cactuswatcher (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cactuswatcher) wrote2008-12-18 08:35 am
cactuswatcher) wrote2008-12-18 08:35 am
Football Follies
We've seen all kinds of grasping at straws by the media this year trying to claim how unfair the BCS is. The media are the last people in the world interested in fairness in the matter. Nothing they say or do is likely to change anything. Not because they can't talk the causal fan into wanting whatever their greedily little hearts desire, but because a play-off, as they are discussing, would be great for perhaps eight teams a year and would hurt everyone else. And you could bet that as few as 10 teams out of about 120 would get 6 or 7 of those eight slots every year. That's a recipe for the collapse of the college sport. The only thing that could drive the colleges toward some sort of play-off would be a collapse of many of the minor bowls. That is not at all impossible.
The ACC championship game last year in Jacksonville was poorly attended. This year with the same two teams and farther from either campus in Tampa, the attendance was embarrassing. Last year the Big 12 championship was at least close to a sell out. This year with the same two teams, bitterly cold weather and little question about the outcome, the attendance was okay, but far from a sell-out. Some of the bowls seem in serious trouble. Putting a late December bowl game in Boise probably seemed like a good idea when it was basically an excuse to publicize Boise State. But from all reports the average Maryland fan hasn't much interest in spending the holidays in Boise, and the folks from Reno, within a day's driving distance of Boise, have bought about half the tickets that the Maryland fans have. The Humanitarian Bowl may be the most extreme example this year but it's not the only one. The Hawaii Bowl was expecting disaster, but managed to get not only the home team Hawaii, but also a sorry Notre Dame team to come. Here in Phoenix ticket sales for the two hungry teams, Kansas and Minnesota, in the Insight Bowl have been brisk. Sales for Ohio State to the Fiesta Bowl have been slow for a number of reasons. Ohio State has been to the Fiesta Bowl several times recently, so the older fans aren't as eager to see the sights in Phoenix. Ohio State has been a disappointment in recent bowl games and a considering they are in a BCS bowl it's been a disappointing season. No one in the media is mentioning that the lower division play-offs are losing money for the teams, and except for the championship games, those games are all played at home fields. The BCS as a business is laying off workers, and the NCAA can't be far behind.
All this could lead to a restructuring. Except for the SEC, the monster conferences of 12 teams each may not work in hard times unless something changes. With the media only interested in the BCS Championship game and not the other BCS games, the conferences' championship games don't have as much meaning to the average college football fan as they should. Smaller conferences might seem like a good answer. But that would make choosing the teams for the BCS Championship game tougher not easier. So perhaps a playoff might be the answer. But it will have to include at least 16 teams so that it isn't always the same teams year after year. The regular season will have to be cut back to no more than 11 games. Ten would probably be better but finances being what they are, the teams that don't get into the play-offs might not be able to make it from year to year. The first two rounds of the play-offs would have to be played at home fields. The home field advantage would be enormous, but it's doubtful you could get football-sized crowds to travel to four different neutral site games played in semi-random cities. The pros don't even try that. ( Multiple games at the same site makes the NCAA basketball tournament work. While the ticket packages create plenty of sales, the actual attendance for each game in the earliest round sometimes isn't 50%) The last two rounds probably would be played at neutral sites two or three weeks apart, and also figuring that like the Super Bowl ticket allotments, the allotments to each school for the championship game would not actually be very large compared to the size of the crowd. So the final game would be mostly a media event not a fun thing between a couple of schools, which is what the media has been aiming for all along.
The only good thing is that this sort of play-off would largely be forced by economics not by the belly-aching of the press.
The ACC championship game last year in Jacksonville was poorly attended. This year with the same two teams and farther from either campus in Tampa, the attendance was embarrassing. Last year the Big 12 championship was at least close to a sell out. This year with the same two teams, bitterly cold weather and little question about the outcome, the attendance was okay, but far from a sell-out. Some of the bowls seem in serious trouble. Putting a late December bowl game in Boise probably seemed like a good idea when it was basically an excuse to publicize Boise State. But from all reports the average Maryland fan hasn't much interest in spending the holidays in Boise, and the folks from Reno, within a day's driving distance of Boise, have bought about half the tickets that the Maryland fans have. The Humanitarian Bowl may be the most extreme example this year but it's not the only one. The Hawaii Bowl was expecting disaster, but managed to get not only the home team Hawaii, but also a sorry Notre Dame team to come. Here in Phoenix ticket sales for the two hungry teams, Kansas and Minnesota, in the Insight Bowl have been brisk. Sales for Ohio State to the Fiesta Bowl have been slow for a number of reasons. Ohio State has been to the Fiesta Bowl several times recently, so the older fans aren't as eager to see the sights in Phoenix. Ohio State has been a disappointment in recent bowl games and a considering they are in a BCS bowl it's been a disappointing season. No one in the media is mentioning that the lower division play-offs are losing money for the teams, and except for the championship games, those games are all played at home fields. The BCS as a business is laying off workers, and the NCAA can't be far behind.
All this could lead to a restructuring. Except for the SEC, the monster conferences of 12 teams each may not work in hard times unless something changes. With the media only interested in the BCS Championship game and not the other BCS games, the conferences' championship games don't have as much meaning to the average college football fan as they should. Smaller conferences might seem like a good answer. But that would make choosing the teams for the BCS Championship game tougher not easier. So perhaps a playoff might be the answer. But it will have to include at least 16 teams so that it isn't always the same teams year after year. The regular season will have to be cut back to no more than 11 games. Ten would probably be better but finances being what they are, the teams that don't get into the play-offs might not be able to make it from year to year. The first two rounds of the play-offs would have to be played at home fields. The home field advantage would be enormous, but it's doubtful you could get football-sized crowds to travel to four different neutral site games played in semi-random cities. The pros don't even try that. ( Multiple games at the same site makes the NCAA basketball tournament work. While the ticket packages create plenty of sales, the actual attendance for each game in the earliest round sometimes isn't 50%) The last two rounds probably would be played at neutral sites two or three weeks apart, and also figuring that like the Super Bowl ticket allotments, the allotments to each school for the championship game would not actually be very large compared to the size of the crowd. So the final game would be mostly a media event not a fun thing between a couple of schools, which is what the media has been aiming for all along.
The only good thing is that this sort of play-off would largely be forced by economics not by the belly-aching of the press.
no subject
There are a few things:
1. ACC expansion has been a fiasco, on the field anyway. They get TV money for having a game, but no one has ever wanted to go to the ACC Conf title game. In no small part because the league hasn't had a super team since they went to 12. And Boston College simply doesn't travel. Plus, it's diminished the basketball league. Once you have to break a round robin, you've got too many teams.
2. Maryland to Boise. We were disappointed to begin with by our season. And that trip costs a minimum of $600 for flights alone. We're not going to freeze ourselves in Boise, in an economic crunch. Heck, none of the mostly warm-weather ACC fans have wanted to go there. Boise's supposed to be a nice town, and Georgia Tech brought 205 people there last year.
no subject
no subject
I guess they'll winter in Tahoe.