Washington Waddler

From Fight On! to Dream On. Avoid things rather than face them is their new mantra?

When commercial cable/satellite sports channels replaced free broadcast channels as the means by which we watch CFB, sports tv viewers were moved from a national to a regional format whose focus was primarily on the highest number of tv sets tuning-in at prime viewing times. In light of that, it’s hard to blame sports media for viewing the western time zone as a big deficit. From the midwest eastward, you get viewers of both colleges plus those interested in any given game. In the west you get both colleges and everyone else in bed. ESPN and Fox, seeing the writing on the wall, did what any companies would do in our country: they sought to monopolize the markets that gave them the best return on their investment. Athletic Dept. of these midwest and southeastern universities simply saw what was offered as a chance to strengthen their bottom line. It can be viewed as conspiracy-collusion, but to be fair, I’m not sure any college at the time those deals were done would have been aware of the effect those deals would eventually have on western colleges, as a result of sports media financial priorities. If we need to point the finger, maybe we should all just look in the mirror. Sports media couldn’t do what they do without our support.

How about we agree to remain in the PAC if Beaver fans agree to all wear green at the next C***l War game?

When I read these USC forum comments, it makes me think of The Wizard of Oz. Their recent history with us is for them like Dorothy’s bad dream from which they’ll soon awake, and everything will be back to normal: from the nightmare of Oz (Oregon/PAC-12) to the comforting relief of Kansas (B1G). Like the Tinseltown they live in, Trojan fans confuse escapism with reality.

It ain’t over til we say it’s over! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? When the going gets tough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the tough get going! (apologies to John Belushi)

While not a major doubt, I’m still a bit on the fence regarding the ‘all systems go’ effectiveness of our reconfigured OL until someone takes charge of being the play calling center. While we may not have a clear choice like Grasu or Forsyth, Powers-Johnson and Harper are both inching into that role. It is key to the effectiveness of Stein’s calls and Nix’s execution.

Yes, just like USC’s is Dream On!

As a rule, desperation is to your disadvantage when bargaining for what you want. With the departure of Colorado, can’t help but wonder if the media types have taken the reins in negotiating price with GK and the universities.

IF the rumor is true, they’d have to rename the B1G, the JL18 - for jet lag.

Colorado’s best memories are as a member of the B12. Wave good-bye to Ralphie as he charges into the past.

Because the common goal between them (to make $$) falls apart once geographic priorities come into play: college demands all reference back to where they are; an unchangeable situation. Sports media demands are area-oriented, and based upon dense markets (lots of colleges) and continuous viewing eyes unaffected by beddy-bye time zone issues. Even with a national conference, that sports media-driven sliding-scale cost analysis problem doesn’t go away: the west is always going to get less, and the rest of the country more. At one time, it didn’t matter. When national broadcast tv ran the show there weren’t any contractual negotiations between them and colleges because sports represented but one slice of there financial pie. ABC, etc did what they wanted, picked the games they wanted, because their bottom line wasn’t dependent upon them. Enter sports exclusive cable/satellite companies and all that changes: we stop being a national viewing audience and become regional, based upon the financial realities of sports media. They may offer a lot, but beware of what you become addicted to; I can’t remember the last time I watched ESPN, and as little of Fox as I can get away with. I get the feeling that people out here are slowly waking up to this. I don’t think forced immigrant sports fans will be any happier than the real ones: always dreaming of the homeland, or their bygone regional conference. Interestingly, there is a past cable tv model that offers a possible solution to this. It’s called community access tv. Similar to the Fed in the 1970’s requiring cable stations to offer a local viewing option (irregardless of cost) if they wanted a license, enough area sports fans coming together to demand equal treatment to any other area in the country could force the Fed to revisit the licensing requirements for sports media, thereby undermining their CFB conference contract cycle. Pie in the sky? Probably. In a capital-driven society like ours (which I prefer), it’s very hard to create level playing fields. Nevertheless, pursuit of a national model is a worthy cause to try and keep our regional identity.

One of the beauties of the Eugene/Corvallis rivalry is its geographic roots in the ancient cause of those rivalries: the sun-up to sun-down distance between them in the days of foot and horse travel. Those old world town rivalries, now played out on sports fields, once were fought with swords and spears. As much as I loathed any C***l War loss I attended at either Parker/Clam Dip Stadium or Autzen, it was the following year of watching those rusted out F150s coming in on W6th and down Franklin belching smoke and Beaver slogans that really got to me. I’d really miss that.

I agree, but without any comparable # of viewing eyes to the LA area anywhere else in the west (per game) how does it move the needle in gaining traction with a media deal?

I think it’s no longer a matter for debate that the 500 Lb gorilla sitting at the media deal table is time zones. As much as I agree with the general OBD opinion regarding GV, there’s no avoiding that the deal’s major stumbling block revolves around the fact that CFB’s tv/streaming eyes = $$, and the majority of those eyes are east of the Mississippi and closed when we play. I’m not sure going coast to coast changes that reality one iota. The LA school gamble that Fox/B1G is playing is probably justified by the # of eyes in the SoCal area that helps balance diminished eastern viewing for LA area games. We could wait and hope that Fox/B1G wants to develop a western B1G division? Doesn’t sound advisable. Or we could just accept that the cable/satellite reality has created what amounts to two national time zone conferences separated by the big muddy. Like it or not, it would seem that viewing $$ has already married us to the B12 if we are to survive.

Personally, I’m just tired and bored of watching media companies wag the dog.

Chicken Littles like to create dust storms with their panicky upset. Who knows what the future holds? We do know we’ve got darn good teams. Let the dust settle; then decide.

It’s important to differentiate between actual and potential viewers when looking at them as a market. Media companies are no different from any other business in that they’d rather take as few risks as possible. My guess would be that Boise has near maxed its current viewer market share, which makes of it anyone’s guess as to how that number might grow outside that market, given membership in the PAC. On the other hand, the viewer growth potential in both Texas and southern California can be more reliably seen as an open-ended local response to a program that can create buzz by simply raising its profile to a higher level. Boise’s national fan base might grow in a similar manner given PAC membership, but I’d guess that investment capital would likely hedge its bet towards the local potential of SMU and SDSU.

When it comes to sports mediaites, it’s rarely what they say, but rather what compels them to say it that interests me most. In other words, the hidden, little kid fan that lives in each of us. At PFF, 30 analysts are listed on their web page. Of those 30, five have no biographical data that I could find. Two are from the UK, and one from Germany. Of the remaining 22, seven grew-up in the midwest, ten on the east coast, two in the southeast, and three out west. The breakdown by area of where they went to college places six in the Midwest, four in the southeast, nine on the east coast and three in the west. By major conference, three are SEC, five are B1G, one is ACC, one is Big East, one is Ivy League, and one is PAC10. When it comes to the media-driven feeding frenzy that seems to infect many sites like PFF (located in Cincinnati OH) regarding the demise of the PAC10, it’s hard not to see them as no longer critically unbiased, but rather just preaching to the choir.

People can only focus on one thing at a time with any genuine effectiveness. So long as the search light is obsessed with the PAC?$$ mess, coaching jobs sit safely in the dark.

You’re undoubtedly right David. What I recall were occasional reports of ‘feelers’ - testing the water - being made in order to gauge Peterson’s level of interest in the job during his tenure in Boise, but no hard offer.

If memory serves, I think we tried pretty hard; for what ever reason, just never got any traction.

What’s interesting is how much puppy fans sound exactly like Trojan fans did prior to the program getting off its butt and hiring someone who could get them back in the game. Not saying the verdict is in on DeBoer, but lots of mutts quietly pondering how lucky they were to have had Chris Peterson.

Good stuff. What’s fascinating is the sheer number of coaches whose hidden, self-centered ambitions blinded them from ‘seeing’ what their recruits saw and still do. You can’t put a label on it, and words fail to express it. It’s just Oregon.

Agreed - there was something simple and straight forward about those Green & Yellows that defined Brooks’ commitment to hard-nosed football. I’m onboard.

Add me to the list of wannabes - not sure I’ll be able to make it down from the north Olympic peninsula, but I’ll certainly try. But no matter where we are, and even with Williams at the top of his game, we’ll all be cheering our Ducks on to flush the Troylets into the B1G!