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It's been a while but it's back!
The largest crowd in the 140+ year history of college football, close to 157,000 people, saw Tennessee defeat Virginia Tech. That mostly goes to prove there are a lot of football fans in the area, the Appalachian Mountains between Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky, and a lot of suckers to boot. No matter how much you love your team you ought to be a little leery of games held away from one of the home fields. They are certainly not held for the convenience of the fans. In this case the game was held at an auto racing tracing track. Now the difference between and auto racing track/stadium and a football stadium ought to be fairly clear. Most college football stadiums, once upon a time, had 1/4 mile long foot racing tracks around the football field. The track at Bristol, Tennessee is a small auto racing track at 1/2 mile. The idea of an auto racing stadium is to be able to see what is happening on the track nearby. The idea of a football stadium is to see what is going on inside the track. If you've ever flown over an auto racing stadium the difference between the two is dramatic.
It was pointed out several times recently that a couple entire professional baseball stadiums or the entire giant University of Michigan football stadium could fit inside the viewing area of the Bristol track. Did no one buying tickets understand that meant, for viewing a football game, the absolute worst, nose-bleed seat at the Michigan stadium has a better view of the field than any seat at the auto track? The promoters at least realized that no one sitting near field-level would be able to see a darn thing. So four giant TV sets were suspended over the middle of the field. So you could spend up to $1000 a seat (in the end zone, I was told) to sit in the same area with 157,000 other people to watch a game on TV? And then they must have known, after the game they'd sit in a monstrous traffic jam, in the middle of the night, on the only main highway through the area, either going Northeast toward Virginia Tech or Southwest toward the U of Tennessee, right? They couldn't know for certain the game would be broadcast nationwide, but if they had, they had to know anyone at home would get a better view of their TV set than those at the stadium would get of the TV sets at the stadium!
The game was a huge financial success, last night. But I wonder how many people other than students would be crazy enough to do it again? There is no accounting for fans of anything!
The talk of the day for sports reporters was the bad call by the officials at the Oklahoma State vs Central Michigan game. Oklahoma State committed a penalty as the game time expired. To make a long story shorter, the officials at the game forgot about an exception to a general rule, and allowed Central Michigan an extra play at the end of the game which allowed them to win. Another wonderful rule says that basically mistakes like that can't be corrected, once the game is over.
It brings back memories of the infamous Colorado vs Missouri fifth down game when the officials weren't paying attention and gave Colorado an extra play unknowingly, which resulted in Colorado winning the game. The serious side effect of that was that because Colorado won the game they played for and won the national championship that year. Bad call by the officials plus bad call by the sports writers to compound the error! For Missouri honestly, it didn't matter except for pride. The Mizzou team generally stunk that year and one more win wouldn't have changed anything.
The game yesterday probably isn't going to mean as much to either team. Central Michigan surely will not play for a national championship, and it is doubtful that for Oklahoma State the loss means more than possibly a lesser bowl game at the end of the season. The Big XII has not been doing well at all this year, and if the trend continues, no Big XII team is going to get into the playoffs anyway.
There are plenty of questions about yesterday's game and the rule. Why did Oklahoma State play so poorly the whole game? Given the difference between the schools in funding and the athletes they attract, C. Michigan shouldn't have had a chance... Why when they were trying to run out the clock did Oklahoma State choose to run a pass play, which if unsuccessful could stop the clock with time left? ... Why does the exception to the general rule exist? What does the loss of down on the penalty have to do with anything? Make it a rule that when time has expired, there is no penalty for intentional grounding. Don't bury the same thing as an exception in some other rule which no one, including the officials, is going to remember!
The largest crowd in the 140+ year history of college football, close to 157,000 people, saw Tennessee defeat Virginia Tech. That mostly goes to prove there are a lot of football fans in the area, the Appalachian Mountains between Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky, and a lot of suckers to boot. No matter how much you love your team you ought to be a little leery of games held away from one of the home fields. They are certainly not held for the convenience of the fans. In this case the game was held at an auto racing tracing track. Now the difference between and auto racing track/stadium and a football stadium ought to be fairly clear. Most college football stadiums, once upon a time, had 1/4 mile long foot racing tracks around the football field. The track at Bristol, Tennessee is a small auto racing track at 1/2 mile. The idea of an auto racing stadium is to be able to see what is happening on the track nearby. The idea of a football stadium is to see what is going on inside the track. If you've ever flown over an auto racing stadium the difference between the two is dramatic.
It was pointed out several times recently that a couple entire professional baseball stadiums or the entire giant University of Michigan football stadium could fit inside the viewing area of the Bristol track. Did no one buying tickets understand that meant, for viewing a football game, the absolute worst, nose-bleed seat at the Michigan stadium has a better view of the field than any seat at the auto track? The promoters at least realized that no one sitting near field-level would be able to see a darn thing. So four giant TV sets were suspended over the middle of the field. So you could spend up to $1000 a seat (in the end zone, I was told) to sit in the same area with 157,000 other people to watch a game on TV? And then they must have known, after the game they'd sit in a monstrous traffic jam, in the middle of the night, on the only main highway through the area, either going Northeast toward Virginia Tech or Southwest toward the U of Tennessee, right? They couldn't know for certain the game would be broadcast nationwide, but if they had, they had to know anyone at home would get a better view of their TV set than those at the stadium would get of the TV sets at the stadium!
The game was a huge financial success, last night. But I wonder how many people other than students would be crazy enough to do it again? There is no accounting for fans of anything!
The talk of the day for sports reporters was the bad call by the officials at the Oklahoma State vs Central Michigan game. Oklahoma State committed a penalty as the game time expired. To make a long story shorter, the officials at the game forgot about an exception to a general rule, and allowed Central Michigan an extra play at the end of the game which allowed them to win. Another wonderful rule says that basically mistakes like that can't be corrected, once the game is over.
It brings back memories of the infamous Colorado vs Missouri fifth down game when the officials weren't paying attention and gave Colorado an extra play unknowingly, which resulted in Colorado winning the game. The serious side effect of that was that because Colorado won the game they played for and won the national championship that year. Bad call by the officials plus bad call by the sports writers to compound the error! For Missouri honestly, it didn't matter except for pride. The Mizzou team generally stunk that year and one more win wouldn't have changed anything.
The game yesterday probably isn't going to mean as much to either team. Central Michigan surely will not play for a national championship, and it is doubtful that for Oklahoma State the loss means more than possibly a lesser bowl game at the end of the season. The Big XII has not been doing well at all this year, and if the trend continues, no Big XII team is going to get into the playoffs anyway.
There are plenty of questions about yesterday's game and the rule. Why did Oklahoma State play so poorly the whole game? Given the difference between the schools in funding and the athletes they attract, C. Michigan shouldn't have had a chance... Why when they were trying to run out the clock did Oklahoma State choose to run a pass play, which if unsuccessful could stop the clock with time left? ... Why does the exception to the general rule exist? What does the loss of down on the penalty have to do with anything? Make it a rule that when time has expired, there is no penalty for intentional grounding. Don't bury the same thing as an exception in some other rule which no one, including the officials, is going to remember!