[NU Sports] Two words for the Oklahoma State boosters

Tue Jan 10 15:08:33 CST 2012

Note on the ratings: many have noted the low rating numbers this year
relative to previous years.  This is a bit misleading as the BCS games have
only been on cable (ESPN) for two years now, and this game was the 2nd
highest rated cable program ever (last year's national championship was
1st).  Although it is notable that ratings were down 14% from last year,
that may likely be considered a fluke given that the two teams were close
in proximity and the game was a dud (meanwhile, last year's game came down
to the final play).  ESPN, which has the highest national cable carriage
fees, doesn't need huge ratings to sustain itself, and these are still
plenty big numbers for them.  As Peter noted, they have done a great job
"nationalizing" college football and are now reaping the benefits in the
form of 33 of 35 bowl games (including all of the BCS games).

The conference-affiliated networks (well, at least the Big Ten Network for
right now) has pulled some power back from ESPN.  Also, look out for the
CBS Sports Network & NBC Sports Network (was Versus until Jan 1) as they
will be looking to fill air time and CFB has tons of content.  The CBS
network already has in-season CFB talk shows and replays games that were on
their network or CBS itself.  Fox is basically an association of regional
networks and doesn't have a lot of the same national power as ESPN and the
new entrants, and with recruiting and dispersed alumni the schools really
wanted the ability to distribute nationally, and these give them some
ability to do that (Fox sports net basically shows some games to specific
regions unless you have satellite/sports tier).

The big conferences have just started to exert some power (mostly through
realignment) and it will be interesting if they take back more of it from
the likes of ESPN and the bowls by utilizing their newly created networks
and other national sports networks as well.

Jonathan

--
Jonathan Hodges
Contributor, HailToPurple
Web: http://www.hailtopurple.com/jhodges/
Twitter: @hailtopurple
Email: j-hodges at alumni.northwestern.edu

On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 3:41 PM, Peter C. Warner <pcw at warnerpatents.com>wrote:

> It used to be - back in the old days - the only people mewling for a
> national championship game were the independents - primarily ND and Penn
> State and their fans.  They had nothing else to play for.  The rest of the
> nation was happy with the old system.  There were the Tangerine, Sun and
> Peach Bowls and maybe a couple of others along with the Orange, Sugar,
> Cotton and Granddaddy Rose.  Generally, schools with good football teams
> from cold places were rewarded with a warm winter trip.
>
> The Rose, of course, was special because of the tradition the Rose, Big 10
> and the Pac-12 (previously, Big Five, Big Six, Pacific-8, Pacific-10) built
> together for over half a century.  Even outside Big 10 and Pac-12 country,
> people had Rose Bowl parties to watch the game.
>
> Then came along ESPN.  They have tried to homogenize and nationalize
> college
> football to suit their own programming needs - everyone watch the games on
> their network; everyone watch their national news programming - no need to
> regionally breakdown the news, just key in on the biggest stories
> nationally.  It made sense for ESPN - a national market with lower
> programming cost.  As a result, many - particularly younger people - have
> bought into the mantra that there should be a playoff system.
>
> Along came Fox, its regional sports channels, eventually the Big Ten
> Network, and now the Pac-12 Networks.  Fox may never get as big as ESPN,
> but
> it has and is eroding ESPN's market.  Namely, Fox has segmented the markets
> to let people focus on the markets (conferences) they are most interested
> in.  Unlike pro baseball, basketball and football, Fox recognizes that
> there
> are far too many college football programs for people to be able to have a
> constant global interest in all of them.
>
> The "partnership" announced a couple of weeks ago by The Big Ten and Pac-12
> has likely been facilitated by Fox and maximizing of revenue that will
> occur
> for Fox and the conferences as a result.  As I said last month, I think
> this
> "partnership" signals that the demise of the BCS is coming.  The Big Ten
> and
> Pac-12 wouldn't be doing this if they had a big concern about qualifying
> one
> or more of their respective schools for BCS games with cupcake games.  The
> Rose Bowl will likely (hopefully) contract with The Big Ten and Pac-12 to
> lock in the champions for that bowl.  (If a champion is called-off to some
> sort of national championship game, the runner-up (loser of championship
> game or by formula) can go to the Rose Bowl instead.)
>
> Nothing would please me more than to see Fox eventually start showing The
> Big Ten and Pac-12 conference games on its local affiliates in addition to
> its sports networks and to have Fox steal away The Rose Bowl (with a Big
> Ten
> and Pac-12 lock) from ESPN.
>
> In short, screw ESPN and all the others (particularly ND) that want to
> nationalize college football and have a playoff at the expense of the Rose
> with its Big Ten and Pac-12 tie-in.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
> Behalf Of bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com
> Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 12:32 PM
> To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: [NU Sports] Two words for the Oklahoma State boosters
>
> Iowa State.
>
> To me that ends the discussion. Alabama's loss was to LSU, OSU's to the
> Cyclones. End of discussion.
>
> I could live with a conference-winner only rule but for those who hold the
> NCAA hoops tourney sacred, there have been plenty of times it was won by a
> non-conference champ. Why is that wonderful in hoops but so awful in
> football?
>
> I dislike the BCS myself but I want a return to the pre-BCS system of the
> 1980's.
>
> I would note though that this year's BCS games were on the whole
> entertaining and well worth watching. But SJT tells me it sucks so I guess
> I
> didn't enjoy the Rose, Fiesta, or Sugar Bowls and the Orange was enjoyable
> in a weird way (how bad could Clemson get?).
>
> Throw in fun games from Detroit to Dallas and beyond and I enjoyed the bowl
> season a lot.
>
> But I am told it all sucks because some people didn't see the mythical
> national championship (which I really don't care about)  they wanted to, so
> I guess I didn't enjoy myself watching CFB the last month. Oh well.
>
> Brad Wilson
> Sent on the SprintR Now Network from my BlackBerryR
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