Thoughts About the SoCal Move East

[LuckeyDuck]

I'm just a rabid Ducks fan, so I wont get up at the crack of dawn to watch SEC games. I'd bet fans in the south, and the east, and the

conference (heh), feel the same about staying up late for a PAC12 game. Unless it's say Oregon vs Florida State (which sent em to bed early)

and that's an ACC - Pac12 match up.

 

I couldn't care less about SEC teams that we wont be playing. I will get up early, or stay up late for my Ducks

of course, or a match up that's directly relevant to OUR conference race, I may even watch I'mHiO state smash Notadame in their opener, but other then that, those early games are just "Whats to do before the Pac12 game I MAY watch, that doesn't have Oregon vs somebody else involved. I think we're fans of our teams, then our conference, and then it's a matter of "had I better go to the mall with her, or else" yet?

 

One of the last things I'll ever do, is interrupt my sleep to see USC, or UCLA get smashed by Wisconsin or Purdue. I think the Cali schools live to regret this.

 

 

[HappyToBeADuck]

To me, the excitement of college football is regional or focused directly on who your team is playing.

IMHO, most fans fall in that category.

 

Cross sectional games, unless mega games (Oregon-tOSU Oregon - Georgia) are of interest to those directly involved. How many of you watch the Georgia vs Clemson game? Does FOX really think fans in Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake, Seattle or Portland will watch usc/whisky or ucla/minnesota?

 

WTH........

[David Marsh]

The first three weeks of non-conference games I usually find are kinda boring. I usually watch a decent amount of football out of hunger for the game alone but I struggle to find something worth while to watch. 

 

I'll always watch Oregon against anyone. 

 

But I have zero interest in watching Alabama or Ohio State or whoever beat the crap out of an FCS schools or G5 school. 

 

I usually try and seek out the early conference games because those have meaning. 

 

Conferences give the game meaning and they give us rivalries which is what is fun. Sure, playing outside the conference is fun and interesting but I don't always find it interesting in the first few weeks of the season. 

 

For fun I went back and watched Oregon play Tennessee in 2010 and 2013. It made me smile with how the announcers were all in on Tennessee and seemed a little depressed when Oregon demolished them. 

 

But my point is... The announcers and the general punditry around early season games is meaningless. They were all in on Tennessee because of S E C! 

 

Then once the year gets rolling I spend most of my Saturday watching Pac-12 games or watching games with potential upsets that can help Oregon. But I usually only watch the 4th quarter. 

 

[Mike West]

I'm a cfb fan through and through.  I DO watch morning matchups.  And yes, even though I despise the SEC hype, I watch those games.

 

So yes, I will watch USC at Indiana.  And I believe so will half the country.  

 

Now I do believe the SEC is playing this game smarter the the BIG10.  But frankly, I see SEC fans watching the BIG10 very closely once the new formula starts 

 

Why?  SEC fans are football fans.  They will want to know who they are facing in the playoffs.  So they will definitely pay attention to the BIG.  And no doubt vice versa.

 

We are stuck in no man's land BECAUSE we won't watch the rest of the conference games.  Nor our own conference unless it's our team, or it's a damn good matchup.  Who honestly watches Arizona State at WSU here? 

 

And given both teams are marginal, do you think the rest of the country cares either?  Even at 3:30 EST?  But I'm guessing until USC is out of the running, half the country will watch USC at Indiana just about any time of day.

 

That's the disadvantage living in the West with far more to do than the rest of the country does for us.  That's what I believe we are ignoring here.  College fans are regionally centric.  But East of the Rockies, they are football fans.  

 

I looked at the summary of what the BIG is doing.  They will feature Wisconsin, Iowa, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, USC, Ohio State all year.  When Indiana, Purdue and the also ran teams have good records, they'll be featured too.  

 

If Arizona is 4-0, the nation won't care till they play Utah, Oregon or Washington ( and only if the three also have good records).  Why? We don't have football tradition like the rest of the country.  Even the BIG10 has that in Indiana, Iowa and Illinois.  

 

Who is going to follow Utah this year before we face them?  Cal?  That isn't the case back East. Avid West Coast football fans will watch teams in the South and Midwest.  Maybe more so than in our own backyard ( it's just better football at this point as well).  

 

TV execs know this.  And the BIG10 , at least in my eyes definitely was looking to expand West beyond the LA market.  And now, it's in their contract.  I do believe SEC fans will watch Oregon at Penn State at noon Eastern.  And I believe the BIG10 knows this.  They certainly will watch UCLA at Penn State ( even though the Bruins haven't be relevant nationally since the eighties).  

 

That's what I believe we don't get collectively.  Despite all this disruption, bigger budgets are going to produce better football.  And college fans are going to watch it, especially if the playoffs expand.  

 

I think the players get it too.  They realize they will face more scrutiny, and will be expected to perform at a much higher level.  Because they are getting paid to.  Do I want an eighteen year old hot dog like an NFL player? No. And fans will express that far more in this new era.

 

Kids won't get to say they're kids anymore. Just like when we complain at McDonald's when they mess up our order.  

 

Now I've ranted for far too long.  But the change we all hate is driven by some serious interest in college football in my opinion.  I don't see as much attendance in the stadium, but I think we will see millions of eyeballs on a better product soon. And that product is going to look better than most think at present.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

[MTdux]

I'm a fan of the college game first and foremost. 

Because I've been deprived of football for so long I will watch that first Thursday night game (the actual start of the college football season) just to see some game action: If one or both of those second-tier teams has any cache, then all the better. 

 

I've chosen to watch football on Saturday and get my work done on Sunday: not enough room to watch both college and the pros (except Herbert and Mariota: I'll watch if I know they're on).