quo vadis
Legend
Posts: 50,227
Joined: Aug 2008
Reputation: 2440
I Root For: USF/Georgetown
Location: New Orleans
|
RE: College Football has largest attendance drop in 34 years
(02-14-2018 05:58 AM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote: (02-13-2018 09:49 PM)quo vadis Wrote: (02-13-2018 03:01 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote: So, an inherently flawed playoff structure only rewards four teams, and, basically, only four teams from major conferences.
There is no incentive to go to games if you have half of FBS basically kept at bay from the championship, and, if you are a major, the season may end after just one loss, but definitely two.
Problem with this theory is the CFP gives the G5 schools more access and exposure than any previous system.
Your snipped section on kickoff times resonated more.
You're not wrong. I think it's perception. The marketing hasn't exactly helped. The BCS bowls were a cluster that included the championship; these were the favored/legacy bowls. The playoff is about four teams. The NY6 may be every non-title BCS bowl...they aren't marketed that way.
With respect to G5 access, it's still just one spot. Only now, yes, it's guaranteed, but, again, it's this also-ran NY6 "prize." I'd counter that the committee is kind of like protection to the playoff that the BCS didn't have repelling non-majors from those games. Utah and Boise could have been snubbed a BCS title appearance, but not a BCS game. The committee can definitely determine access by rank, practically picking and choosing who goes where.
The whole thing is convoluted, and, I'd wager there's fatigue and apathy over that, too. CFB doesn't feel genuine the way other sports are. Someone referenced professional wrestling in another post or thread...yeah, that's not an operation CFB should want to be near. Lecture us or bowl us over with stats all one wants on the major/non-major schism in college football, and its traditions, legacies, "business practices," etc.; still looks and feels a bit rigged and inauthentic.
And from a sheer competitive standpoint, nothing looks right about undefeated teams sitting out of any playoff.
The thing is though, that's college football. It wasn't any less convoluted 50 years ago when the AP and UPI and NFF were voting for their champions and the four major bowls were cutting all kinds of last-minute deals with teams to fill their slots. Plenty of unbeaten teams from lesser conferences got left out then, too.
IMO, one can't reasonably tie a decline in attendance to the nature of the current system, when (a) the current system is friendlier to the G5 then prior systems, and (b) attendance has been down significantly in the P5 the past 5 years. Heck, the SEC had the biggest attendance drop of any conference last year, and the P5 in general and the SEC in particular are supposedly the biggest beneficiaries of the "exclusionary" nature of the the current setup.
So we have to look to other things, like what younger kids are interested in, the impact of streaming games, rising prices for parking/seat licenses/tickets, and the ability to tailgate outside the stadium and watch on a TV in your RV, etc. is having.
The latter is one thing I've noticed: Twenty years ago, when I went to an LSU game, the parking lots would be packed with tailgaters, but about 45 minutes before kickoff they would start to stream in to the stadium, and by kickoff the parking lots were empty of people.
Now, the last few years when i've gone, the parking lots are as packed with tailgaters as ever before the game, but then something weird happens - while most head in to the stadium to make kickoff, a sizable portion don't, and watch the game from a TV setup in the lot. And these aren't rinky-dink setups, you see 55" hi-def TVs connected to big power generators under tents, with people in lawn chairs munching on all kinds of goodies while watching. It's the same viewing experience as at home. There's a "tailgating community" that remains in the lots during the entire game.
(This post was last modified: 02-14-2018 02:19 PM by quo vadis.)
|
|