This reads like something an academic from… I dunno, Mars? … observing American sports for the first time would post.
That it comes instead from a national writer who covers college football is kinda sad. What exactly would the Pac-12 releasing its schedule on the same day the SEC releases theirs do to enhance this Georgia fan’s enjoyment level? I don’t know. Mandel’s use of “probably” there tells you he doesn’t know, either. It’s just that it’s the kind of thing someone like me should enjoy, if my approach to the sport were more enlightened.
As far as scheduling games out years in advance, what does he expect? Again, college football doesn’t share a monolithic structure with the NFL. It’s up to individual teams to fill in the framework set by individual conferences when scheduling and that can be a messy process when you’ve got more attractive opponents than you do annual slots in the schedule. When it clicks, though it’s part of the charm of the sport — just ask any Georgia fan what a complete gas it was to head up to South Bend in 2017.
Mandel’s attitudeis cut from the same cloth as ESPN’s continued effort to modify college football’s regional appeal into something more homogeneous and national in approach. It’s a matter of convenience. For them. A college football schedule release day may not do much for me now, but think of all the stories Mandel and his writers could compose for a week or two afterwards. Why should the media covering the NFL have all the fun?
Here’s what they miss. Nobody cares who wins the NFC South, but plenty of fans still care who wins the SEC East. Because of parity, NFL schedules are a big deal because of their influence on playoff percentages and the draft. Who Utah has to play this season doesn’t really strike anyone in this neck of the woods as a big deal for now, schedule drop day or no schedule drop day.
I know I’m on the losing side of this. At some point, I expect Mandel will post something similar and won’t need to qualify it. College football won’t be any better for morphing into NFL-lite, though.
Get The Picture 
Tweets are cheap. I wouldn’t worry about it so much when people throw crap on the wall to see if it sticks.
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You’re right, Senator. That is a stupid tweet. How does he cover college football for a living and not get that? Maybe he did it on purpose so people like us will talk about it.
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For an “all sports” network, ESPN sure does come across as clueless. As a Disney “entertainment” channel, well…we can see that influence. But as long as the leadership of college sports continue to be pigs at the trough, it’s only going to get worse.
I miss the old ABC Wide World of Sports. That was about as pure of sports programming and reporting as we ever got on TV, and the old major newspaper sports columnists. Clowns on sports talk TV and Twitter just don’t cut it beyond some providing some inspired humor from time to time.
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I dont know. I think I would enjoy playing the other teams in my conference more than once a decade. And I know that I would enjoy knowing when kickoff is going to be more than 6 days in advance.
If they announced all the SEC games like that and any non conference games I would likely pay attention to that show. You act like that people would hate the idea of more college football content? This is the schedule form of the “Why are there so many bowl games?” nonsense.
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What does playing SEC teams more often have to do with a scheduling show?
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This doesn’t impact how often teams play each other within the conference. Hopefully the SEC will follow the ACC and move to no divisions, 3 permanent opponents and then 6 & 6 rotational opponents when OU and Texas join. That would solve that issue.
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Seriously what would be the downside of a well produce college football show that also gave you the schedule for the next season.
Like yall seem personally offended at the idea that you would consume additional college football content.
Weird.
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Because we already know the schedule? I know we don’t know all the game times, but the networks aren’t going to give up waiting until the season to do that because they want the ability to choose the best game of the week based upon what has already unfolded in terms of wins and losses in the previous games.
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I’m not offended. I just don’t accept the assumption that I would enjoy another offering of NFL-lite.
If I’m jonesing for a show about scheduling, the NFL is there for me.
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Out-of-conference scheduling is the 2022 equivalent of 1992 bowl match-ups.
I think we’d all rather see a system in place that created this match-ups a bit closer to when they happen. That BYU-Coastal game in 2020 whetted folks appetite for it.
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No, I like looking forward to future games and planning vacations around away games.
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This. otto1980 is correct. I live in Northern California and was royally pissed when we canceled the home/home series with Oregon. I had the road(Amtrak) trip all planned out. Friends who are Oregon grads were on board. Flying into Atlanta(again) for a trip to the Benz isn’t as much fun.
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I mean, sure, I do, too, but my 7th grader will be a senior in college when we play FSU. I don’t need 2 years let alone 10 to plan a road trip.
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Daft is what it is.
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Like…….what?
You might as well say “college football is bad because they don’t have Cleatus the Robot.”
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It does make one wonder if idiots like Mandel have any clue about the passion of the old school fans. We don’t GAS about any other conference and at the same time when the season starts we will be entertained by the “others”.
We’re not “tired” of our annual schedule. It’s so baked in we’re still pissed off at Meyer like it was yesterday. We’re still pissed off at Fulmer. When we watch our team against Florida we still want to slap Tebow. The Sanks fumble? This shit ain’t no joke.
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WHAT Sanks fumble? There wasn’t one! At least not near the end of the ‘99 game vs the nerds.
Still pisses me off.
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How does this guy make a living writing about CFB? It’s obvious he doesn’t get it; he had no idea why CFB is actually loved.
Have you ever heard him speak about CFB? He always sounds so absolutely joyless. Compare that to a guy like Andy Staples or even Paul Finebaum. Compare Mandel or other joyless doosh writers like Dan Woken or Nicole Auerbach to some other guys like Peter Burns or Pollack or Herbie.
What is it about the majority of CFB writers that it seems to have attracted the most joyless people around who, whenever you actually hear them speak, it sounds like they’d rather be covering anything else, while the majority of the guys covering the game on TV seem like the most excited people on earth?
This disparity between the CFB print and TV media is jarring.
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Dan Wolken’s name should never be spoken. He is an absolute clown. The only thing that he talks with joy about is professional tennis. He tone in articles about football literally come across as dripping with disdain.
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It’s so funny to see this post and this Mandel tweet because I was thinking this morning while listening to sports radio hype up the schedule release show that I can’t imagine watching that and being excited about it. I certainly would not be tuned into the SEC Network to watch our schedule release live, I’d just pull it up on my phone afterwards. I still haven’t looked at Atlanta’s schedule because IDGAF. The NFL’s regular season barely matters. Sure, some teams have rivalries, but I feel like most teams don’t have a single rivalry that would be in the same stratosphere as a collegiate rivalry. All anyone cares about is the postseason. We aren’t there yet in college, but it’s headed in that direction.
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My friend, that adventure was more than a gas…
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ESPN does as much harm as good.
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“but plenty of fans still care who wins the SEC East”
Enjoy this while you can!
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What is it about the NFL that people find compelling? I would rather watch paint dry than to spend my Sundays glued to a TV set watching games I really don’t give a damn about.
As the college game devolves into NFL Lite, it truly does pain me. I’m only glad my kids got to experience college football on campus in its glory days.
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Not pretending a schedule needs a 15 year lead time is something I can get behind. Removing scheduling independence from schools, I cannot get behind.
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As a Rams season ticket holder, I gotta say… I enjoy very little of the hyped up bullshit that comes our way. I enjoy football. I enjoy watching football games and going to football games. All the other crap they send is just inbox fodder.
No, I don’t care if the mascot is going to be at a 7-11 signing custom Rams hot dog boxes,
No, I don’t care about a flashy digitized schedule release.
No, I don’t care about the cheerleaders doing a meet and greet at a mall in San Dimas… especially since we’re 5 years into dudes being on the squad, and you still haven’t given them Pom-poms! They just wave their jazz hands around while the ladies shake their poms – it lacks uniformity and comes off as ridiculous!
Play some damn football, and shut up about the rest.
And get off my lawn.
Go Dawgs
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“College football won’t be any better for morphing into NFL-lite, though.”
Unfortunately lawyers and judges made that decision.
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I followed Mandel on twitter for about 2 days, and that was more than long enough.
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Off season college football journalism, where idle minds are devils play. Yep we are all subjected to what ifs, controversy narratives & bs content to stir tge silence o they can validate & keep their jobs. Never happens by any other media reps. Lol
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