Hey, where is everybody? We’ve got these hotshit teams, going to the big bowl and all, and … nada! Not only do our universities take a big ol’ hit, but we’re gonna have to scramble to find people to give these tickets away to if we want to avoid looking a bit… meagre… fanwise… on tv.
“Obviously we had hoped that we would sell more with it being a prestigious bowl, a BCS game,” [the West Virginia University sports marketing guy] said.
Yeah WTF. Human enterprises don’t come any more prestigious than the Bowl Championship Series; and – dang! – football’s the front porch of the American university! I challenge you to say one word against big-time university football! So WHAT the hell’s going on.
December 17th, 2011 at 3:26PM
There’s some discontent with the positional arms race in big-time football on allied sites, see Historiann and her commenters, contrasting the tight budgets elsewhere and the money going into perennially losing programs.
Even the sportscasters on a radio station that carries successful programs are having their doubts. One of the morning talkers remarked on the bowls that don’t pay the travel expenses for the band and noted the U of Illinois. They’re 6-6 and just fired their coach and going to a bowl anyway.