Why are we still watching ridiculously one-sided college football games? Large mainstream universities are actually paying smaller schools to come to their campus and have their football team beaten by a nationally ranked team. Why?
It’s wonderful for the small colleges. They get never before heard of exposure for their schools, while they are getting outscored 900-0. Plus a lot of money, oftentimes upwards of a million dollars. But what about the fans? Do they really want to see a game that everyone knows the outcome of the day that the scheduling is announced?
It’s the players themselves who are most likely to come out on the short end of the deal. Guys from the small school know that they are not expected to win going into the game. That can’t be good for attitude. And the players from the big universities are stuck for a week prepping for a team that their second or even third string guys could probably beat.
How does this help them get ready to play for a conference or even a national championship? Is a game against Coastal Carolina or Chattanooga going to help them prepare for the conference competition they are about to face?
The average margin of victory for SEC teams in the first couple of weeks of the season was almost 40 points per game. Snooze alert, and a nearly empty stadium during the fourth quarter of play. That really should be unacceptable these days. College football is one of the most popular team sports being played today. It is entertainment that brings in lots of money to the universities.
But the entertainment value of those games takes a serious nose dive when the slate consists of one of those ‘Bambi verses Godzilla’ type matchups. Very few fans are going to sit through an entire game where one team totally dominates the other to the point of embarrassment, to both players and fans alike.
Now, granted that many of the existing contracts were signed years ago but, even back then the folks who do the scheduling for the big schools should have recognized that their fans were not going to be very interested in turning out on a nice Saturday afternoon to see their team take on some small college that no one has ever heard of before.
The system needs some serious revision. Whatever the reasoning behind these crazy one-sided games, it’s time to start giving college football fans more of what they really want to see. Good college football games.
