Took me a while to get in on this but Pennsy, IMO you are spot on. I will give another example that is small, but to me speaks volumes.
My mother is 89 years old. She graduated from NU in '52. She has lived in Lincoln most of her adult life and she loves the Huskers. Talks about how she would sit through blow out losses to support he team, as well as stay to very end of the blow out wins to watch every single 6th stringer play. Once the kids were out of the house she went to every Big 8/Big 12 road game. She still understands football better than many younger, male fans, although it was always funny to watch her stand at Memorial Stadium when she was in her 60's and shout out cheers from her era.
But despite making a short story long, the point of this is that I called her after the game yesterday and she said that she'd had the game on but hadn't watched much of it. This from someone who sat glued to her TV every second for every game she didn't attend in person. That my mother has reached the point that when NU is on she doesn't watch much of the game speaks volumes. Very sad volumes.