Sunday, September 06, 2009

Morning Report

A quick post while I'm waiting for breakfast... I'll have something up about yesterday's win later; for now I'm in recovery mode. Just as my wife and I got back home last night, around one in the morning, my cell phone rang. It was my dad, telling me that he'd just had a wreck on his own way home. He and my mom are fine, if a little worse for being stuck in the middle of nowhere for most of the night.

As much fun as night games can be, the reality of tens of thousands of tired people driving through the night afterwards is a reality that neither ESPN--which popularized prime-time college football--nor the universities and conferences have been willing to acknowledge. To the networks, fans at games are by definition not tuned in, and a non-factor. The schools long ago sold off their kickoff time rights to television, and also ignore the ticket holders--better known as their best customers.

I have no illusions about this situation changing, especially after this year's umpty-million TV deals, but the older I get, the more convinced I am that the late Shug Jordan was right in every particular when he said college football was meant to be played, "On campus, on grass, and in the afternoon."

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