Sorry, Joel Klatt -- there's no spinning this as great for college football

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Two points
1) Super conferences to me are bad for college football in the end.
2) I agree there is much hate between universities. This has spilled out to other issues as well as hate has become the new norm. If you don't think so, you're living under a rock.
 


Alex has been throwing out some real solid reads on this. Maybe it will all work out, but in all honesty if what they're describing is where we're heading, I'll watch the NFL, NHL, and college hockey and call it a day. Definitely will lose a lot of what makes college football great trying to make it a national product driven only by TV revenue. I already miss playing Michigan regularly and this is only going to make it worse as we split apart more and more.
 

We're in the "in crowd" and have a relatively straight path to continuing all of our meaningful rivalries and I'm still a skeptic.

Can't imagine being a fan of the majority of schools who are in deep uncertainty at the moment.
 


So long as the Gopher stay "in", then ultimately at the end of the day, I guess I'm not too concerned what happens with the remainder schools of the PAC, Big XII, and ACC, any more than I am concerned with schools in the Mountain West or American Confs.

That's what they'll become, at the worst. I mean, Cincinnati just made the CFP last season.

I'll just focus on the Big Ten, and if it comes to a combined ultra-mega-giga-league with the SEC, then that too.
 

on game day, when the band marches out on the field and people are cheering, does it really matter how many teams are in the conference, or how that conference is aligned?

as long as there is a team with "Minnesota" or "Gophers" on the uniform, and the uniform is some combination of maroon and gold (ok, anthracite once a year), and they play the Rouser after touchdowns, then that will be the University of Minnesota Gopher Football team.

and I hope they win.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
on game day, when the band marches out on the field and people are cheering, does it really matter how many teams are in the conference, or how that conference is aligned?

as long as there is a team with "Minnesota" or "Gophers" on the uniform, and the uniform is some combination of maroon and gold (ok, anthracite once a year), and they play the Rouser after touchdowns, then that will be the University of Minnesota Gopher Football team.

and I hope they win.
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I see it as two separate things. Most of us are die hards in here so yeah, we will cheer on the team no matter what form college football takes on.

But it is a shame to see the traditional conference continue to get whittled away to form these super sized mega conferences.

Is what it is, and I will continue to cheer on the U in whatever the college football landscape morphs into, but it is unfortunate to see the old conferences on their way to being a complete thing of the past.
 

Like this article - it says what I think many of traditionalists have trying to say - it’s isn’t for the core fan. To quote the article:

The problem with Klatt and those currently making the decisions is that they are all ignoring the people who actually pay to experience those moments in person. All of these moves are happening in an attempt to court a larger television viewing audience to hawk other “products” to during possession changes.

Like this quote, too:
To put it in Shakespearean terms: Sir, do not micturate upon my leg and tell me it’s raining.
 



fmlizard said:
We're in the "in crowd" and have a relatively straight path to continuing all of our meaningful rivalries and I'm still a skeptic.

Can't imagine being a fan of the majority of schools who are in deep uncertainty at the moment.
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I'm not that confident about continuing our "meaningful rivalries." Who actually knows how the final product will look? Different sport but college hockey used to be almost on the same level as college football for me. Losing UND as our biggest rival started the erosion for me. Who's to say down the line someone won't decide that the Gophers don't have to play the fuck'n Badgers at the end of the season every year? We might be with the popular kids now; but, truth be told, we're not the reason everyone wants to be seen with that bunch.
 

CFB is big before even radio. It was built on Little Brown Jugs, Rose Bowls, and Army-Navy games. It didn't need any help from TV. Now everything is done for what's best for TV....not for CFB
 


Face The Facts said:
CFB is big and will only get bigger and better for the foreseeable future.
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big as in will make them more money from TV contracts, then yeah probably for those that are in the in crowd. we'll see what happens to the rest and the overall product as it goes forward
 



I think the super conferences will basically make it AAA football for the NFL. I'm an old man and with the world falling apart around me, these developments aren't making the top ten list of my concerns. I think the programs left out of the super conferences may become feeders for the super-conference participants through players' use of the transfer portal. I still think the muddy median will be something like a CFB BCS group of 64 teams in four geographically-based mega-conferences.

Whatever happens, it's not the end of the world, but not everything labeled as "progress" is for the better. I agree with the writer that some of the charm that is unique to college football will likely be sacrificed in all of the re-shuffling.
 

David vs Goliath is a lot of what makes college football and basketball fun.

Goliath vs Goliath every week:

a. won't last, because wins are zero sum and some of the top teams will become perennial losers, particularly in the absence of a draft.
b. just becomes minor league football played on Saturdays.
c. probably hurts ratings in the long run because it encourages large chunks of America to tune out.

It's not as simple as "CFP games get amazing ratings so what if we played CFP-type games every week?"
 

Make sure to preserve everyone's major rivalries and it'll be fine. For Minnesota, that obviously means Wisconsin and Iowa every year. I've gotta think that fans won't care if the lower end of the conference schedule is filled with Cal, UCLA, and Stanford rather than Maryland, Rutgers, and Purdue. TCF has been rocking for games against TCU, Syracuse (!), Cal, USC, etc...certainly more than for Illinois and NW. If the team is good, weather is nice, and opponent is decent, the game will draw both in person and on TV.
 

"College football' Is too large and too big of a phrase.
College football embraces small schools and mega football factories.
It is very sloppy journalism to use such a phrase.
 

Mulligan said:
Who's to say down the line someone won't decide that the Gophers don't have to play the fuck'n Badgers at the end of the season every year?
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You mean in the season finale?
 

I’ve attended numerous gopher badger games in October and they’re just as fun as the last weekend of the year. Playing on thanksgiving weekend is a fairly recent tradition. It used to be Iowa.
 

I bet there's a world in which this is actually great for Gopher athletics. I still remember the Gopher games against USC 10 years ago, even though the Gophers were... not a good football team at the time. I don't remember the last time the Gophers hosted a basketball program like UCLA at The Barn. Might help put butts in seats.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
on game day, when the band marches out on the field and people are cheering, does it really matter how many teams are in the conference, or how that conference is aligned?

as long as there is a team with "Minnesota" or "Gophers" on the uniform, and the uniform is some combination of maroon and gold (ok, anthracite once a year), and they play the Rouser after touchdowns, then that will be the University of Minnesota Gopher Football team.

and I hope they win.
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That's just it - they might not be in the Big Ten. In a heavyweight super conference with teams we cannot beat regularly, attendance and interest may dwindle and MN may end up in a Fargo Dome situation. Lower competitive level, local fans, lots of fun, and championships realistically possible. The Rose Bowl will be for others. NIL, the portal, and super conferences are all detrimental to college football and all are based on TV revenue greed.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
That's just it - they might not be in the Big Ten. In a heavyweight super conference with teams we cannot beat regularly, attendance and interest may dwindle and MN may end up in a Fargo Dome situation. Lower competitive level, local fans, lots of fun, and championships realistically possible. The Rose Bowl will be for others. NIL, the portal, and super conferences are all detrimental to college football and all are based on TV revenue greed.
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I have no interest in watching the Gophers be relegated to minor league football.
 

discochris said:
I have no interest in watching the Gophers be relegated to minor league football.
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If the Big Ten and SEC combine at 48 teams (24 apiece) to get maximum TV contract, and then form an "A" and "B" league ... so long as there is a chance at promotion, I would still watch.
 

Hard to read the initial article as much other than Klatt-hate.

There will be some downsides, no doubt, but at the end of the day, this is going to be 100% much better for the college football television consumer. More and more games that are just plain more palatable to watch. Less and less of the games between the P5 schools and the directional schools in September.

You're going to get games with matchups you would only see once every 20-25 years (like MN - USC, MAX Shortell almost steering the Gophers to the win!).

To pile on to that, it's also going to be a win for the season ticket holders, and ultimately, it will lead to higher attendance at schools like Minnesota really.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Hard to read the initial article as much other than Klatt-hate.

There will be some downsides, no doubt, but at the end of the day, this is going to be 100% much better for the college football television consumer. More and more games that are just plain more palatable to watch. Less and less of the games between the P5 schools and the directional schools in September.

You're going to get games with matchups you would only see once every 20-25 years (like MN - USC, MAX Shortell almost steering the Gophers to the win!).

To pile on to that, it's also going to be a win for the season ticket holders, and ultimately, it will lead to higher attendance at schools like Minnesota really.
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1st bold: yes just like the NFL. Everyone tunes into jacksonville vs the jets. and the counter i know will happen is that but the change is still better than current set up, but that's using the idea that the teams are exactly as they are now. they won't play a full "conference" schedule and you're still going to look for wins how you can get them. further, there's only so many TV channels to broadcast games on. almost never is there "nothing" to watch in any given TV slot all through the year and there will still be the same random gaps when the TV time slots just feature meh things, like they do now

2nd bold: yes that's fun while it's new. Just like it was for Penn State and Nebraska. Teams will fall to Rutgers/MD levels and then it's going to be boring again.

3rd bold: the diehards may like it while the team is competitive across the board. but they also won't like it if you sacrifice any rivalries. Further, depends on who you are swapping out each time. Trade any rival or Nebraska for USC/UCLA and no it won't. You're going to lose a big traveling contingent both directions and, again, it's fun when the teams are competitive only (you'll still always attend for your rivalry games and you're now diluting your pool of those)

I think right now it's too early to see how it will all play out. But there are worrisome trends to me in that the networks/conferences who really only care about money are moving towards that, the greatest money making model, which will hurt CFB in the long run. We shall see but it worries me that this type of model won't be sustainable for the majority of CFB and we're going to see more divisions develop to try keep it straight (can't imagine the B10/SEC are going to be thrilled with G5 conferences stealing bids from the CFP in the future)
 

I might be an eternal optimist but I also think what is happening *could* be great for college football. I could see it playing out to where you have 20+ teams in the Big Ten and the SEC and then the Big Ten and the SEC essentially turn into the AFC and NFC from the NFL. My ideal scenario, which would be awesome as a season ticket holder, within the Big Ten and SEC they create mini divisions - West, North, Lakes, East, etc. Within the divisions you'd see the Gophers essentially fall back into a 'conference' or 'division' with Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, etc.

I would also love to see the NCAA take over scheduling and see the Big Ten North play the SEC East in 2023, SEC West in 2024, etc. How fun would it be to have Florida come up to Minnesota for a non-conference game and then play down in Tennessee the next week? That is way better than New Mexico State and Western Illinois.

I think the NIL is a bigger issue to college football than the super/mega conferences.
 

upnorthkid said:
1st bold: yes just like the NFL. Everyone tunes into jacksonville vs the jets. and the counter i know will happen is that but the change is still better than current set up, but that's using the idea that the teams are exactly as they are now. they won't play a full "conference" schedule and you're still going to look for wins how you can get them. further, there's only so many TV channels to broadcast games on. almost never is there "nothing" to watch in any given TV slot all through the year and there will still be the same random gaps when the TV time slots just feature meh things, like they do now

2nd bold: yes that's fun while it's new. Just like it was for Penn State and Nebraska. Teams will fall to Rutgers/MD levels and then it's going to be boring again.

3rd bold: the diehards may like it while the team is competitive across the board. but they also won't like it if you sacrifice any rivalries. Further, depends on who you are swapping out each time. Trade any rival or Nebraska for USC/UCLA and no it won't. You're going to lose a big traveling contingent both directions and, again, it's fun when the teams are competitive only (you'll still always attend for your rivalry games and you're now diluting your pool of those)

I think right now it's too early to see how it will all play out. But there are worrisome trends to me in that the networks/conferences who really only care about money are moving towards that, the greatest money making model, which will hurt CFB in the long run. We shall see but it worries me that this type of model won't be sustainable for the majority of CFB and we're going to see more divisions develop to try keep it straight (can't imagine the B10/SEC are going to be thrilled with G5 conferences stealing bids from the CFP in the future)
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Rivalries were already being sacrificed. How many times have the Gophers played for The Jug in the last 15 years?

There are concerns to be addressed as they arise, no doubt, but I don't see how more matchups between the top schools is a bad thing for the consumer. And I don't see how it's automatically bad for the consumer if it's being done in the interest of "the greatest money making model". Those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive, not even close.

If you ask Gopher season ticket holders if this coming Sept 10 they would rather be hosting the Leathernecks from Western Illinois or the UCLA Bruins, it's a no-brainer.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Rivalries were already being sacrificed. How many times have the Gophers played for The Jug in the last 15 years?

There are concerns to be addressed as they arise, no doubt, but I don't see how more matchups between the top schools is a bad thing for the consumer. And I don't see how it's automatically bad for the consumer if it's being done in the interest of "the greatest money making model". Those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive, not even close.

If you ask Gopher season ticket holders if this coming Sept 10 they would rather be hosting the Leathernecks from Western Illinois or the UCLA Bruins, it's a no-brainer.
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Bold 1: then we should just not play our rivals and play a fully rotating schedule if that's the mantra. It's part of what makes the sport great is playing rivals. I see it as hurting the brand to dilute the pool. It's ok that we can disagree.

Bold 2: it isn't "automatically bad". To me, and again it's fine we disagree, diluting out the pool of who we play into super conference format is going to make things more stale for in stadium environment immediately from a personal standpoint. From a long term standpoint, it feels like they don't really care for legacy/history, and that, to me, spells worrisome signs for what is to come. I don't want to see the NCAA become the NFL-lite where the B10-SEC are the only 2 groups playing (especially in a world where we will be a have not amongst that grouping). It's just a troubling sign to me.

Bold 3: if we switch to a 12 game B10 schedule, sure your point would stand. We aren't as of now. Those games will still happen. For the future it'll depend on how they reset the divisions. Assumedly we'll play USC, UCLA, WI, Iowa, NE, NW, and Illinois and probably shift Purdue to be with OSU, Mi, Mi St, PSU, Rutgers, MD, and Indy. So you'll see them in place of the cross overs. Up to you how you feel replacing them with UCLA.
 

College football is getting worse. It started getting worse a decade ago when WVU joined the big12. I’m guessing the people that like where college football is going are big nfl fans. I personally am not a nfl fan and like CFB for all the ways it differs. NFL fans don’t respect the David vs Goliath non conference matchups. They don’t care about army vs navy. The MAC is meaningless to them. They care about the blue bloods who play like and have players more similar to the nfl game they love. They hate “meaningless” bowl games that some programs labor for years and years to get to. They only want a bigger and better playoff that gives them more of the NFL feel.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
If you ask Gopher season ticket holders if this coming Sept 10 they would rather be hosting the Leathernecks from Western Illinois or the UCLA Bruins, it's a no-brainer.
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And if you ask Gopher season ticket holders if this coming November 26 they're playing Northwestern or Rutgers instead of Wisconsin (who they haven't played for three years because the Badgers are in a higher division) what do you think most would say? Maybe extreme but it could continue down that road.
 

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