Oller: What do college football fans want from the sport they love, and love to ridicule?
My 95-year-old mother became a fan of college football during the Great Depression, when her father followed Ohio State games religiously, which meant reading about the Buckeyes in the newspaper.
Mom still pays attention, watching every OSU game as well as catching other televised contests here and there. She still considers herself a fan, even if she is not big on “players constantly coming and going” through the transfer portal.
“Players used to be around for four years and you got to know them,” she said this week.
A lot of you think like Mom, whether fast approaching the century mark or fresh out of your 30s. Her love for college football was built around family – her father passing along his passion for the game to her, and her passing it to her three children. But it was not just her biological family that drew her in and has kept her there, but also the larger family of fans who, like her, relish the traditions as much as the touchdowns. The marching bands. The fight songs. The quibbling over whether Michigan should be ranked ahead of … anyone. And the names on the back of jerseys that felt familiar because they stayed the same for more than a year or two.
I call this the old-school approach to fandom, not because you need to be older to prefer it, but because those in this camp like things more the way they were than the way they are. Or the way they are headed. It’s not that most are anti-athlete, against 18-year-olds making money off their name, image and likeness or having more freedom of choice to play at whatever school they choose. Well, OK, some old-schoolers oppose such advancements. “A scholarship should be enough!” But the majority simply want compensation and player movement capped at pre-2022 levels. And they think “collectives” should be left to farming, not football.
Now for an alternative view. As many who nod in agreement with the OG attitudes, probably just as many consider themselves “progressive” in their approach to the college game. The upcoming 12-team playoff is better than the four-team format that ends this season, which was better than the BCS computer model, which was better than the poll voter system.
These fans see themselves being more realistic than fatalistic, although there is plenty of cynicism to go around. College football is about power and money. Who has it? Who wants it? Who will do anything to get it?
This group takes an “amateur hour” view toward anyone who still thinks college football is an amateur sport. And they’re not entirely wrong. Look around. When quarterbacks are accepting million-dollar deals to transfer, in what amounts to pay-for-play, it’s hard to see college football as anything but a business-first enterprise.
I’m not here to crucify either side. The OGs and progressives both make solid arguments, and, to be fair, there is overlap of the two groups. I’m more interested in knowing what fans want from the sport. What is the end game? And, just as importantly, what are fans getting?
Last question first. College football is becoming more like the NFL. Nothing new there. If death is undefeated, greed has a .999 winning percentage. If there is money to be made, it will be made. As TV increasingly calls the shots, conferences will continue to expand, athletic administrators will get richer and athletes will want their piece of the billion-dollar pie. Fair enough.
NFL free agency already exists in college as the transfer portal, and NIL serves as its incentive program. Gambling, a huge reason the NFL is so popular, has come to cell phones and college football stadiums, enrolling fans of good old State U. into a more selfish State Me.
My sense is an increasing number of college football fans are fine with the game, and not just the athletes, becoming more pro-like. Currently, the structure of college football makes it unique (some would say antiquated) in that every week is a playoff game. The beauty for fans of big-time programs, but bane for coaches, is that losing even one game could cost your team a shot at the national title. The NFL mocks such a ridiculous setup, instead building its brand as more fan inclusive. Eight losses? Welcome to the playoffs.
My concern: as college football becomes more like the NFL, what is the point of watching the college game? The NFL has better talent and fewer commercials. Why follow a minor-league product when there is the option to follow the majors? You say why not follow both? Sure, but “lesser” products ultimately lose viewership.
As for any argument the NFL lacks the kind of tradition that makes college football special? Every NFL game has at least one fan fight. Some folks prefer watching flying fists to singing the alma mater. Are you not entertained?
On the other hand, what do the old-schoolers want from the college game, besides a return to pre-COVID conditions? The simpler world of Woody vanished decades ago. The days of Tresselball and Urban Legend, when “nil” was not a player payday but the answer to the question of whether Michigan had any chance of beating the Buckeyes, are equally long gone.
Certainly, today’s fandom should not be based solely on winning national championships, because that transactional relationship disappoints more often than not. The Buckeyes have won six national titles since 1942, which translates to one every 13.7 years. That’s a lot of frustration waiting to be 100% happy.
So what are we left with? One side wants to move forward, the other wants to move back, or at least stand still. Maybe the best move is to embrace elements of both while pressing hard into the one thing that does not change. Mom has it right. Family, gathering around college football, is the foundation that remains firm, no matter the emerging cracks.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State and college football want it both ways -- old and new
