 2 thanks to Stub Hub. Alabama game will net about $1,000 per, Texas $850 per, Ole Miss $600 per and KY $250 per. The rest $125 per.
The way that adds up is $6,150. Those tickets cost, including the 4 I use $6960, so I get my 6 tickets for a net total of $800 dollars. Not a bad price for 35 yard line lower level south seats. Less than $20 a seat.
I am not watching as many games in the fall nor keeping up with the news as closely as I did. If it wasn’t for this community, I am not sure I’d be keep ing up with much of any off season news. 2 years in a row I have not watched the championship game.
He is talking about Michigan? in the opening. My thought is why do I need to watch Michigan in an expanded playoff? Further with more traditional rivalries falling I have less that draws me in. USC vs a rust belt tradition mid to lower Big10 does little for me, even if both are looking to making the playoff.
However, under the BCS or even 4 team playoff, another loss to one of those teams may much more directly open up the door for a team I am interested in. So now, I am not going to even have the TV tuned in to see that 4th and 1 moment.
My complaints about the landscape is much more playoff and traditional match up driven than NIL, transfer while that further squashing my interest.
If he really wants to debate the point rather defend the evolution:
Change the teams to inthescenario mentioned into a comparision of what would you do if it were Rutgers vs UCLA, and then Pitt vs West Virginia
Would you have the game on in the first place, could you even be drawn in off seeing the score? Pitt vs West Virginia, that is a game I might spend a few hours watching. Rutgers vs UCLA no interest.
He hasn’t defended the evolution. He was and is anti-expansion. He was using the regular season version of 2 Mules Fighting over a Turnip to illustrate his point. Substitute the Iron Bowl, the Cocktail Party or Texas-A&M among others in his example.
I’m fading. The cost, Transfer/NIL trends and scheduling to make ESPN happy have taken a toll.
I still thoroughly enjoy the sausage. I am, however thoroughly disgusted seeing it made.
What’s really bad is watching your ticket priority deteriorate over the years.
Used to get all the away games. Auburn went away years ago. Bama, Ole Miss, Nada. And for the first time, this year, no TN tickets. Damn that Magill Society!!!!!!!
Honestly, my interest is fading. I still LOVE CFB and UGA specifically, but it’s not to the same level it was just 5-10 years ago. For me, some of what made CFB special has left.