The
Thanksgiving holiday can largely be summed up into the three F’s: Family, Food,
and Football. At my typical family
Thanksgiving, we usually attempt to time it so the turkey is finished cooking
right when halftime of the Detroit Lions game is set to take place so we can
miss as little of the game as possible.
The NFL has scheduled its Thanksgiving games to include games being
played by the Detroit Lions, Dallas Cowboys, and a third primetime flex game
that features different teams on a rotating basis. These games have become traditions in many households across
the country and events that families build their holiday around. While the NFL has made a conscious
effort to preserve these traditional games, the same cannot be said for the
NCAA. Much to my disappointment,
this year marked the first time in a while that Texas and Texas A&M did not
face off on Thanksgiving night.
Even though the “Lone Star Showdown” was one of the oldest and fiercest rivalries
in the country, money has gotten in the way of providing this matchup.
In
2010, the University of Texas signed a 20-year, $300 million deal with ESPN in
order to produce the Longhorn Network.
This deal (in my opinion) was the first step that lead to the NCAA
seeing conference realignment explode out of control. Much like the Notre Dame situation with
NBC, members of the Big 12 Conference were extremely upset at the idea of the
Longhorn Network, especially considering its advantages in media coverage and
as a recruiting tool. As a result,
we have seen massive movements of teams throughout the country. Texas A&M (who still would like to
have Texas on its schedule) along with Missouri moved to the SEC, TCU (who
Texas played this Thanksgiving) and West Virginia take their sports, the WAC,
Conference USA, and Mountain West losing many of their top teams (Boise St, San
Diego St, UCF) to the Big East, and most recently Maryland and Rutgers joining
the Big 10. There is no longer a
geographical sense to college football conferences. The whole landscape of college football has become all about
who can land the largest TV deals, highest ticket prices, and automatic bowl
bids and less about maintaining rivalries, being feasible for fans to attend
games, and making travel for athletes realistic. As I turned on Texas vs. TCU for a brief moment on
Thanksgiving night, I could not but help being disappointed in thinking that I
could have been watching Heisman favorite Johnny Manziel and #9 Texas A&M
battling it out against their arch rivals in a game that could have had huge
BCS implications. Instead, I am
left to hope that the NCAA bowl committee may matchup up these two teams in the
Cotton Bowl so that their storied tradition can be continued. What is going on right now in college
football is just not right. As
much as I loved watching the sport, it is getting frustrating to see money and
greed getting in the way of putting the best product on the football field.
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. The NCAA forgets what the fans want to see played compared to who they want to see face off due to the television market and revenue from these games. For example, by bringing in Maryland and Rutgers to the Big 10 it expands the television market allowing games to reach out to the east coast. This allows the Big 10 network to reach a bigger, widspread audience that increases revenue. Unfortuntely with the addition to these teams, that means the Big 10 football schedules will have to be completely revised. By being revised it opens up oppurtunities for current rivalries or big games in the division to be non-exist. The NCAA sees this move in the Big 10 a chance to expand play between east coast schools vs. Midwest schools, allowing both athletic programs and schools getting exposure with of course an additional increase in revenue in the media market, ticket sales, etc. while allowing the universities in the Big 10 to recuit further east or for Maryland and Rutgers further west. The NCAA divisions are not geographically correlated which is unfortuante because fans want to see more closer, geographically close games, which overall these games seem to have more hype. I think the NCAA should factor in what the fans want before making these drastic moves.
-Chelsea VanAssche
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I wanted to say that your ritual of eating Thanksgiving dinner during halftime of the Lions game is fascinating. It reminds me of my Mom's side of the family every Thanksgiving growing up and we would sit around the family room and watch the game as we ate. I think all of us Michiganders really worship our Lions Thanksgiving games and if they ever get taken away, I don't know what we will do.
About your topic, I really can't even begin to decide where the movement to start conference re-alignment began, but I think the establishment of the Longhorn Network is probably a great starting point. I think we can all agree that money is ruining college athletics slowly but surely, and college football in particular. I think college hockey (although, I refute this later), volleyball, track, gymnastics, and all of the other less visible and cared about by the nation are protected from this but football and basketball get hit hard.
Expanding on what Chelsea said a little bit, the Rutgers and Maryland move occurred for two reasons. Those two reasons are the Washington D.C. and New York/New Jersey television markets. What the Big Ten has basically done is turned itself into a television station that broadcasts sports. That is unacceptable.
Also with the Big Ten, another thing I have been outspoken about is the establishment of the Big Ten Hockey Conference. I hate the idea that one of the best and most tradition filled hockey conferences (CCHA) is being dissipated for the establishment of a 6 team conference. In NCAA hockey, you only need 6 teams in a conference to get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. What the Big Ten managed to do is shake up two conferences in the CCHA and WCHA enough to where it completely caused the disappearance of the CCHA and a downgrade in the WCHA by taking Wisconsin and Minnesota away.
When we look at this, our own BGSU Falcons are affected. The Falcons will make the move to the WCHA next year. As one of the primary color commentators for the team this year and most likely the color commentator for next season, this is disheartening. No longer will the color man be able to travel to places like Michigan or Western Michigan as frequently without traveling with the team. Just as an example, on my way home for the holiday on Wednesday, I stopped at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor because it was on the way home and did color commentary on the radio.
I got a little off topic right there. Either way, I think money has been detrimental to collegiate athletics as a whole, but mostly to football. There is no reason that Boise State, Air Force, and SDSU should be playing in the Big East. Collegiate athletics started for the purpose of healthy competition and school spirit. Over the last century, it has gotten far away from that. It has turned into a multi-billion dollar business. While this isn't a bad thing for us as Sport Management majors, I think it is bad for fans and students.
-Geoff Roberts
Growing up in Canada we didn’t get to watch much college football unless it was on a major network like ABC. So most of the games I watched were Michigan or Michigan State. I didn’t realize the enormity of college football and huge rivalries until I came to Bowling Green. Since than I’ve been watching many college games and know most of the notable teams in the country and starting to understand the rivalries. Being around college athletics for three years now, I agree with Aaron that college is a business and they will do whatever they need to do to make money. Sometimes their decisions isn’t what the fans want, but in the end will garner the most money for them. I still don’t fully know all the conferences and the teams in them but it seems a lot of teams are moving around. In college hockey we are moving to another conference because Penn State joined Division 1 and adding the Big 10 conference. This makes our travel schedule farther and longer playing teams in Minnesota and Alaska. I understand that they are expanding the college game in the United States but it does affect teams such as us, which is going to be difficult for us and other teams in the country.
ReplyDeleteRyan Viselli
Much like the others have said, and based on what we have discussed in class, I think it is quite clear that college athletics has become a business. Whether you look at reports of equity and the amount of money spent per sport in comparison to the academic focus at an institution, or at a situation such as athletic conference realignment which has been a growing trend as of late, it is obvious that these decisions all revolve around income. This is disappointing, as you are now seeing great sports and fantastic programs with longstanding histories diminished in favor of developing a power-conference that will increase both attendance due to conference scheduling and large television contracts as Aaron has mentioned. Sadly, the focus has been taken away from the game itself and turned solely to business, not just for the institutions, but also for the players. While players do not have salaries, take a sport such as collegiate basketball. These players are coming to phenomenal programs to play for a season to simply showcase themselves for one year to make a better case for a top draft position. Many of the elite players have absolutely no interest in ever obtaining a degree, and college is more of a joke to them because when academic punishment may be in place due to a lackluster GPA, it is too late as the player has already declared for the NBA draft. College football is no better. With teams such as Boise State and San Diego State heading to the east coast for "conference" games, you really see just where that thought process is. This is not a legitimate conference, this is about money, and I feel as though it is a very selfish move. I do not think the student-athletes best interests are taken into consideration, when you look at players that now have to travel across the country to play one game. It is an unnecessary stress to add on to a student-athletes already busy schedule as they try to balance academics and athletics, and not fair to the student-athlete in any way.
ReplyDeleteMarc Horwitz
Aaron
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you after reading your article. I think that college athletics is no longer athletics i think that it is becoming a business. As someone said in a comment before the NCAA is listening to the fans in what games that they want to see played instead they are putting the games on tv that they want to see played and what games will make the most money. I really think that college football especially definitely becoming a business and not an athletic sport at a college. So Aaron i definitely say that i have to agree with you for sure.
Tyler Clifton
I agree with you that football traditions are a big part of the holidays. Even those who don't generally watch football, seem to be into the games being played on Thanksgiving, because of the traditions that have been set. I, too, agree with you that what the NCAA is doing, is taking away from what the fans want to see. Fans want to see the good games, the rival games. Like, what was said in an earlier comment, with what the Big 10 is doing, is taking away from the fans. Rutgers and Maryland don't add much to the Big 10, except for tv marketing and reaching fans on the east coast. But, really, fans want to see the matchups between teams that are close (such as Michigan State vs Michigan, Texas vs Texas A&M, Michigan vs Ohio State). The NCAA is becoming more about making money, than about what the fans want to see, and ultimately it's taking away from the game. I think the NCAA needs to rethink somethings and get it back to being about what's best for the sport and the fans.
ReplyDelete-Paxin Stern
I agree with you. I've noticed that it really is becoming about making money especially after the Longhorn Network was created. I, too, felt this was unfair to other teams because of the exclusive attention the team received. They receive recruiting benefits and also fan base benefits. If there is a network exploiting the Longhorns positively on a regular basis then the team may attract more "fair-weather" fans, which take away the fans from other teams who buy the tickets, the gear, etc. I feel as if this should not be allowed because of the other factors involved because gaining more fans and recruits does not appear detrimental, but the fact that teams are losing their fan base and less tickets are being sold and their gear isn't being purchased means a decrease in their revenue. If more and teams try to have their own networks then their will be a certain amount of teams who have the opportunity to become much better than others because they will gain better players because of the attention. This may lead to certain power house teams who are constantly making it to the bowl games and no other teams have a chance. It will be the same teams competing and handing off titles to one another.
ReplyDeleteCasey Daulbaugh