Do you love college football? I do. College football has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. For context, this includes flashes of my dad yelling “Dammit Moeller!”* at the television. Math concludes that I was, at most, 9 years. If I were a Baldur’s Gate 3 character, Michigan Football would be heavily represented in my introductory paragraph and my “guardian” would be Tshimanga Biakabatuka. As I’ve alluded to previously on this site, I’m also an avid mgoblog.com reader. Since for some reason the majority of the reader of this site are Spartan fans, I am going to assume you are not. Even so, if you’re like me**, I’d recommend a segment on the recent “roundtable” podcast I think would hit home. https://www.youtube.com/live/j1OtRkaduEY?feature=share&t=1410. It starts right around the 23 minute mark when Brian (the founder of mgoblog) joins the call. In summary, he is asked about the expansion of the Big Ten and what teams he would like to add. His answer is basically a rant about the state of college football and college athletics in general.
I took a few things away from this segment. First, is that I agree with him. What was once a “perfect” product is being made slowly worse in order to maximize the bottom dollar of the “parasites” (Brian’s word) of those in “power” (TV executives, administrators, conference heads, etc.) This I’ve largely discussed here before*** 4 hour games due to commercials. Rules to decrease the ratio of actual football to commercials in that same 4 hour period. Rutgers and Maryland. $80 tickets to go see Michigan vs fucking Rutgers. Having to pay for 3 different streaming services to cover every game. Stub Hub. I’m not naive. I know that college football was always (at least in my lifetime) a product designed to make money. The difference is that those capitalizing on making this money used to do so without making it objectively worse for everyone involved. This gets back to the headline of this article, which I stole from my wife… “Everything beautiful gets destroyed.”
So yeah, that’s one thing I took away from that podcast segment. Depression. If you’ve read this site, or hung out with me over the last 3-5 years, you know I’ve been pretty down on Michigan football at times (-cough- 2020). It makes me wonder where I’d be if the state of Michigan football was where it was 3 years ago… or where it was during the Hoke/RR/David Brandon era… I don’t know that I would be “done” with it, and I don’t know if I ever will be… but with the objectively worse experience of sitting in the stands for 4 hours, or without the ability to start the game an hour late, skip commercials, and still catch up to “live” by the end of the game… If Michigan last 2 years and the upcoming season weren’t arguably the best the program’s ever been in my lifetime, it’s hard to say how much I’d care. It makes me sympathize with Spartan fans who are not in this situation. Or even more so, with fans of schools who will be screwed when their conference disappears.
But that’s not the only thing I got from the podcast segment. The other thing I took away from it was gratitude. I found gratitude in the recognition that I was fortunate enough to have experienced what is likely the greatest period of college football. No, it wasn’t actually perfect. Those in power were still becoming rich off of the “student athletes” who were the “product.” There was a lot of bad stuff going on behind closed doors that would not come to light until years later… But as a fan? It was the peak of what made college football great. From 2004-2008 I got to attend games at the Big House. I had access to one of the greatest forms of entertainment America has ever created on a college student’s “income.” (Thanks Mom & Dad). And those games were great. I got to see Michigan play Oregon and Utah and Notre Dame during the regular season. And every game was televised. That wasn’t true for previous generations. My dad would take me to an arcade/bar and sit me down at a Pac-Man table when we lived in Arizona because that’s the way he got to watch a few games a year. I got to turn on ABC or Fox every fall Saturday and sit on my futon…. Pac-Man tables were reserved for special occasions.
So be grateful that you got to experience that too. Remember that era fondly. If you’re a Spartan fan, relish the height of the Dantonio era, the Rose Bowl, and the trip to the CFP, and sure, even the trouble with the snap because college football was beautiful. Some of the changes are necessary. Some of them may have been inevitable. And maybe someday things will even improve again… But as a fan, I am lucky that I got to experience it at its peak.
*This was probably lining up on 4th down instead of kicking a field goal… right before throwing a TD to Desmond Howard against Notre Dame…. 4th down logic has come a long way since then. Props to Moeller for being ahead of going for it on 4th down curve.
**Which, I mean, you’re reading an amateur website from a guy who played half a season of 8th grade football and runs a $10 elimination league, so I assume you are…
***Including with the introduction of what was supposed to be a hilarious ongoing comic series which is long overdue for a follow up “episode”.