Yesterday, somewhere in between hour 9 and 10 of college football, a thought occurred to me. I began to think about all of the people I know who don't enjoy college football. They seem to have two main gripes: The quality is not good enough; understandable, I too prefer NFL football. Second gripe, this time quoted! "Once they get into conference play it's OK, but all these teams like Wisconsin schedule a bunch of non-conference cupcakes and run the score up. The first few weeks are boring because the big schools don't play anyone."
I have an issue with the second gripe. Besides the obvious fact that there are big-time first week match-ups (Oregon-LSU, anyone)?, the idea that an automatic qualifying BCS team versus a non-automatic qualifier is a grave injustice to the spirit of competition just isn't true.
Here's the thought that occurred to me: The opening weeks of the college football season are no different than the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament. Big versus small school match-ups, win-or-go home attitude (not literally in the case of football, but a loss ends hope of competing for the National Championship), a million games going on at once, match-ups that look competitive on paper and turn out not to be and vice versa, etc. Assuming our hypothetical viewer is equal parts college basketball and college football fan, there's no reason why he/she should be more enamored with the NCAA tournament than the college football season.
However, it seems the average fan of both college sports is a bigger fan of the NCAA tournament. This I think is due to the illusion of importance. The NCAA tournament provides a nice, clean bracket of what is to happen. In college football we have no such path. As is the case in basketball, there are a number of things that can occur which alter the landscape towards football's title game. We just may not know it at the time. It's easy to understand the ramifications of the one seed losing in the second round because there's nothing to understand. They're sent packing regardless of what the other teams do. If the number one ranked team loses in Week 5, a couple losses from other teams can still land them in a BCS game. The literal extinction of a team's season, I think, is appealing to many sports fans.
We also can't understate the importance of the Bracket Tournament Challenge. People, even those who haven't watched a game all season, fill out brackets and develop a built-in interest. Same thing with the NFL, where fantasy football is bigger than the actual games for some. The various pay-ins challenges associated with college bowl games haven't caught on with the mainstream. Fear not haters of early-season college football, disregard the ink-stained bracket, camp in front of the TV this Saturday and take a page out of the way you enjoy the NCAA tournament.
There's a plethora of games to choose from, don't feel handcuffed to one. The games between two highly ranked teams will often fall short of expectations and that's OK. Pick a new game. TCU -Baylor and Auburn-Utah State were less anticipated match-ups that proved to be more entertaining than Oregon-LSU and Boise State-Georgia. If one game starts to fade, switch over to the next one. If a game is going down to the wire, abandon the game you're watching and switch over to it. Sound familiar? This is what everyone does during the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. There's gold to be had in watching college football. It just might not include a 50 dollar payday and a year's worth of respect from your know-nothing coworkers.
Half agree. The stake's aren't much lower in football for a powerhouse playing a no-name, and as Notre Dame kindly demonstrated (and Purdue and Auburn were begging to join), upsets are very possible.
ReplyDeleteThe difference, in my opinion, is the absence of a clean Cinderella narrative. We remember the Appalachian State fiasco, but we remember that Rich Rod and Michigan wet the bed, not so much that David beat Goliath. In basketball, the tourney gives more incentive for fans to care about the dogs, who can actually win a chip in the end.
Point well taken about the Cinderella narrative. The reason I think teams such as Boise State attract so much attention from casual CFB fans is for this very reason.
ReplyDeleteEvery year there are one or two smaller schools that do have a real shot at the chip. Unfortunately, some of the suspense is sapped from their full season because they don't play a schedule full of David v. Goliath match-ups like a mid-major in the tournament would.