Memorial Day Weekend Q&A: Pac-12 TV Future, NCAA Football Video Game Past, & Rule Changes
A happy Memorial Day to all, and an unofficial welcome to summer.
Technically, there’s roughly another month of spring, but I operate on my own, entirely vibes-based calendar:
Winter begins Black Friday and ends with the conclusion of February.
Spring begins March 1 and ends with Memorial Day.
Summer begins the week following Memorial Day and ends with Labor Day.
Autumn begins the week following Labor Day and ends with Thanksgiving.
Summertime means baseball and the eager anticipation to kickoff of a new football season, what with the impending release of the preseason magazines, conference media days in July, and so on.
In the spirit of the season, this edition of The Press Break Newsletter Q&A is all about football. Fair warning: If any Nebraska football fans are subscribers, or are considering subscribing, I had to go in on the Cornhuskers a bit, but it’s because I care. Consider it tough love.
If you’d like to ask a question for a future edition of Q&A, tweet [at]ThePressBreak or [at]KyleKensing on Twitter; or email pressbreaknewsletter@gmail.com.
Allow me to preface the following by making it abundantly clear I have no sources. I am not basing my speculation on any details being given to me from inside, anonymous or credited. Given how toxic and contradictory the sourced reports trickling out are, though, I don’t know that it matters.
With that out of the way, let’s move onto the topic at hand — and a key central point. The Pac-10 as it exists currently still has TV value. A lot of it, even, despite how often discussions of the conference’s future on social media tend to devolve into swarms of K-State, Iowa State, BYU and (most perplexing1) UCF fans positing otherwise.
Oregon has steadily built itself into a nationally recognized football name, and the school has a passionate fan base. Washington has not had the sustained success of its arch-rival Ducks during the 21st Century, but both Chris Petersen and Kalen DeBoer demonstrated how quickly the program can recover thanks to the loyalty of its supporters and attractiveness of the school.
Arizona basketball has some of the most committed supporters of any program in the sport. Basketball obviously plays less of a factor than football in determining TV deals, but UA hoops is one of 10-or-so programs with the backing to create serious ripples.
With representation in the Phoenix, Seattle, Denver and fast-growing Salt Lake regions, there’s no shortage of major markets in the footprint. Losing Los Angeles hurts, to be sure, but southern California as a whole is swarming with alumni of other Pac-10 universities — so much so, a running joke I’d heard in reference to Arizona was it labeled UC-Tucson.
What’s more, being in the Pacific Time Zone gives the league a playable hand with its ability to broadcast late kickoffs. Now, that’s not ironclad if the Big Ten pulls away more members beyond USC and UCLA — but after the recent revelations that the Big Ten’s deal may be overblown, an invitation to the league may not be such an attractive golden ticket now when factoring in the logistical nightmares of sending 20-plus teams other than football to destinations 3-to-6-hour flights away.
The same applies to the Big 12 and its odd geographical make-up, while lacking even the paycheck a less-impressive-than-originally-believed Big Ten subsidy offers.
Further, realignment precedent tells us when leagues go extinct, it isn’t from the top. The Big East dropped football, yes, but this was a reset rather than a closure: The league was founded in the late ‘70s to be a basketball conference of like-minded (ergo, typically private and often Catholic) institutions, and its expansion to football led to bloating and members not particularly vested in the partnership’s long-term success.
That’s all to say I firmly believe the Pac-10 isn’t in danger of extinction and will find a niche on television not much different from its current place after some measured expansion. That means a firm grasp on 9 PT-or-later kickoffs on FS1 or ESPN with one of the two retaining an option to flex a high-profile game into a prime window, and the biggie being Pac-12 Network folded into the package of a conglomerate’s streaming package2.
And while it’s fodder for the usual brand of hacky, echo-chamber “humor” that’s part-and-parcel of college football discourse these days, rumored interest from outsiders with substantial media-company backing may not be such a bad thing if it means 1. a decent payout for the member athletic departments and 2. being treated by that entity as a big deal and not just inventory for networks trying to monopolize broadcast rights.
One of my most curmudgeonly stances is that the NCAA Football franchise stopped being good — or, at least, deserving of an annual $60 investment — a solid five years before the O’Bannon lawsuit doomed the series to the proverbial Alamogordo dump3.
Considering how continuously lackluster EA Sports’ flagship franchise Madden has been for the past decade, my expectations for a rebooted NCAA Football are low. Alright, with that off my chest, I’ll be positive for a change and share memories of a time when I loved NCAA Football.
I played the hell out of the ‘99 edition as a young lad on PSX, but the first edition on PS2 — the 2003 installment with Joey Harrington on the cover — was a true game-changer.
For the next few years coinciding with PS2’s dominance of the console marketplace, NCAA Football was a yearly must-purchase and one of the best sports games available. EA struggled to keep that spark alive once the next generation of console overtook the market, but plenty of people remained loyal — and I suspect it shaped a fair bit of young minds that had influence on the college football world.
I go back to that Harrington-covered edition and can’t help but think that, to some small degree, it helped launch Oregon as a national brand. Plenty of other, far more significant factors were at play, but the confluence of the Ducks embracing unconventional uniforms before it was the norm, the “Joey Heisman” campaign on Times Square, and the NCAA cover made UO seem hip in ways other programs couldn’t match.
Coincidentally, that edition of the game dropped after the last of Miami’s national championships. Much like it would be ridiculous to credit Oregon’s rise in any large part to a video game, it’s equally silly to suggest The U faltered as a result of losing its cachet during NCAA’s peak; the dissipation of residuals from Butch Davis’ tenure, NCAA sanctions, the demolition of the Orange Bowl all contributed to Miami’s decline.
But in the same way Oregon became a cool program through the 2000s and into the 2010s, Miami lost its cool factor. The trajectory tracks pretty directly with the NCAA Football era.
And then there’s Miami’s rival, Florida State.
OK, I know what some of you are thinking: But Florida State won a national championship, appeared in the first-ever College Football Playoff and won a New Year’s Six bowl just in the last decade!
And it’s a valid point!
But anyone who experienced college football before the turn of the millennium can tell you that Florida State from 2001 through 2022 is in no way comparable to Florida State throughout the 1990s and a chunk of the ‘80s.
The Seminoles won 10-plus games every season from 1987 through 2000, in an era when they played fewer games. They never lost more than twice in any of those 14 campaigns and, from ‘87 through ‘99, were never ranked lower than No. 4 in the final AP Poll.
In contrast, since 2001, Florida State has one top-four finish. The Seminoles have eight 10-plus-win finishes over the last 22 years, which isn’t insignificant — but also is just more than half of the 10+-win seasons it racked up in the years coinciding with NCAA Football on PSX, Bill Walsh College Football on SEGA Genesis and the NES days without a college football video game.
Fearsome Florida State also won 11 consecutive bowl games from ‘85 through ‘95, a streak that only ended when it faced Florida in an immediate, national championship rematch at the conclusion of the 1996 campaign.
The ‘97 Sugar Bowl defeat set off a seven-year stretch of postseasons in which the Seminoles alternated between bowl wins and losses, a possible precursor to the program’s downturn at the outset of the 21st Century. But when 2000 arrived and Y2K didn’t mark the end of civilization, Florida State commemorated humanity’s continued existence with its first national championship since the 1993 campaign.
The Seminoles claimed the top prize on Jan. 4, 2000, but the most memorable part of that Sugar Bowl was Michael Vick’s performance in a losing effort.
Vick played like a video-game character come to life at Virginia Tech, foreshadowing his damn-near unstoppable presence on EA Sports’ Madden NFL 2004.
And while Vick became the new Bo Jackson of the PS2/XBox era, Virginia Tech never again reached the heights it achieved when was the Hokies quarterback.
Frank Beamer coached plenty more quality Virginia Tech teams, going on a run of 10-win seasons that spanned from 2004 to 2011 and produced four Atlantic Coast Conference championships, but the Hokies never again felt like national title contenders.
And for the past decade, it’s been a grim slide with the last Top 25 finish coming in 2017; and the last top 10 finish in 2009.
Lest it seem like I’m beating up on the ACC, let’s talk about Nebraska.
As a child of the ‘90s, Nebraska rivaled Florida State as far presenting an air of untouchability. Is untouchability a word? Well, it is now!
Never dipping below nine wins from 1969 through 2001 is an absurd run. More than 30 years of such sustained success explains the knee-jerk decision to dump Frank Solich shortly after a dip to 7-74.
I can understand the rationale in looking to modernize the offense and give the program a more 21st Century feel, but that Nebraska started to see some success again with Bo Pelini after the disastrous tenure of Bill Callahan — whose peak was an 8-4 finish with a No. 24 final ranking in 2005 — and fired Pelini after seven consecutive nine-or-10-win campaigns.
The Cornhuskers have, of course, reached nine wins once since Pelini’s firing and have failed to win more than five in any of the last six campaigns.
Nebraska’s decline overlaps directly with the NCAA Football, and I blame it in part on just how insufferably lame the Huskers come off.
We’re approaching 22 years since Nebraska last played for the national championship5, and 26 since it claimed its last in a dubious split with Michigan, but the sense of entitlement that emanates both from vocal elements of the fan base and athletic department leadership might lead one to believe the ‘90s were just yesterday.
I’d describe it as a combination of the ubiquitous Texas Back! attitude from Nebraska’s former Big 12 counterpart with Michigan’s sense of superiority. And while Michigan had its own struggles in the NCAA Football years, languishing essentially from the moment it lost the 2006 Game of the Century until Jim Harbaugh’s arrival in 2015, Blue managed to maintain relevance that was rooted in the present6.
Case in point, Denard Robinson graced the final cover of NCAA Football, giving Michigan a lasting place within the video-game generation.
Nebraska’s a program that should aspire toward being Wisconsin, believes it’s Ohio State and performs like Indiana. Or, in video-game parlance, the Huskers are trying to load SEGA Sports’ College Football’s National Championship on a PS5 and wondering why it isn’t compatible.
So here’s the thing: I love college football, and I love it in part because of the nuances that differentiate it from the NFL.
It’s similar to my love of college basketball in that for both, it’s ridiculous and factually incorrect to argue either is better than its pro counterpart from the perspective of skill, athleticism, and ability — college athletes are the top fraction of a percent in their sport, but pros are the top fraction-of-a-fraction, and their sole focus is on excelling at that sport.
But I appreciate the strategic variance the college games offer. I love that on a college football Saturday, I can change the channel from one offense that has four-and-five receivers lined up every snap, to another running triple option, and yet another sending two tight ends onto the field.
And while college basketball, which I absolutely adore, has certain in-game rules that need adjustment — timeouts should be curtailed in late-game situations and the charge-block rule enforced with greater consistency — football’s rules quirks are part of the charm.
I like that a receiver needs only one foot down for a reception. I don’t want a two-minute warning, because I do like the clock stopping on first downs. Concerns about the length of games are valid but that’s an issue more to do with television, e.g. commercial breaks, than with gameplay.
With that in mind, the changes I’d make are focused less toward the on-field product and more the auxiliary influences that threaten the future of the sport for all but a handful of programs selected for spots in one of the two AFC/NFC-inspired mega-conferences: FOX and ESPN Big Ten and SEC.
Elimination of the Playoff in favor of a plus-one National Championship following bowl season
Regular readers of The Press Break have seen my reimagining of the BCS era with traditional bowl matchups prioritized, and the top two teams at the conclusion of bowl season meeting in a title game.
It’s an imperfect system, but it retains an integral part of the sport’s identity, resolves disputed national championships, and offers title opportunities to programs frozen out of the Playoff picture by design.
College-football decision-makers are trying to build a Frankenstein’s Monster that combines the NFL with March Madness, and the end product won’t resemble the game millions fell in love with for generations. The peculiarities of college football are part of its identity, and bowl games have played an essential role in forging that identity.Scheduling uniformity
The Plus-One Series is in the thick of the SEC’s dominance of the BCS Championship, and it’s maddening revisiting seasons when the conference’s monopoly on the title was in part a byproduct of playing fewer league games, and playing paycheck games in late November while other power-conference programs played high-stakes contests.The above game was Alabama’s matchup with Western Carolina, the same day undefeated Kansas State and Oregon teams lost conference matchups to Baylor and Stanford. The Crimson Tide summarily leapfrogged both in the BCS standings.
Scheduling uniformity doesn’t mean only the arbitrarily dictated “power” conferences playing one another; FBS programs playing FCS opponents is a good thing that’s produced great moments for the sport, and such games provide collective benefits.
Rather, uniformity means all FBS conferences play nine conference games and three out-of-conference — with all out-of-conference games played within the first six dates of the season. Exceptions can be made on case-by-case bases for playing independents, though that’s a considerably smaller pool of programs with New Mexico State and Liberty joining Conference USA.
But as for SEC and ACC teams loading up on FCS games the week before Thanksgiving? No more.Fumbles through the end zone after not a turnover
So I’m not completely copping out of the original question by airing my grievances with TV’s pervasive influence and people’s unhealthy fixation on the national championship in a sport built on regionalism, this is a rule that drives me nuts: offenses fumbling the ball into the end zone and it going out-of-bounds, resulting in a turnover.Why is that a fumble going out anywhere else on the field is a dead ball, but the rule completely changes in the end zone? That’s always bothered me. I understand the thought process in not rewarding an offense failing to maintain possession through the goal line, but a turnover — with a touchback, no less! — is excessive punishment.
My solution is the offense retains possession but is penalized five yards with loss-of-down: Thus, offense fumbles through the back of the end zone on first down, the next play is second-and-goal at the five.
Alternatively, for anyone hellbent on the fumble being a change-of-possession, the team taking possession does so at the 5-yard-line; not on a touchback.
I have advocated for UCF to claim a split 2017 national championship. I appreciate the program’s rise to prominence, even if George O’Leary was responsible for setting the foundation. But Knights fans, please remember it wasn’t that long ago UCF was a member of the MAC. Enjoy your own success but don’t forget your humble roots.
I genuinely hope whomever acquires Pac-12 Network keeps its talent. P12N has its issues with distribution, but it’s some of the best presentation in sports with knowledgeable in-game telecasters and studio hosts that present the action with professionalism and enthusiasm. The biggest issue I have watching the big two network’s coverage of college football now is how smarmy and cynical the presentation often feels.
For those who don’t know the reference: Atari produced an E.T. adaptation in 1983. Rumors suggest the company distributed more copies of the cartridge than actual Atari consoles in existence. This, coupled with the game being flop, left the company having thousands of cartridges with no place to store them — ultimately leading to Atari transporting them to Alamogordo, New Mexico, to bury them in a desert landfill.
Solich remained after the 7-7 2002 campaign, but was fired the next season after going 9-3.
And even that bid to the 2002 Rose Bowl Game to get boatraced by Miami was a preposterous decision in light of Nebraska losing a blowout to Colorado that denied the Huskers their divisional title, say nothing of winning the Big 12.
Ironic, given Denard Robinson represented the brief Rich Rodriguez era that lasted only three years — in part because Michigan brass wanted a head coach with ties to the program’s past — and was precisely the kind of quarterback Michigan would never have had without Rodriguez.