(10-07-2014 04:07 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote:  Stop making games 4:30 minutes long, for starters (which they can't, because they are too greedy).

In fariness, as quoted above, they actually shortened games a few years ago. The games are longer now, not because of extra commercials or breaks that were not there before (as in the last decade), but because of passing offenses that result in more clock stoppages.

(10-07-2014 04:37 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  

(10-07-2014 04:07 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote:  Stop making games 4:30 minutes long, for starters (which they can't, because they are too greedy).

In fariness, as quoted above, they actually shortened games a few years ago. The games are longer now, not because of extra commercials or breaks that were not there before (as in the last decade), but because of passing offenses that result in more clock stoppages.

Old WAC games weren't 4-5 hour sagas even with the old stoppage rules. The games simply didn't cut away every time it could like it does now, even with a faster clock.

(10-07-2014 04:07 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote:  Stop making games 4:30 minutes long, for starters (which they can't, because they are too greedy).

And for all those who are criticizing "this generation" for not wanting to be subjected to 2:30 hours of ads, I think you need to re-evaluate who has the better side of the argument.

Exactly. The students are being criticized for having enough sense to come in out of the rain late at night in a blow out win.

I actually recorded that game and tried to watch it Sunday morning, and it still felt like torture to me even though I was fast forwarding through the comercials. There was something else going on that made it feel like the game was being dragged out forever. So right about the time the students left in the 3Q was the time I gave up too and start fast forwarding through the game itself. And you what, the clock STILL was not moving!

That was just a long, dragged out game without any good explanation. It was just horrible trying to watch it.

On a cold wet net in East Lansing in october I would have taken my cold wet butt to the house too..

They are in their dorms playing FIFA. The closest they get to football is their latest copy of Madden. We have raised a generation of social mis-fits. Attending a college football game would require face to face social contact. Something today's college age slacker finds exhausting.

I am reminded of this from Hot Tub Time Machine:

Jacob: I'm kinda right in the middle of a thing right now, but can I text you later?
Girl at Club: Can you what?
Jacob: Are you online at all?
Girl at Club: I have no idea what you're talking about.
Jacob: How do I get a hold of you?
Girl at Club: You come find me.
Jacob: That sounds... exhausting.

Keep in mind not only are you expecting today's college slacker to leave his dorm room, Big Ten schools are asking that he come sit in the cold too. Totally unacceptable to the college cream puffs of today.
CJ

That is an exceptional piece of fiction CardinalJim.

(10-08-2014 03:39 AM)CardinalJim Wrote:  They are in their dorms playing FIFA. The closest they get to football is their latest copy of Madden. We have raised a generation of social mis-fits. Attending a college football game would require face to face social contact. Something today's college age slacker finds exhausting.

I am reminded of this from Hot Tub Time Machine:

Jacob: I'm kinda right in the middle of a thing right now, but can I text you later?
Girl at Club: Can you what?
Jacob: Are you online at all?
Girl at Club: I have no idea what you're talking about.
Jacob: How do I get a hold of you?
Girl at Club: You come find me.
Jacob: That sounds... exhausting.

Keep in mind not only are you expecting today's college slacker to leave his dorm room, Big Ten schools are asking that he come sit in the cold too. Totally unacceptable to the college cream puffs of today.
CJ

Sounds kind of like Mike Leach's rant about the eventual extinction of our species.

(10-07-2014 08:23 AM)He1nousOne Wrote:  TV didn't cause those students to not be there. They were already there. It was a long game, it was a late game. It was raining. Up until the very end, Nebraska wasn't even making it a game. Michigan State stopped playing and started to just run the clock.

It was Saturday night, they had other things to go do that they cant do in the Stadium....like drink and use free Wi Fi in order to catch up on whatever it is they needed to catch up on and plan for the night.

Do you folks ever watch other Michigan State games? This isn't a common occurrence.

It was a combination of things that caused this

Yep, it the game was 21-17, good weather then students hang around longer.

College needs to adopt the NFL clock rules. No more stopping the clock after every first down. That one change would probably shorten games by 30 mins or so.

(10-08-2014 02:02 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  College needs to adopt the NFL clock rules. No more stopping the clock after every first down. That one change would probably shorten games by 30 mins or so.

i don't mind the length of a game if they are actually playing it - so the clock stoppages for first downs and out-of-bounds plays are fine with me. it's the commercial time outs that make me turn the tv off.

i used to watch notre dame games until they moved to the "notre dame network" (nbc) and their games starting taking all day to watch. the commercial time outs were too frequent and too long. even tough their away games played under different tv rules, i was out of the habit of watching notre dame play - so i haven't watched them play football in a decade or so now.

fortunately, as we're rarely on tv, the games go along at a fairly good pace under the same official rules everyone plays under. the only difference is tv time outs.

(10-08-2014 02:14 PM)e-bethMSU Wrote:  

(10-08-2014 02:02 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  College needs to adopt the NFL clock rules. No more stopping the clock after every first down. That one change would probably shorten games by 30 mins or so.

i don't mind the length of a game if they are actually playing it - so the clock stoppages for first downs and out-of-bounds plays are fine with me. it's the commercial time outs that make me turn the tv off.

i used to watch notre dame games until they moved to the "notre dame network" (nbc) and their games starting taking all day to watch. the commercial time outs were too frequent and too long. even tough their away games played under different tv rules, i was out of the habit of watching notre dame play - so i haven't watched them play football in a decade or so now.

fortunately, as we're rarely on tv, the games go along at a fairly good pace under the same official rules everyone plays under. the only difference is tv time outs.

The commercial time outs stink, but those aren't ever going away. The NFL clock rules would get the games back to a more manageable time. It's not like the NFL doesn't have plenty of commercial breaks but they somehow manage to not play 4 1/2 hour marathon games. Stopping the clock after every first down wasn't so bad when offenses were 60 to 70% run and teams weren't trying to run plays as quickly as possible. Now when teams routinely throw 40+ times per game and try to run as many plays as quickly as possible it's making the games last too long.

(10-08-2014 02:02 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  College needs to adopt the NFL clock rules. No more stopping the clock after every first down. That one change would probably shorten games by 30 mins or so.

The only stop it to move the chains, then it starts up again. That might shorten the game by maybe five minutes. If that.

(10-08-2014 08:08 AM)He1nousOne Wrote:  That is an exceptional piece of fiction CardinalJim.

I pretty much have to agree. Rutgers is consistently filling its student section up since basically 2006. I think the real reasons have been stated and its not just turning current students and younger fans off its turning everyone off.

The reality is the TV timeouts are too frequent and too long and are making the games take 4.5 hours. I'd rather see college football go towards a kit sponsor model a la soccer and have some rotating sideline advertising a la soccer and have less interruptions. It would make the games much more enjoyable both when I'm in the stands and when I'm watching at home. If we could get it so commercial breaks only happen in between periods, during halftime and during official or team timeouts it would be much better. And the commercials need to end when the official/team timeout ends no extending that an extra minute to squeeze another 2 or 3 ads in. The NFL has done a better job with forcing the networks to limit the commercials some and the games are usually over in about 3 hours as opposed to the nearly 4 hours (at night usually even longer) we have in the college game. If both the NFL and college could get it down to 2 hours 45 minutes on average it would make for a better experience for everyone.

It is funny how the conferences have pushed this conference loyalty thing but what that causes is for people to no longer just follow their own team but to follow many teams, entire conferences and to some degree...the entire landscape of college football.

Taking the time to tailgate, attend the entire game and then make your way back out of the stadium and on to wherever you are going next....that means missing a lot of college football since so much of it is on TV now.

Does the death of regionalism in college football mean that ticket sales will go down as great match ups are always to be found on tv? This last weekend was a great Saturday of College Football.