NY Times: annoying college football on TV (& UM redemption)
Ben Mathis-Lilley's article on reasons why college football on TV is so annoying, with focus on UM as a pitch for his book on Michigan's 2021 season and TV:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/27/business/college-football-tv-espn.html
First, the ending, by Mathis-Lilley: I do a great deal of whining about announcers, but when Fox analyst Joel Klatt said (to Colin Cowherd!) that the atmosphere during Michigan’s 2021 win over Ohio State in Ann Arbor was “the best environment I’ve ever been at, in any sport,” I was proud.
Now the article, TL/DR (too long / don't read): because $
• His book: The Hot Seat: A Year of Outrage, Pride, and Occasional Games of College Football
* $ again: ESPN spent years harping on Harbaugh being overrated because divisive sells (my inference: people don't watch Finebaum because he's smart or good-looking)
• Sports Illustrated (pretend journalism) vs. ESPN (losing journalists)
• And $: Colin Cowherd on the business: "being absolutely, absurdly wrong occasionally is a wonderful thing.”
• More $: Sports programming, by one estimate, makes 4X as much as cable channels without sports
• Solutions? Monopoly law (no) Local pressure (possible but unlikely)
August 27th, 2022 at 10:38 AM ^
P.S. This article has a link to another Mathis-Lilley's article, in Slate, on Harbaugh as divisive and/or complex. (It was a few weeks ago. Mathis-Lilley's pushing his book hard)
https://slate.com/culture/2022/08/jim-harbaugh-analysis-abortion-kaepernick-michigan.html
August 27th, 2022 at 10:49 AM ^
Does watching college football on TV have to be so miserable?
Get rid of roughly 5,000 commercial breaks, in particular that stupid as f*ck score-commercial-kickoff-commercial format.
Also, find a way to bring Keith Jackson back from the dead.
August 27th, 2022 at 10:54 AM ^
This is another reason why YTTV is helpful. . . start ten minutes in, mosey through the endless breaks. But it's true that as a people we've grown numb to the way that commercialism has colonized. . . just fucking everything. When I was a kid, people still complained about billboards screwing up the scenery. . . Now people pay extra to have the billboards on their sports clothes.
Stay off my lawn and keep your signs off of it, too! :)
August 27th, 2022 at 11:19 AM ^
That's the basic point of the article, that watching college football on TV (and in person, thank you, many commercial breaks) has to be so miserable because it makes money for many, including the colleges.
August 27th, 2022 at 3:22 PM ^
The thing that annoys me is it's such an endless spiral. There's no need for TV to have so many commercials. Except they pay so much for the rights, so they need to get their money back. All it would take is for the NCAA (or Big Ten, or whomever) to say, "no, we'll take less money, but stop fucking with our product."
Instead, they pay their coaches obscene amounts of money, put obscene amounts of money into locker rooms and facilities, and then say, "but we need the money."
When does it stop? It's based on air. Fans have no representative in the process, so it'll never stop until fans stop watching. Which especially sucks -- when fans stop coming to the games, they'll decide there's a problem with the rules of the game (as they're doing now in baseball), not that fans don't want to sit in a stadium for four hours.
Fuck, we can't have nice things. Talk about killing the goose who lay the golden eggs.
(I get so much pleasure out of watching English or European coverage of sports. Even tennis -- they don't go to commercial during change-overs. Even their coverage of the NFL -- they just go back to the studio for more talk, more highlights, again and again and again and again, while the games stop for commercials on American TV). European fans must think we're insane for stopping our games every 3.5 minutes.
August 27th, 2022 at 11:40 AM ^
Wait, Keith Jackson died?
/s
August 27th, 2022 at 12:41 PM ^
the rumor mill never stops.
August 27th, 2022 at 3:41 PM ^
Whoa Nellie!
August 27th, 2022 at 10:53 AM ^
That was an entertaining read with a lot of great points, and re-confirms that Cowherd is a shit stain. I’ll definitely pick up the book.
August 27th, 2022 at 11:00 AM ^
This quote made me want to (metaphorically) sex my DVR:
There are 16 scheduled commercial breaks in national college football broadcasts, which can last as long as four minutes each.
August 27th, 2022 at 11:08 AM ^
Hey, that's barely an hour of commercials per game. How else are they gonna make back their $7 billion?
/s
August 27th, 2022 at 11:34 AM ^
The accompanying illustration is of the MOON game!!!!! Lolololol
August 27th, 2022 at 11:34 AM ^
I wish I hadn’t read it. Ben Mathis-Lilley strikes me as quite a ponce.
August 27th, 2022 at 11:41 AM ^
de León?
August 27th, 2022 at 12:35 PM ^
Puerto Rico?
August 27th, 2022 at 1:19 PM ^
My answer has always been to record and start watching about 45 minutes after kickoff so I can skip through all commercials. Occasionally I'll watch live if I don't mind the breaks and I'm live chatting about it on MGoBlog, but generally I'm zooming through all the timeouts, instant replay reviews, halftime chatter, etc.
Hardest part is avoiding spoilers, an art unto itself.
August 27th, 2022 at 1:44 PM ^
I do the same.
However, I'm usually torn between wanting to join the MGoConversation and taping the game to avoid the effluvia.
August 27th, 2022 at 2:11 PM ^
The CSU game starts at 6 am in Hawaii where I currently live. I DVR the game, wake up when I’m ready to wake up, and make sure relatives and friends know not to call, email or text until I send word that I’ve caught up to the live feed,
August 27th, 2022 at 4:55 PM ^
I much prefer to watch the game live.
The mute button is my remedy for commercial interruption. Just mute the sound, relax, refresh my drink, check other scores on my tablet, enjoy the silence until the game resumes.
August 27th, 2022 at 3:29 PM ^
My solution to commercials was simple, get married, have 3 kids. Now I just record games and skip commercials. I miss it live but I've adjusted. I live in the mountain timezone so I'm already confused about game times, just makes it easier to record.
August 27th, 2022 at 4:04 PM ^
Hmm, how to deal with commercials? I know! I'll get married.
You, ol' romantic, you.
August 27th, 2022 at 4:38 PM ^
I guess at some point we will wise up and not just bitch about it but actually stop paying attention. All involved will keep pushing our limits until that happens.