(01-14-2018 07:17 PM)ken d Wrote: I've been a fan of college football since a time when games on TV were rare, they were all in black and white, and all players played on both offense and defense. Now, 60 years later, I'd say college football has never been better than it is today.
Back then, nobody was talking about "major" and "minor" programs and conferences. But the number of schools who were legitimate contenders was pretty small. Schools like Alabama could keep competitors from getting better by giving scholarships to everybody in sight, then burying them deep on the bench so they couldn't play for somebody else.
Does ESPN deserve all the credit for the strides we have made since those days? Not all of it, but surely a lot of it.
I'm not quite at 60 years but I remember only two games being on most Saturday's. If you lived in Central Arkansas that meant a SWC game in the morning followed by an ABC game of the week which was generally a SWC or Big 8 game. Big 10 you saw Ohio State vs. Michigan and not much else. SEC generally Bama-Tenn or the Iron Bowl and not much else. Pac-8 you saw USC-UCLA, independents you saw Penn St and Pitt. If you lived in eastern Arkansas and could pick up Memphis TV you could see an SEC game and an ABC game that was generally SEC or SWC or Big 8. If you lived close enough to Jonesboro you could get the SWC morning game on Jonesboro TV and SEC on Memphis.
Later with WTBS we could get a night game!
After the ABC game you had the Prudential scoreboard show that would have highlights from the ABC regional games you didn't see and sometimes ABC would send a cameraman to someone like ECU that was ranked or a game with a ranked big conference team that wasn't on TV and send a few highlights in.
When ABC sent a crew to film highlights of an Arkansas State game in 1975 it got mentioned by the Jonesboro Sun, Arkansas Gazette, Arkansas Democrat, Memphis Commercial-Appeal, and Memphis Press-Scimitar just getting highlights on national TV was news.
Bowl games? Not only were there fewer bowl games but in most markets you couldn't even watch all of the few that existed. If a bowl was on the Mizlou Network it was the whims of the local station managers to determine if you would get to see it.
If you were the fan of a MAC team living in LA you'd never see your team on TV. If you were a Pac-8 fan living on the east coast and your team wasn't USC or UCLA you might see them every few years and even then maybe only in a bowl game.
Today, outside of a smattering of games on conference subscription only websites and Pac-12 Network games, I can watch every FBS team play and if the mood were to strike a good number of FCS and Division II schools.
In 2016 Western Michigan as undefeated MAC champion could go play #8 Wisconisin in the Cotton Bowl in 1986 if they had done that they would have played San Jose State in Fresno in the California Bowl.
In 1968 and 1969 the WAC champion couldn't land a bowl bid.
In 1980 five I-A conference champs didn't play in a bowl (MAC - Central Michigan, PCAA/Big West - Long Beach State, MoValley - Tulsa, Southern - Furman, and of course Ivy - Yale). A total of 8 schools that weren't on probation and weren't in the Ivy didn't make a bowl with 8 or 9 wins.
No way I'd turn the clock back.
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The year college football died due to realignment?
