TV vs. the Forgotten Fan; Brady's Response; Playoff Field Follies

Inquiring minds, otherwise known as college football fans, want to know:

• How come college football kickoff times make no sense?

• Why do some games start at 9am Pacific and others at 11pm Eastern?

• Why do some teams play so many night games?

• Why do some teams play every week at noon?

• Why are so many kickoff times determined only two weeks before the game date?

• Who do great games often kick at the same time?

  
  

The answer, of course, is that television dictates starting times. The people who pay the rights fees to conferences are not interested in the convenience of the fans, or the viewers at home. They're only interested in drawing the largest number of eyeballs, satisfying their advertisers, and filling the available scheduling windows.

The TV networks select games to broadcast the same way the NFL drafts players. Each conference has its own selection order. Ohio State-Michigan usually goes with the No. 1 pick. After the games are selected, the starting times are set, from Fox's "Big Noon Saturday" to the 8pm Pacific/11pm Eastern "After Dark" window.

I remember the good ol' days when every Stanford game started at 1:30. Those were the days when the NCAA and ABC controlled college football, when only one game was televised on most Saturdays. So schools just scheduled all their kickoffs at 1 or 1:30 and figured they could change one game if they got lucky enough to be picked for TV.

That was before conference commissioners sold their souls to television and let the networks dictate kickoff times.

Before games became TV inventory. Before regional rivalries and long-standing traditions went out the window.

And before schools started changing conferences in pursuit of TV money. 

The TV networks have been heavily involved in conference realignment. According to many industry insiders, Fox was the driving force behind the Big Ten's expansion westward to lure USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington.

So now we have Oregon playing in the same conference as Rutgers. And Stanford playing Boston College and Virginia instead of USC and UCLA.

The price for greed is absurd starting times, conflicting TV choices, a lot of cross country travel for the teams, and, at least on the West Coast, half-empty stadiums.

Last week, for example, Michigan State fans had to stay up until 11pm to see their game against USC, a game that didn't end til after 2am Michigan time.

As for USC, in coach Lincoln Riley's words, the Trojans "went from the absolute latest kick in the country (Michigan State at 11pm ET) to the absolute earliest kick in the country (Illinois at noon ET)."

On Saturday two of the most anticipated games of the season were on at the same time---Oregon-Penn State and Alabama-Georgia. Later on the same day, two other heavyweight games, LSU-Ole Miss and Ohio State-Washington, were also up against each other. 

Sadly, the interests of the fans--either those who attend games in person or those who watch on TV--are ignored while kickoff times fluctuate all over various time zones and great games compete against each other on the airwaves.

The Games Still Matter: Despite the fact that the TV lords and the conference commissioners have tried their best to ruin college football, and despite the abuses of NIL and the transfer portal, the games themselves remain incredible.

On Saturday, with the aid of the remote and the tape recorder (I'm not a split screen guy), I was able to watch most of eight games. Six of them were thrilling, down to the wire contests:

• Illinois 34, USC 32 

• Ole Miss 24, LSU 19

• Cal 28, Boston College 24

• Oregon 30, Penn State 24 

• Alabama 24, Georgia 21

• Stanford 30, San Jose State 29

The only non-competitive games were Ohio State-Washington (24-6) and Notre Dame-Arkansas (56-13).

Cal coach Justin Wilcox must've been thinking "here we go again," after BC running back Turbo Richard gave the Eagles a 24-21 lead late in the fourth quarter with a 71-yard scoring run, and then, after his freshman QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele hit tight end Mason Mini with a 51-yard TD pass with 1:30 to play, giving Cal a 28-24 lead, Boston College drove down the field to the Bears' 5 yard-line in the game's final minute.

 Last year, Wilcox's Bears lost four close games in a row by a total of nine points. But this time Cal flipped the script, as Luke Ferelli made an end zone interception with 15 seconds remaining to save the win.

Stanford benefitted from two missed San Jose State field goals from 28 and 29 yards, but got an impressive game from quarterback Ben Gulbranson, who threw for 444 yards and two touchdowns.

Gulbranson, the transfer from Oregon State, was awful in the Cardinal's first two games against Hawaii and BYU, but has been progressing in the past three games, two of them home victories against Boston College and San Jose.

Brady Responds: Fans, media and opposing teams have been rightfully concerned about Tom Brady's conflicting roles as Fox TV's lead analyst and minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, which gives him inside access to future Raiders' opponents when he interrogates tham as part of his broadcast prep.

But Brady, of course, sees no conflict. In fact, he accuses those who question his integrity as being "paranoid" and "distrustful."

"I love football," Brady's statement read. "At its core, it is a game of principles. And with all the success it has given me, I feel I have a moral and ethical duty to the sport, which is why the point where my roles in it intersect is not actually a point of conflict, despite what the paranoid and distrustful might believe. Rather, it's the place from which my ethical duty emerges: to grow, evolve and improve the game that has given me everything."

Well, count me among the paranoid and distrustful. We know that during his years as a player, both Brady and his team skirted the rules more than once to get a competitive edge.

And, oh by the way, football isn't "a game of principles." It's a game of Ws and Ls. And Brady knows that better than anyone, despite his claims of ethical purity.

Playoff Pondering: It's beginning to look like the College Football Playoff will stay at 12 teams for the foreseeable future. The sensible 14 and 16-team models were side-tracked by the Big Ten's demand for four guaranteed spots for itself and the SEC. When that idea failed to gain traction, the Big Ten offered proposals to look at 20, 24  and 28-team models. All have rightfully been met with disdain. 

College presidents would never approve that big of a field, which would lengthen the seasons considerably, impact the academic calendar, and put the safety of the players at risk.