(01-11-2022 09:48 AM)miko33 Wrote:  

(01-11-2022 09:29 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-11-2022 09:22 AM)miko33 Wrote:  

(01-10-2022 06:25 PM)ken d Wrote:  I don't get it. Why would we want to watch inferior teams play instead of Alabama and Georgia? Didn't we just get to watch about 80 of them play in bowl games during the past month? Frankly, it beats watching yet another rerun of NCIS. I'll certainly be watching. I appreciate excellence.

Interesting take. My responses below.

Quote:Why would we want to watch inferior teams play instead of Alabama and Georgia?

Compelling argument if Alabama and Georgia were the pinnacle of American football. They aren't. The NFL is the pinnacle of American football, and if you're basing this on excellence and avoiding inferiority, then it's for naught because CFB is already an inferior product vs the NFL. So there has to be another reason besides this to compel someone to watch it.

Quote:Didn't we just get to watch about 80 of them play in bowl games during the past month?

The bowl games always had their warts. However, people who feel a connection to their university - whether as an alumnus, geographical location or whatever other reason - will choose to watch their school no matter how crappy the venue or opponent is. Having said that, the bowls cannot be salvaged at this point in time due to more and more players with good NFL draft prospects skipping the games out of fear of injury. If these universities want us to believe in the "spirit of amateur sports for school spirit or hometown pride" then the best players should not be allowed to skip the bowls. It would be like high school kids skipping the state championship game and playoffs so as to not get injured and ruin their CFB scholarship opportunities.

Quote:Frankly, it beats watching yet another rerun of NCIS.

Strawman. There are lot more other entertainment options besides watching a rerun of "yet another crime drama".

Quote:I appreciate excellence.

Excellence in what exactly? Buying prospects to field a football team? I have a very hard time supporting football factories who basically act like the big market teams in MLB collecting most of the top end talent while the vast majority of the rest are like the small market MLB teams fighting for scraps to field a team. Funny how the best CFB teams just happen to have talent procurement machines to buy the best talent they can get their hands on. See Urban Meyer as yet another pitiful failure of a CFB "genius" who showed how incompetent he truly was when he had to compete against other teams with equivalent talent.

I feel bad for any fan of college football who missed last night's game. It was a great game, filled with excitement, big plays, hard hitting, and emotion.

It probably was a good game. But CFB - IMHO at least - is a broken system that most closely resembles MLB from a competitive standpoint. CFB is trying to be two things that are contradictory given the nature of the sport today. It wants to appeal to the "hometown pride" and the "school spirit" vibe by talking about all the traditions, rivalry games and the like. But at the same time it's trying to push the sport into being a more professional endeavor with the prospect of paying players a wage and even allowing them to get product endorsement deals. That's not amateur status.

From the POV of a sports fan who wants to see real competition and tension - the gross lack of parity needs to be addressed. Never mind the fact these sports are grossly out of line with the missions of the universities...