2019 College Football

loshjott

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Dec 30, 2004
14,943
Silver Spring, MD
Maybe a bit early, but the stories are out there, of course.

Interesting move by Maryland...announcing they plan to cancel classes and clear the campus for the Penn State game Friday night, 9/27/
I saw the headline and thought it was ridiculous then read the story (also similar story in WaPo). The really ridiculous thing is the Big 10 making them play on Friday night to begin with. Penn State has flatly refused to play any home games on Friday nights due to impacts to HS football and impacts on having 100,000 people come to campus to tailgate during an academic day. (mentioned in the similar WaPo article) Maryland pressed to have the game as late as possible (8pm) and is only cancelling non lab classes in the afternoon, not all day.

That said, they are marketing the game, of course, but it's not as simple as the headline suggests.
 

bsj

Renegade Crazed Genius
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Dec 6, 2003
22,774
Central NJ SoSH Chapter
They cancelled classes for the entire university yet we are expected to believe they actually pay attention to whether their players attend classes ordinarily.
 

LeftyTG

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Jul 18, 2005
1,345
Austin
Any conference that has Friday night games fills me with absolute rage. That's all I have currently.

Oh and:

Hook 'em!
I have Texas season tickets and arranged my work trips to coincide with Texas away games. If everything breaks right, the only games I won't attend at the WVU and ISU games. Not that I'm necessarily expecting it, but I also took the liberty of blocking out my work schedule for the playoff games - I didn't want stuff on the calendar that would prevent me from traveling on the off change Texas did make it.

The season can't get here fast enough.
 

canderson

Mr. Brightside
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Jul 16, 2005
39,428
Harrisburg, Pa.
I have Texas season tickets and arranged my work trips to coincide with Texas away games. If everything breaks right, the only games I won't attend at the WVU and ISU games. Not that I'm necessarily expecting it, but I also took the liberty of blocking out my work schedule for the playoff games - I didn't want stuff on the calendar that would prevent me from traveling on the off change Texas did make it.

The season can't get here fast enough.
Thought about going down to the WVU game but friends have said to stay away. Considering WVU has some bizarre deep-seeded hatred of Texas just reinforces that to me.

Aimes is a fun place to catch a game. Pretty sure I'm coming down for the Red River Shootout.
 

LeftyTG

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Jul 18, 2005
1,345
Austin
Thought about going down to the WVU game but friends have said to stay away. Considering WVU has some bizarre deep-seeded hatred of Texas just reinforces that to me.

Aimes is a fun place to catch a game. Pretty sure I'm coming down for the Red River Shootout.
The last WVU game was an 11AM kick in the rain, and had a pretty subdued vibe (at least according to my wife). They project to be pretty bad this year, though it has trap game written all over it for UT, as it comes after a bye week and right before the OU game.

I was pretty stunned at how tame the RRS was, at least regarding the fan interaction. Admittedly, I was only at the fair and not inside the game, but I had at least a little bit of trepidation over bringing my 7 and 8 year old kids. Maybe it is because I spent a lot of time at Yankee Stadium for Red Sox games in that '03-'05 span, but I was expecting a certain level of vitriol between two arch rivals. I didn't hear so much as a swear word, even as I watched that last FG sail through the uprights in the middle of a crowd of thousands of UT/OU fans, split right down the middle. The Big 12 Championship had much more of an edge to it, and I saw a few near fights and some fans get tossed, but still nothing approaching what I expected. Heck, about a half dozen or so OU fans stopped to console my crying seven year old after the game.
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
Any conference that has Friday night games fills me with absolute rage. That's all I have currently.

Oh and:

Hook 'em!
Where there is a market there are television rights contracts to make every conference $ell their $oul. The Big Ten received a $2.64B contract which included the coveted Friday night games. I can't criticize something that I would have signed on for as well.
 

canderson

Mr. Brightside
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Jul 16, 2005
39,428
Harrisburg, Pa.
I'd rather have a Friday night game then be a Pac-12 school that has to play at 9 am PST on a Saturday.
That’s brutal too.

My issue with Friday night games are they completely take the spotlight off high school kids. Friday nights should be for the football players, band, cheerleaders, etc. and community.

If Texas were assigned a Friday night game I’d be upset if they didn’t forfeit. Thankfully they’ve refused.
 

RedOctober3829

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Jul 19, 2005
55,298
deep inside Guido territory
That’s brutal too.

My issue with Friday night games are they completely take the spotlight off high school kids. Friday nights should be for the football players, band, cheerleaders, etc. and community.

If Texas were assigned a Friday night game I’d be upset if they didn’t forfeit. Thankfully they’ve refused.
In Texas, yes. In the northeast teams will play whenever to get on national tv.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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Oct 23, 2001
10,229
I'd rather have a Friday night game then be a Pac-12 school that has to play at 9 am PST on a Saturday.
I just can't believe a "big time" conference would agree to 9:00 am kickoffs. Talk about screwing over the actual money-paying game attendees in favor of TV. What a disgrace.
 

berniecarbo1

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Oct 1, 2008
1,518
Los Angeles, CA
which school/game is this?

This hasn't happened yet, right?
The PAC 12 has floated the idea of playing conference games at 9AM local time out here in the West (Noon back east) in an effort to boost visibility to the conference on a national level. Right now the PAC- 12 network is not the be all they thought it would be as some cable/dish operators out West do not carry it and since the conference is in a down cycle now, they are not getting the publicity they would like. Not sure what a noon eastern start would gain that a 4PM eastern start doesn't already do. I can't imagine anyone would trek out at 6-7AM local time to secure parking for say an ASU-Cal game. That's like heading to a Wake Forest-BC game at 9AM or a Rutgers-Northwestern game at 9AM in the B1G. I doubt if any marquee game or even opponent will be playing at 9AM (USC-UCLA, UCLA-Washington, USC-Stanford, etc.). At the end of the day, I don't think the reyurn will be as big for the league as they are envisioning. If anything, I think it will decrease game day attendance at the stadiums even more.
 

Humphrey

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Aug 3, 2010
3,163
The PAC 12 has floated the idea of playing conference games at 9AM local time out here in the West (Noon back east) in an effort to boost visibility to the conference on a national level. Right now the PAC- 12 network is not the be all they thought it would be as some cable/dish operators out West do not carry it and since the conference is in a down cycle now, they are not getting the publicity they would like. Not sure what a noon eastern start would gain that a 4PM eastern start doesn't already do. I can't imagine anyone would trek out at 6-7AM local time to secure parking for say an ASU-Cal game. That's like heading to a Wake Forest-BC game at 9AM or a Rutgers-Northwestern game at 9AM in the B1G. I doubt if any marquee game or even opponent will be playing at 9AM (USC-UCLA, UCLA-Washington, USC-Stanford, etc.). At the end of the day, I don't think the reyurn will be as big for the league as they are envisioning. If anything, I think it will decrease game day attendance at the stadiums even more.
What's wrong with two or three hours later than that....you're screwing your live audience playing at 9AM and nowadays there are tons of games on at noon that don't draw very big ratings.
 

RedOctober3829

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Jul 19, 2005
55,298
deep inside Guido territory
What's wrong with two or three hours later than that....you're screwing your live audience playing at 9AM and nowadays there are tons of games on at noon that don't draw very big ratings.
They want to be on Fox at Noon because Fox is starting to put their better games on then to try to catch ratings before everyone watching CBS SEC/ABC B1G and others coverage at 3:30
 

j-man

Member
Dec 19, 2012
3,646
Arkansas
we need a 8-team playoff conf champs from SEC B10 B12 ACC P-12 then 3 highest wild cards or a 10 team playoff with only conf champs getting in like so
SEC B10 P12 B12 ACC AND AAC GET BYES to final 8 then C-USA @ MWEST Champ winner plays b10 champ and Sun Belt @ MAC champ winner playes sec champ
 

JMDurron

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Jul 15, 2005
5,127
I was pretty stunned at how tame the RRS was, at least regarding the fan interaction. Admittedly, I was only at the fair and not inside the game, but I had at least a little bit of trepidation over bringing my 7 and 8 year old kids. Maybe it is because I spent a lot of time at Yankee Stadium for Red Sox games in that '03-'05 span, but I was expecting a certain level of vitriol between two arch rivals. I didn't hear so much as a swear word, even as I watched that last FG sail through the uprights in the middle of a crowd of thousands of UT/OU fans, split right down the middle. The Big 12 Championship had much more of an edge to it, and I saw a few near fights and some fans get tossed, but still nothing approaching what I expected. Heck, about a half dozen or so OU fans stopped to console my crying seven year old after the game.
When I first started going to SEC home games at Auburn, I noticed the same thing. Even during the Iron Bowl against Alabama, when whichever team hosted the game could expect at best a 70-30% attendance advantage, it was passionate but generally civilized. I think you're right that it's the expectation of more professional sport fanbase type behavior that caused the surprise, what with Sox/Yankees, the city of Philly, etc.

The were two exceptions to the rule of surprisingly civilized fan behavior that I noticed back when I went to SEC games frequently (1999-2010, more or less):

1) Near the visiting students' section, since you're likely to have the less mature, drunker, most die-hard fans from the school. Since they're usually concentrated into a single section, I think you're unlikely to encounter enough of them as a general rule for it to impact the fan experience, unless:

2) LSU. This is by no means an exhaustive survey, but one of the few things Auburn and Alabama fans agreed on when I was around was that LSU fans are the closest thing to a barbarian horde in terms of fan behavior. Vandalism on campus when they would come visit, they'd actually light the occasional rally van/truck/car on fire when they hosted, and in one case were said to have thrown bricks at some of the opposing team's band members outside of the stadium. Hard to say what's legend vs reality here.
 

LeftyTG

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Jul 18, 2005
1,345
Austin
When I first started going to SEC home games at Auburn, I noticed the same thing. Even during the Iron Bowl against Alabama, when whichever team hosted the game could expect at best a 70-30% attendance advantage, it was passionate but generally civilized. I think you're right that it's the expectation of more professional sport fanbase type behavior that caused the surprise, what with Sox/Yankees, the city of Philly, etc.

The were two exceptions to the rule of surprisingly civilized fan behavior that I noticed back when I went to SEC games frequently (1999-2010, more or less):

1) Near the visiting students' section, since you're likely to have the less mature, drunker, most die-hard fans from the school. Since they're usually concentrated into a single section, I think you're unlikely to encounter enough of them as a general rule for it to impact the fan experience, unless:

2) LSU. This is by no means an exhaustive survey, but one of the few things Auburn and Alabama fans agreed on when I was around was that LSU fans are the closest thing to a barbarian horde in terms of fan behavior. Vandalism on campus when they would come visit, they'd actually light the occasional rally van/truck/car on fire when they hosted, and in one case were said to have thrown bricks at some of the opposing team's band members outside of the stadium. Hard to say what's legend vs reality here.
I'll be curious to see this dynamic up close. I went to the Syracuse/LSU game a few years ago (I'm a Syracuse fan by birth and now also a Texas fan since my wife works for UT Athletics and travels with the team). The LSU tailgate scene was hyped, and it certainly measured up. My father and I were in Syracuse gear and warmly welcomed into numerous tailgates and showered with food and drinks. I knew that Syracuse wasn't really seen as a threat to LSU and it wasn't exactly an electric atmosphere, but I was still surprised to see how many LSU fans bailed on a close game - the stadium was probably half full by the end and you could hear a "lets go Orange" chant on TV. LSU won, and I had several fans come up to me on the walk out of the stadium and say they thought Syracuse was the better team and should have won.

But that's Syracuse. I'm really curious to see what it'll be like with Texas. I have my tickets for the Sept 7th game in Austin, and I plan to be in Baton Rouge for the game in 2020.
 

JMDurron

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Jul 15, 2005
5,127
I'll be curious to see this dynamic up close. I went to the Syracuse/LSU game a few years ago (I'm a Syracuse fan by birth and now also a Texas fan since my wife works for UT Athletics and travels with the team). The LSU tailgate scene was hyped, and it certainly measured up. My father and I were in Syracuse gear and warmly welcomed into numerous tailgates and showered with food and drinks. I knew that Syracuse wasn't really seen as a threat to LSU and it wasn't exactly an electric atmosphere, but I was still surprised to see how many LSU fans bailed on a close game - the stadium was probably half full by the end and you could hear a "lets go Orange" chant on TV. LSU won, and I had several fans come up to me on the walk out of the stadium and say they thought Syracuse was the better team and should have won.

But that's Syracuse. I'm really curious to see what it'll be like with Texas. I have my tickets for the Sept 7th game in Austin, and I plan to be in Baton Rouge for the game in 2020.
I wouldn't necessary judge the LSU fans too harshly on the early abandonment front - if that game was homecoming (although this can also happen with any non-marquee Out Of Conference (OOC) game), then there likely were more families with young kids there than usual, and the diehards who stay for every second of an SEC game were less intent on the game than usual. I've left the occasional Auburn game early for non-blowout reasons, usually when it's one of those OOC games and especially if I brought my kid with me. Halftime is usually when the "not a big game" bailout happened in those situations. A major game should definitely be a radically different experience.
 

canderson

Mr. Brightside
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Jul 16, 2005
39,428
Harrisburg, Pa.
Been to a few cajun games and never had an issue. I'm sure night games against a rival would be an issue but that's alcohol related moreso than anything else.

Ohio State is still the worst place I've ever visited. Texas is playing at WVU and I want to go but was told not to so I can't compare the hillbillies to the methheads.
 

HriniakPosterChild

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Jul 6, 2006
14,841
500 feet above Lake Sammammish
but I was still surprised to see how many LSU fans bailed on a close game
My dad was an Alabama alum (class of ‘46), and he took me to games in both Tuscaloosa and Birmingham in the mid to late 1970’s. We literally never stayed for the last five minutes.

(When they were #2 and played #1 Penn State in the 1979 Sugar Bowl, Dad was oddly unconcerned with beating traffic. We stayed to the end for that one. I thought the Last Day’s were upon us.)
 

wonderland

New Member
Jul 20, 2005
525
Been to a few cajun games and never had an issue. I'm sure night games against a rival would be an issue but that's alcohol related moreso than anything else.

Ohio State is still the worst place I've ever visited. Texas is playing at WVU and I want to go but was told not to so I can't compare the hillbillies to the methheads.
WVU has a lot of New Jersey kids too. Like most places, crowds at WV aren’t as hostile as they once were. If it is a noon or 3:30 game, I recommend going.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
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Oct 31, 2013
72,428
Get THE™ fuck out of here.

Ohio State seeks to trademark "The".
"Like other institutions, Ohio State works to vigorously protect the university's brand and trademarks," Davey told The Columbus Dispatch in a statement. "These assets hold significant value, which benefits our students and faculty and the broader community by supporting our core academic mission of teaching and research."

Such BS
 

Bosoxen

Bounced back
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Apr 29, 2005
10,186
Pretty sure I'm coming down for the Red River Shootout.
Let me know for sure if you do so we can try to grab a beer. That also goes for any of you other degenerates who might be coming to town for the game.