See if you can spot the laugher in this Dan Wolken lede.
Over the entire history of sports in America, there is only one day on the calendar that is synonymous with college football. Is it too much to ask of the people who supposedly look out for the best interests of this sport to treat New Year’s Day with the respect it deserves?
For all the things the College Football Playoff has gotten right, it’s gotten one big thing wrong: Two out of every three years, New Year’s Day is now all but irrelevant. And for a sport that supposedly cares about tradition, its inability to protect the one day it has owned since the early 1900s is an act of self-sabotage that defies all common sense.
Having trouble? Here, let me help:
Over the entire history of sports in America, there is only one day on the calendar that is synonymous with college football. Is it too much to ask of the people who supposedly look out for the best interests of this sport to treat New Year’s Day with the respect it deserves?
For all the things the College Football Playoff has gotten right, it’s gotten one big thing wrong: Two out of every three years, New Year’s Day is now all but irrelevant. And for a sport that supposedly cares about tradition, its inability to protect the one day it has owned since the early 1900s is an act of self-sabotage that defies all common sense. [Emphasis added.]
[Narrator’s voice: It doesn’t.]
Get The Picture 
Imagine a better positioned company than Sears – the mail order KING for 100+ years – to take advantage of the new economy.
But no, the name synonymous with mail order (a Sears HOUSE anyone!) let it slip through their fingers to Amazon by not doing a simple website, etc.
He is right, Imagine College Football WILLINGLY giving up the only other day a year that most people are inside, with time on their hands to watch the advertising and games. Wow, impressive stupidity, indeed.
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For years a whole lot of fans pleaded for a playoff. Finally the Disney company bought one and fans were so excited that “they will settle it on the field” that they overlooked that it was set up to be programming for ESPN.
I still believe the BCS was a better set-up.
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Great reference to Sears. Sears had the best warehousing and distribution system in the world. It then decided in the 1980s to get into the financial services business and got bored with retail.
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Complain all we want but to the people in charge, CFB is nothing but content that generates steady income. Whoever has the contract will do whatever it takes to maximize that income during that contract and no further. Trust me, ESPN is well aware of the damage they’re doing to the sport long term and of the risks and costs associated with that. Why should they care? Long as they’re making more than they’re paying for the contract. And the next.
Like the coke head son of the car dealer in Horrible Bosses. “This place is nothing but a f’n ATM machine to me.” That’s ESPN.
If they have any long term plan, it’s probably best summarized in one word: soccer.
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“ESPN is well aware of the damage they’re doing to the sport long term and of the risks and costs associated with that. Why should they care? Long as they’re making more than they’re paying for the contract. And the next.”
Ding, ding.
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ESPN doesn’t have a long term plan because they know there’s likely not a long-term plan for football once the CTE research and the lawyers are done with it. The people at Disney aren’t dummies. They are going to monetize the game as much as they possibly can. They know the sport is regional, but they have to do everything they can to nationalize it. That means talking about the playoff when camps open in July. That means talking about the Heisman before the first game gets played and every week after. That means pushing for the brands that have national appeal and recognition (we have the recognition … thanks, Hoppy), but we aren’t the brand Mickey wants to represent the Southeast. Guess what? That ain’t Alabama or Clemson either. It’s another school in the Sunshine State … FU.
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ESPN doesn’t have a long term plan because long term plans are not the corporate culture any more. It’s about getting stock prices as high as possible now.
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I still don’t understand why kids don’t just wear those big poofy helmet covers you see in practices during the games. They look stupid as hell but if it means people aren’t committing suicide and beating their families years after they’re done playing, I think I can manage. What am I missing here?
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I have no idea … anything short of changing the game to 7 on 7 should be on the table for the powers that be.
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It’s really a sham that Mickey/Disney/ABC has come so far that they don’t realize what they have done and with the drop out out of CBS will continue to do to the college game of football.
Per example Sport Center was a go to place for college football scores and highlight that would run for 30-45 minute segments. Now for me it’s not watchable. Talking suits, Beth Mowans, meaningless NBA gibberish, lousy talk shows that are endless. Games have been made productions, you don’ see half the action either by close up cams angles, missed plays while showing 3 replays of the last play. I used to think it was awful to see but which now I would cherish rather than being whisked away to what Jesse Palmer thinks about anything while listening to 2 fired coaches explain the game while another suit leads the gaggle of geese.
Is there just one announcer that just doesn’t constantly over talk the action and let the game speak for its self ? Yes we have lost New Year’s Day football but along with that the entirety of what made me a fan
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Watching ESPN sports talk shows has to make anyone doing so stupider. For years now I have watched games with the sound muted so I don’t have to listen to the inane, non stop drivel coming out of the idiot announcers mouths. I can see any score I want on the internet without having to endure the talking heads telling me how big of a game it was and why I should really take note of the outcome and how that game is going to affect a team’s chances to make the playoff.
The college football playoff we have today is the worst combination of the days when polls determined the champion and the BCS. We now have polls that don’t matter until the playoff committee (which is basically a beauty pageant committee or a group of figure skating or gymnastics judges) decides to let everyone know who they think the best four teams in the country are. Then, we get to hear how a team with two losses can’t possibly be one of the four best teams even if they win their conference championship and a one loss team that does not even win its division, much less its conference championship, is one of the four best teams. The whole setup is retarded.
ESPN is leading college football down the same path NASCAR went down and the end result is going to be the same.
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Agreed
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If there is anyone worse than Tony Romo announcing I don’t want to hear them. To start with he has a grating voice. He tells you before it happens,while it is happening and after it happens. Then he tells you the wouda, shouda and couda. Then the last time i heard him he was talking about the QB and he let the fans know that he played the position forever so he basically should know what the QB should be thinking.
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Romo actually does a great job.
If you think his voice is grating, tell me what you think about Scott Howard’s voice.
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There are some great comments and observations being made in this thread and I hope/wish the ADs of every school would read them.
CFB is on the path of destruction
While Disney isn’t going to do a damn thing to kill their golden goose, the AD’s could get together and put a stop to it. Just vote to say, “No more playoffs” and either bring back an improved semblance of the BCS or just go back to letting the polls decide after NYD.
“But the money”, they will say. The money will still be there if the Bowls are pertinent again.
And if the sideshows that WNC Dawg so aptly describes (8:09 post above this) were corrected and the old format re-invented, the audience would be pleased. What we have now is an evolved nightmare of a zillion commercials and gum beating know it alls grinding their axes.
Watching the bowls all day on New Years was so great!
Keith Jackson, you are missed.
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Georgia taking new years lightly is on Georgia, not the NCAA.
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So it’s safe to say that a lot of y’all will not be watching the playoff games…
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You’ve missed the point entirely. They’re doing this kind of crap because IN THE SHORT term, most everyone will still watch. Nobody here has even remotely insinuated that they won’t be watching the playoffs or even the New Year’s Day games. The point is that we still watch no matter what because we’ve always loved the sport. That love has been cultivated specifically because of the tribalism and regionality of the sport and all of the traditions and rivalries that make it special and unique from any other major sport. How long will that last?
The point is they don’t care how long, as long as they make their money TODAY. It’s not our sport anymore. It’s not even the athletic departments’ or the school presidents’ or the NCAA’s. It’s a product that in all meaningful respects is owned 100% by networks, mostly ESPN, and it’s “real hot right now.” They control it, and milking the product for all it’s worth while they control it is their top and only priority. If it’s still a viable product next go round, they’ll make an appropriate bid to renew their control over it. If not, they’ll bid on whatever product(s) the lost viewers have turned their attention to.
It’s simply a matter of making money off of what we’re looking at right now. If they can make changes that make them more money and we’ll still look, they’re going to make them every time. They’ve been making them, ruthlessly, for over a decade and they’re nowhere near done. For past reference, just google “dead college football rivalries.” For future reference, see Sankeys excitement over ESPN’s “creative scheduling” options under the new deal. He’s getting raped and asking the dude to twist his nipples and talk dirty to him.
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I see, you don’t like what’s going on, but you’ll still watch. Makes perfect sense.
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I’ll make it easier for you: They’ve replaced my ribeye with a sirloin. It’s still steak and I’ll eat it. I still prefer a ribeye. I’m 100% confident it’ll be hamburger within a few years.
If you can’t grasp that analogy, get your head checked. If you just won’t, I can only assume you either work for ESPN, high up in a major school’s athletic department, or a conference office and you really want to feel good about what you’re doing for a living.
Or maybe you just prefer hamburger over a good steak.
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We agree to disagree..and that’s ok.
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What exactly is your point? People who still love CFB in spite of the indisputable fact that it isn’t as great as it used to be, and who realize that it is only going to get worse for at least another decade, should just stop watching as some sort of futile protest?
Is it that watching CFB is some sort of endorsement of the direction ESPN is taking the sport?
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I won’t be because I don’t give a rat’s @$$ about any of the 4 teams. I may watch a little of Clempson and anOSU just to hope to see a meteor crash through the roof of the University of Phoenix Stadium.
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Thought he was going to say The Third Saturday in October. Whew
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“people who supposedly look out for the best interests of this sport”
[Narrator’s voice: They don’t.]
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The fans do. It being the decision makers don’t
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What about:
“Is it too much to ask of the people who supposedly look out for the best interests of this sport…”
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