College Football Proliferation...

Right, so I know it's too late to make an effective college football preview, and I know that technically the first week of college football has already passed and we've already seen some upsets, and so technically what I say doesn't matter. Since I'm at Ohio State now, I feel compelled to talk a little bit about college football, though I've long stopped caring.

I think part of why I've stopped caring about college football may be the fact that I can't escape it anymore. That's right, there's too much of it on. I previously could get jacked up for college football in three ways:

1) Teams that I liked to cheer for.

In Colorado I cheered for the Buffaloes, almost religiously. I lived and died with the Colorado/Nebraska rivalry, which is one of the most underrated rivalries in college sports. These teams really hate each other. I've always liked Virginia Tech, I have some feelings for Boston College, and I went to Louisville and now go to Ohio State. When games involving these teams were on, I generally watched. I can still remember being ticked off when I was 11 because Colorado was playing Nebraska (#2 vs. #3) and the local ABC affiliate decided to keep its Big East game of the week, namely 1-6 Pitt vs. 0-7 Rutgers. Horrible. Anyway, the point is that these teams held my interest a little better than most others, making me want to watch college football. Last year, only Louisville held my interest; this year, it's doubtful that even OSU will hold my interest for long.

2) Compelling Rivalries.

In my book, there are only 15 or so of these in the country, so I'll just give them to you.

These are kind of in order: Florida/Tennessee, Ohio State/Michigan, Colorado/Nebraska, Miami/Virginia Tech, Florida State/Miami, Florida/Florida State, Texas/Oklahoma, Texas/Texas A & M, Cal/USC (sometimes), Iowa/Michigan (currently), Auburn/Alabama, and maybe a few others that I can't think of. A lot of these aren't watchable every year either, because one of these programs is down and blows the other one out. You can turn on one of these games each year and feel something; you can't do that with, say, a perfectly servicable Alabama/Arkansas game.

3) Ranked Matchups.

These vary from year to year, but I think any matchup between two ranked teams has the potential of being watchable if you like the teams and the conference. This year, Ohio State/Texas is very watchable. However, the LSU/Arizona State is also watchable... which leads me to my final point of why college football is hard to care about.

Every Saturday, I have a choice between watching college football and doing something else. In high school, the choice was easy- now, it isn't. What makes one matchup between say, #6 and #14 better than, say, #9 and #12? If you don't care about the teams and don't have interest in a specific player, you really don't have a specific reason to watch these matchips. Additionally, it's very difficult to choose what game to watch because there are so many. On any Saturday in Louisville, there would be the national games on ABC and CBS, U of L's game, a Big 10 ESPN+ game, the Jefferson Pilot SEC game, the ESPN games (normally about 3 or 4), ESPN2 games (maybe 2 more), and any other matchup that may be on Thursday night or something else special. Plus, there were games on Fox Sports, and occasionally another station would pick up a 1-AA game or a MAC game. All in all, there were maybe 14 or 15 games to choose from, one from each conference, and I rarely had any anticipation for a particular game because there were so many to choose from. It was like going to the buffet: you don't look forward to the food as much because there's so much of it. Proverbially and literally, I had my fill.

As teams try harder to get on TV, the quality of the matchups get watered down. Case and point: tonight is Friday, September 9, and I'm sitting here watching Pittsburgh at Ohio U., which is being shown on ESPN2. Now I'm not a genius, but there can't be any more than nine people in the country who are legitimately interested in this game and don't live in Pittsburgh or Athens, Ohio. Presumably this game is being shown to fill screens of sports bars, which desperately need something other than the... Yankees/Red Sox? There literally shouldn't be anybody watching this game, and this includes me.

(On a side note, it looks like Pitt's QB Palko has regressed some from last year...)

So, let's see what's gonna be shown tomorrow:

ESPN2: 10:30 AM- Kansas State at Marshall, 2 PM- Colorado State at Minnesota, 7:45 PM- Southern Miss at (22) Alabama.

ESPN: noon-Clemson at Maryland, 5:30 PM- S. Carolina at (9) Georgia, 8:45 PM- (5) LSU at (15) Arizona State

ABC: noon- (23) Notre Dame at (3) Michigan, 3:30 PM- regional coverage... (8) Iowa at Iowa State, (17) Cal at Washington, North Carolina at (21) Georgia Tech, and 8 PM- (2) TEXAS at (7) OHIO STATE.

TBS: Wake Forest at Nebraska

So, of these matchups, there are really only three games that satisfy the criteria above, and two of them are on at the same time.

But what's even more stunning here is the fact that, of the ACC teams, the following will have been on TV since Monday night: Florida State, Clemson, Miami (FL), Maryland, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and Wake Forest. That's a pretty high percentage... and some of these games are fairly unneccessary. And this is part of the reason why I don't care... I don't want to see these teams... pure and simple. Most of these matchups appeal to only a certain demographic of the country, and I don't happen to be a part of that demographic. And it's tougher and tougher for me to create a reason to be a part of that demographic anymore.

(Side note: As I was typing that last paragraph, Palko threw another pick.)

So, I probably don't follow college football anymore, but I really don't care. I don't have to look forward to seeing a team play...I don't have to think... I don't have to have any passion... after all, I'll probably be able to see them next week.