Mid-January College Football

[Lord_Byron]

This is just wrong and another reason the BCS sucks:

From USA-Today July 21:

"Football calendar: The college football season, which once played to a big-bang finish on New Year's Day, could be stretched in coming years to almost mid-January. To accommodate the Bowl Championship Series, the Big 12 Conference is proposing an NCAA rules change to move the latest possible playing date from Jan. 4 to the second Monday in January. That could put the title game as late as Jan. 11 in the BCS' next four-year rotation.

Beginning with the 2006 season, the BCS will stage its four original games — the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and Rose — and then return to one of the sites for its championship game. Officials have said they need a week between the games. The proposal formalizes their original plans.

"We talked a lot about this when we established the so-called double-hosting model," said Big 12 commissioner and BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg. "We knew that if you play (the initial BCS) games on Jan. 1, 2 and 3 or Jan. 2, 3 and 4 that ... the championship game was going to fall maybe as late as Jan. 9, 10 or 11.

"We asked presidents about it. We looked at academic calendars to see when schools start their second semesters, and it looked to us like that Monday was the earliest starting date for most institutions. Our (BCS presidential) oversight committee felt like it was not that big an issue."

The proposed NCAA rules change was one of dozens submitted by conferences and NCAA panels by the July 15 deadline. They go through a nine-month legislative process requiring final approval from the Board of Directors in April."

[Schadenfreude]

They better come up with a better name for this game then the "championship game."

Because that's b.s.

[BGSU-Ph.D.]

This is a great idea! I mean, some teams might get 7 or 8 weeks to prepare. That makes perfect sense.

[kdog27]

This is rediculous. I am one of the people that use to love seeing ten or eleven games on January first. This year (2006) for instance there is one game on Jan 1 and four or five games on Jan 2.

[Falconfreak90]

The BCS is a total joke. No playoff but this crap? Glad to see the players won't miss any class in mid January.

[hammb]

This is rediculous. I am one of the people that use to love seeing ten or eleven games on January first. This year (2006) for instance there is one game on Jan 1 and four or five games on Jan 2.

I believe we already covered this, but January 1 is a Sunday. The NCAA is not nearly stupid enough to try and go against the NFL. Hence they've moved a lot of their bowl games around.

Personally I LIKE that they don't have 10 or 11 games on the same day. It is now possible to watch nearly every bowl game of the year because they don't overlap nearly as much.

[transfer2BGSU]

From USA-Today July 21:

"We asked presidents about it. We looked at academic calendars to see when schools start their second semesters, and it looked to us like that Monday was the earliest starting date for most institutions. Our (BCS presidential) oversight committee felt like it was not that big an issue."

I believe there is an error with a paragraph in the story, I think it is supposed to read as follows:

"We a$ked pre$ident$ about it. We looked at academic calendar$ to $ee when $chool$ $tart their $econd $eme$ter$, and it looked to u$ like that Monday wa$ the earlie$t $tarting date for mo$t in$titution$. Our (BC$ pre$idential) over$ight committee felt like it wa$ not that big an i$$ue."

[kdog27]

We have covered this but I still think it is a joke that there are 5 games on the 2nd, one game one the third, and one game on the fourth. I know the first is a Sunday that is why I put how many games are on both days. There is no reason to still be playing games after January 2nd IMO. It all comes down to persponal preference I guess, but growing up I always associated New Year's with football from 11am-12am with games going on multiple channels. Now You have to watch the same dang commercials all day long.

Plus I am a whiny bxtch.

[Bleeding Orange]

I believe we already covered this, but January 1 is a Sunday. The NCAA is not nearly stupid enough to try and go against the NFL. Hence they've moved a lot of their bowl games around.

Ehhh, if anyone out there is like me, the NFL isn't in competition at all with the NCAA. Most of the people I know that are NFL fans could care less about NCAA football.

Fact of the matter is that there have been numerous times in the past when Jan. 1 has fallen on a Sunday, and it has never been a big problem in the past. It is a sad, sad comentary on our society that this is now percieved as a problem, and even sadder that fans are willing to accept this as an excuse.

Anytime commercialism alters time-tested traditions it is a very sad day indeed, in my opinion.

[hammb]

Ehhh, if anyone out there is like me, the NFL isn't in competition at all with the NCAA. Most of the people I know that are NFL fans could care less about NCAA football.

Well I'll counter your anecdotal evidence with my own. Every single one of my friends is a fan of both college & NFL football. NFL is the king of sports right now. It makes no financial sense for the NCAA to try to compete with them; especially on the final week of their regular season when there could be serious playoff implications for many of the games.

There are too many people who are "football" fans that watch both levels religiously. They would risk ratings to compete with the NFL. Like it or not the sports world revolves around ratings.

[Schadenfreude]

It is a sad, sad comentary on our society

I don't know that playing the Orange, Rose, Sugar, etc. a day later is a commentary on anything except the desire to make money.

What we are seeing is unrestrained markets at work -- or, put another way, the NFL's desire to make money colliding with the Jan. 1 tradition of college football, which also makes a whole lot of dough.

There is a solution. Congress certainly could pass legislation to ban professional football from being played on Jan. 1.

This isn't as radical as it sounds.

Congress specifically exempted baseball from the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act in a recognition of the importance of the game to the fabric of American life.

And Theodore Roosevelt took a leading role in starting to regulate college football a century ago when several young men were getting killed each year playing the sport.

Finally, a more quaint example: Many cities used to bar baseball from being played on Sunday.

One could make the case that college football holds the same importance as baseball in the American way of life -- if not more so, particularly in certain red states south of the Mason-Dixon line.

On the other hand, is seeing the Orange Bowl played on Jan. 2 so offensive that Congress should step in and regulate the football market?

I don't think so.

Which, I guess means that I don't see a "sad, sad commentary on society."

The fact that 43 million Americans lack health insurance, that drug companies are looting consumers blind, that American corporations are renouncing their citizenship in order to avoid paying their fair share in taxes, that predatory lenders continue to work their usury schemes on unsuspecting consumers just trying to get a leg up in this world?

These, to me, are sad, sad commentaries on society.

But that's just me.

[orangeandbrown]

Right on Schad.

By the way, this isn't the first time that Jan 1 has fallen on a Sunday. The Bowl games are always on January 2.

[JohnnySwoop '85]

At first I am against stretching this out....but times have changed and I have adapted to not watching all of the last bowl games with a Jan. 1 hangover.

Might we be overlooking the saving grace in having it to go mid-month...that being a slight break from hearing Mark May and Reece Davis' banter day in day out.

[TG1996]

Right on Schad.

By the way, this isn't the first time that Jan 1 has fallen on a Sunday. The Bowl games are always on January 2.

1995 was the last time Jan. 1 fell on a Sunday. The Orange Bowl still played on the first, and I found conflicting reports about the Sugar, but the rest waited until the 2nd.

http://www.sportsfansofamerica.com/Link ... story1.htm

Playing until the second week of January is just moronic. They might as well push it back to Super Bowl weekend and get a REAL cash cow out of it. (And why would an extra week off mean less of the ESPN bozos? If anything, it means they'll be on there full time for a week and a half talking about one game!)