Tim Brando: College football has become a colossal bore

#2
#2
I have stopped watching all bowl games and just watch the playoff games. I will probably watch Tennessee this year in a bowl but none of the others. So basically I agree that end of season/bowl games that does not involve Tennessee are boring. I will watch the SEC conference championship game
 
#6
#6
If it's such a bore for him, maybe he should quit his job. College football is still my favorite sport. I enjoy it much more than the NFL and college basketball (which is only interesting for about 2 months).

I will agree that there are too many meaningless bowl games, though. That has gotten out of control, but the regular season, the major bowls, and the playoffs are still very interesting.
 
#7
#7
Georgia LSU will be a big game.

Auburn Bama will be a big game.

Michigan Ohio St will be a big game.

I don't know what he's talking about. The playoff creates more meaningful games, not less. Auburn Bama for example would be meaningless without the playoff.
 
#8
#8
Only in the same way that college basketball has become a colossal bore during the regular season.

TV skews everything. Saturation of regular season games, bowl game tie ins are the same ole- same ole and in the end, they selection committee is going to put the 4 most powerful lobbies in the playoffs.

I can't believe Brando wrote it though. Must have been before LSU beat Bama. He's a huge LSU homer and I can't imagine him being against anything that includes the Tigers in the playoffs.
 
#10
#10
College football is the only sport I love. College football and college basketball are the only sports I follow. I’d watch Slippery Rock play Allegheny, I love college football so much. Brando can shove it. I’m still not a huge fan of the playoff though. May be just because the Vols haven’t sniffed it yet though.
 
#12
#12
I used to look forward to New Year's Day, watching the Cotton, Rose, Sugar, and Orange Bowls. Sometimes, even the Fiesta Bowl, but I think that addition diluted the field a bit. Then, we could argue who should be number one. I think they ruined it , at least for me.

The Cotton had Southwest Conf champ, usually Texas or Arkansas, against a strong independent or a conference runnerup. Rose had Pac 8 champ, usually USC/ UCLA/ Washington against Big 10 champ, usually Mich or Ohio St.

Sugar was SEC champ, usually Alabama/Auburn/Georgia against a top independent team like Notre Dame/Pitt/Penn State/Miami/Florida State. Orange was somebody like Nebraska/Oklahoma against a top independent. It was all over in one big day. This was also before the SEC and others had a conference championship game. You had better win your regular season championship or you might get left out.
 
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#13
#13
Agree or disagree with Tim here? His premise is that the current playoff system has greatly diminished "meaningless" late-season games. Whether you disagree or not it's a great interview here:

Fox Sports' Tim Brando: college football has become a colossal bore -
Who is Tim? He is part of the problem in today's sports media. Non spot players are always trying to take the competition off the fiel and put it in hands of the large sports media. They try to determine who plays whom as well as where and when they play. Their goal is the all mighty dollar rather than determining who is the best team in each sport. I would not hesitate in having at least an 8 game playoff at the end of the yearand let the top 8 teams be determined by people who are involved with the sport rank the teams. I would even like to have the coaches of the top 50 rated teams at the end of the year do the ranking providing they can not vote for themselves or anyone in their Conference. Tjis moght even encourage Notre Dame to join a Conference . JMPO
 
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#14
#14
I agree. Expand it to 8 teams. Conference champions and the rest be at large bids. The current format doesn't work.
I still think a 6 team playoff(1 and 2 get a bye) is ideal. It makes being #1 or #2 really important. I would even support a 10 team, I just think being #1 or #2 should have some reward at the end.
 
#17
#17
As far back as I can remember, about 90-95% of all bowl games were irrelevant. The National Champion usually came from the winner of either the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl or Sugar Bowl. Occasionally the Cotton Bowl would figure in when the Southwest Conference was around and then later maybe the Fiesta Bowl. The Rose (Pac10/Big10), Orange (Big 8/At Large) and Sugar (SEC/At Large) pretty much guaranteed the Top 5 schools in the Polls would be in those games. The rest of the bowl games didn't matter except for final rankings and to their fans. There were only 20 Bowl Games in 1997. Today, there are 40 Bowl Games - 78 teams (two teams will play in two bowl games - semifinal and championship). There is no way to make those games relevant or interesting to anyone outside of their fan bases and some die hard fans of college football. I don't even turn the TV on for 80% of them, much less watch the entire game. If Mr. Brando wants to blame anyone, how about the media in which he is employed. TV has driven the increase in bowl games. College football has always had games at the end of the season that had no meaning. And 20-30 years ago, they could have been two 9-1 teams playing each other that had no chance to get in one of the Big 3-4 Bowl Games. At least now, losing a game doesn't hurt your chances as much. I would much rather see an eight team playoff. Win your conference and you're in. Other three teams would come from the highest ranked Group of 5 conferences and two at large teams from the top of the rankings. I could see leaving out the Group of 5 if they had no team in the Top 15-20 and replacing with another At Large.
 
#18
#18
What's boring is the latest television deals the conferences (on behalf of their member universities) made to line their pockets, requiring fans to sit through 3.5 hour games instead of 3 hours. It's more $ to the universities in exchange for us fans enduring more commercials if watching by TV at home, or in person watching the guy on the field at Neyland holding the clock that counts down from about 3 minutes while TV commercials run.

Oh yeah, the student athletes whose welfare is so valued by the universities? How bout the 3 minutes of commercials on ESPN that ran after midnight Eastern Time with 30 seconds to go in this year's UT - Bama game in Tuscaloosa? That was an injury timeout, but the injured player was already leaving the field when the TV coverage went to commercials. Not sure when our Vols finally got home after that game.

Rant over!
 
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#20
#20
I read somewhere, and I tend to agree, that having a 4 team playoff translates to about 10 teams realistically having a shot to make the playoffs going into that year. At least 4 of those are the same teams year-in/year-out. This has a dramatic effect on recruiting and creates what we have now, a top heavy view with little drama when all is said and done. If you expand it to 8 teams then that should mean that 16-20 teams have a shot to make the playoffs at the beginning of the year. Go to 16 teams and that becomes 30-40. Therefore, the more you expand it the more the top level recruits see they can compete for a championship by going to more than one of the 4 schools they see now. This will increase parity and, subsequently, more competitive games in the regular season. I don't think they should go to 16 right away, but 8 seems like a reasonable thing to do now.
 
#22
#22
College basketball turned themselves into one big TV Show called the NCAA Tournament. The regular season is just a four month long advertisement to watch that upcoming TV show. No single individual regular season game means anything.

I think college football is pretty close to that now. It really cheapened itself to me when it promoted an Alabama team that didn't win its division and didn't win its conference, into being the champion. But, full disclosure, in general I find all football mostly boring and unwatchable due to all the delays legislated in with situational rules and reviews.
 

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