Championship game rating

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

Getting sponsors has over ridden fair play. Money has spoiled college football. It is no longer an amateur sport. Demographics and viewership is more important than leveling the playing field. Even some of our fans are happy with just sharing the wealth over competing for the conference. We have reached a sad level where entertainment is king.

That is the real villain. Money. It's why the NCAA looks the other way from LSU's basketball and football's publicized ventures into cheating. Let those stories be even hinted at for any other team than the top tier and watch the wrath of the toothless NCAA fall upon their heads.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

He did that gig already and wants no part of it. 6'8" adult lineman don't give a rats arse if he turns red, hollers and the veins in his neck bulge when he looks up into their eyes.

I think you missed the true content of his post.

 

[Captain Ron]

Notre Dame was the one that shouldn't have been in.

in your opinion they should not have been in. In the opinion of the people that matter, they should have been based on the accepted criteria.

I was only giving my opinion of what would have been more enticing game for me. Not an uncommon theme amongst my peers.

Again, I have a real problem with a team getting in playing that few games, but the system is what it is right now. The same one that said ND should be there.

 

[johnson86-1]

This is the one thing that may change the game for the better and drive it back to greater parity. When bama winning every year starts to hurt the big boy wallets, the phantom calls and recruiting blind eyes may change.

NCAA sports are a business first and student function 2nd or 3rd.

I also think this type of change would drive saban to retire while he's on the pedestal and let the next guy take the hit.

NCAA is a money making business first. It's a jobs program and a marketing function for schools second and third (not sure of the order for those). Students, whether athletes or otherwise, come fourth.

 

[johnson86-1]

I think the problem is two fold:

1. Yes there is Bama/blue blood fatigue. A competitive league can't thrive when the outcome is known before hand. MLB figured this out with the Yankees in the 1960s when they started the draft and free agency & the NFL has long understood the concept & how much more passion & commitment parity brings small markets like Cleveland, Buffalo, & KC. Not that those teams are all time great franchises, but because the fan base knows there is a path to success, they have hope & hope drives interest.

2. Secondly, I think there is some correlation between passion for a team & being able to attend games. It's hard for people to feel as connected & passionate about a team when they have not recently been surrounded & been able to fellowship with other fans of that their team. Being able to attend a few games a year in a packed stadium, with tailgaiting, walk throughs, etc drives the passion of the sport &, in a year without that, I think passion for sports in general fell.

I think that your second part plays into it, but I think it's more about habits. People were in the habit of watching a lot of sports. WHen they got out of the habit, a lot of them realized they didn't miss it as much as they would have thought, and haven't come back, or probably more commonly, have come back, but just not as consistent viewers as they were before.

We still don't eat out as much as we did before quarantine. We've replaced some of that eating out with pick up orders, but overall we're spending less at restaurants. Didn't really plan to or make any effort to cut back. We just had old habits broken and new habits have taken their place.

 

[57stratdawg]

I think the reason for this is because sports have been 'drowned out' of the mainstream conversations some. Between the Pandemic, the Election, riots, protests, insurgency, etc., sports programming just isn't getting discussed in day to day lives as much right now.

I also think that pausing the season(s) in 2020 really hurt, because that viewership-momentum is very real. There's an aspect of 'tune in next time..' when we watch our teams play. Each game is a bit of an episode that builds throughout the season. When that gets interrupted, it's hard to recapture people's attention.

 

[bruiser.sixpack]

I believe three things attributed to PGA Tour being up.

1) Tiger being back out there for most of the tour.
2) Rory McElroy and Dustin Johnson long ball exhibitions.
3) DeChambreau Gripping and Ripping 400+ yards.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

It's a year without in-person fans. The product is lesser. Of course viewership and interest is down. Not rocket science.

The Bama problem was there before this year, though, so yeah, boredom is absolutely setting in with it.

 

[Msubulldogfan1]

It's a year without in-person fans. The product is lesser. Of course viewership and interest is down. Not rocket science.

The Bama problem was there before this year, though, so yeah, boredom is absolutely setting in with it.

You hit the nail, having no fans is absolutely a lesser product. I would attribute this as the primary reason for less ratings.

 

[thekimmer]

I think the problem is two fold:

1. Yes there is Bama/blue blood fatigue. A competitive league can't thrive when the outcome is known before hand. MLB figured this out with the Yankees in the 1960s when they started the draft and free agency & the NFL has long understood the concept & how much more passion & commitment parity brings small markets like Cleveland, Buffalo, & KC. Not that those teams are all time great franchises, but because the fan base knows there is a path to success, they have hope & hope drives interest.

This is so true. There has long been enough money involved in college football. it just took longer to get to this point because of the size and diversity of CFB. The playoff finally provided a system to organize the talent around a few select programs. I say abolish the playoff system altogether and go back to the old bowl and poll system. Yes, it was unfair too but not as much as the current system that effectively shuts everybody out except 4 or 5 teams. I'd rather have seasons where two or even three teams stake a claim to a NC than just one team from the same 3 or 4 over and over again.