Kickoff times, TV, and the fucking 6 day TV hold

[Sbbruin 21,894]

Look, I get that the TV dollar drives this whole machine.  But it has devolved to the point where the actual attending fan is a complete afterthought.  The deal Larry Scott cut with the networks is absolutely killing the PAC 12 fan experience.  We have had three 7:30 kicks so far, and may end up with as many as 5.  That is ridiculous.  No football game should ever start after 6pm.  With TV timeouts, games aren't over until after 11pm.  Give me a fucking break.  Then you have the 6-day TV hold.  This has destroyed our tailgating.  We used to do pretty elaborate tailgates for at least 2-3 games per year.  But at our age, with kids and obligations, shit needs to be planned in advance.  When you don't know when the kickoff is going to be until 6-10 days beforehand, it gets unworkable.  People do not want to commit if they don't know if the kickoff will be 12:30p , 7:30 p, or some time in between. Yes, people out here do not revolve their entire lives around college football.  It is one thing, not the only thing.  And I get that we suck so we're stuck with what we get.  But some of the better PAC teams, like Washington, get regularly fucked as well.  I am a bit of a rarity.  I attend most if not all home games.  But is it really SO critical for the networks to have 6 days to decide what games it wants to televise when?  

We have the SC/UCLA game (battle of the retards bowl) on the 17th.  We won't find out the kick until Sunday the 11th.  WTF?  Here are the games on 6 day holds that weekend:

Games on six day hold 
Duke at Clemson 
Boston College at Florida St. 
Miami (FL) at Virginia Tech 
Cincinnati at UCF 
USF at Temple 
Kansas at Oklahoma 
Texas Tech at Kansas St. 
West Virginia at Oklahoma St. 
TCU at Baylor 
Indiana at Michigan 
Illinois at Iowa 
Northwestern at Minnesota 
Ohio St. at Maryland 
Michigan St. at Nebraska 
Penn St. at Rutgers 
Wisconsin at Purdue 
Yale vs. Harvard (12pm on an ESPN linear TV channel) 
Arizona at Washington St. 
Arizona St. at Oregon 
USC at UCLA 
Utah at Colorado

Anyway, I just think it's horseshit.  Rant over.

[n64ra 1,089]

It is horseshit.

[Hurtlocker 2,213]

imgur

[Skipper 6,205]

It's a major problem for the fan but unfortunately I don't see the networks giving this up without major concessions ($$) conferences won't make.

[Sbbruin 21,894]

With continued improvement in the home theater experience, season ticket sales are going to suffer.  And god help you if your teams starts to suck (see UCLA), season ticket sales will crater.

[DeadArmadillo 907]

This is fan abuse.  This is a schedule for human beings

[DougO 5,256]

I really miss the olden days when kickoff times were announced prior to the season and if somebody wanted to televise it, "here we are, bring your cameras, we'll be here." Only in special cases were games moved for some big deal. You could plan months ahead of time and rely on football as God intended it.

 

[orange dream 1,256]

1 minute ago, DeadArmadillo said:

This is fan abuse.  This is a schedule for human beings

Norm rant about 6 day window

starts at about 1:58 minute mark

[Gene Parmesan 4,015]

4 minutes ago, DeadArmadillo said:

This is fan abuse.  This is a schedule for human beings

You make a damn joke out of everything.

['stache 21,879]

The 6 day window is fucking obnoxious, and I hate it.  I can do 14 days, hate it, but at least it's some lead time.  Like OP, I have kids and family things to schedule around, and when the question arises about my Saturday schedule, the wife is not pleased with "I don't fucking know yet."  

[Tired of Lurking 637]

I guess the only thing I like about it is that virtually every game is available on cable. I want to care about basketball, but how many are on cable a night? Two, maybe three? They probably have nothing to do with each other but I finally noticed it last night while searching 500 channels on DTV and couldn't find a single basketball game on TV.

[Sbbruin 21,894]

It definitely has caused me to consider giving up my season seats.  If I just stubhubbed 3 games per season, and enjoyed the rest of my Saturdays as I deemed fit, watching the game at home, I would be considerably wealthier not paying the Wooden Athletic Fund mandatory contributions and dragging my ass to a 7:30 kickoff.  I would just skip those fucking games completely.  I will have to think long and hard about it this offseason.  

[UTEX_ME 4,766]

36 minutes ago, n64ra said:

It is horseshit.

[DaysOff 7,975]

I really miss the olden days when kickoff times were announced prior to the season and if somebody wanted to televise it, "here we are, bring your cameras, we'll be here." Only in special cases were games moved for some big deal. You could plan months ahead of time and rely on football as God intended it.
 

I hate to pull the We're Texas card, but I don't see why CDC doesn't do this. No day games at DKR until November.

[DeadArmadillo 907]

Me and my girl are going to drive from Lubbock to Manhattan, KS for the Tech-KSU game.  She has family in Wichita and is from Lawrence and Tech is playing USC in basketball Monday night in a tourney type game in Kansas City.  So we are going to leave in a rental on Thursday, work our way up, and fly back Tuesday.  The earlier the kickoff, the earlier we leave.  

We haven't been dating that long and she has an eight year old son, so this will be our first real alone time away from her kid.  She's also quite a bit younger than me and I may have out kicked my coverage.  So I plan to tap it as many times as possible in that window.  I don't know if it's going to work out, so I'm going to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.  So the sooner the kickoff time is announced, the sooner I can start planning, and the better I can coordinate and maximize the action. 

So that's why I hate the six day window

Edited November 7, 2018 by DeadArmadillo
missed a detail

[Machinator 32,099]

Rules.

[Steel Shank 9,432]

So laying pipe is the central issue. I can dig that.

[Sbbruin 21,894]

1 hour ago, DeadArmadillo said:

Me and my girl are going to drive from Lubbock to Manhattan, KS for the Tech-KSU game.  She has family in Wichita and is from Lawrence and Tech is playing USC in basketball Monday night.  So we are going to leave in a rental on Thursday, work our way up, and fly back Tuesday.  The earlier the kickoff, the earlier we leave.  

We haven't been dating that long and she has an eight year old son, so this will be our first real alone time away from her kid.  She's also quite a bit younger than me and I may have out kicked my coverage.  So I plan to tap it as many times as possible in that window.  I don't know if it's going to work out, so I'm going to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.  So the sooner the kickoff time is announced, the sooner I can start planning, and the better I can coordinate and maximize the action. 

So that's why I hate the six day window

Every man has his reasons.  Fight the power, brother.

[AUinHsv 579]

I totally agree with the 6pm deadline. The thing I really hate (yep it's SEC but I bet other contracts are the same) is that you can't have more than one game in the prime 2:30 slot. That totally ticks me off. You get one early game, the 2:30 game and then something like 5-6 starting between 5:30 and 7. You can't watch a lot of those games.

On the other hand I am old enough to remember why we have a lot of these games. In the 80's Georgia and a few others sued to be allowed to market themselves and several cables companies like ESPN wanted content. Before that you were very lucky if you team was on TV 2 or more times per season.

[kopp0e 1,135]

2 minutes ago, AUinHsv said:

I totally agree with the 6pm deadline. The thing I really hate (yep it's SEC but I bet other contracts are the same) is that you can't have more than one game in the prime 2:30 slot. That totally ticks me off. You get one early game, the 2:30 game and then something like 5-6 starting between 5:30 and 7. You can't watch a lot of those games.

On the other hand I am old enough to remember why we have a lot of these games. In the 80's Georgia and a few others sued to be allowed to market themselves and several cables companies like ESPN wanted content. Before that you were very lucky if you team was on TV 2 or more times per season.

Yeah, the format went from strangling the blue bloods, to giving the Middle Tennessee State type teams (too many) games on tv... There needs to be a balance to timeslots... 

[SDG 3,319]

WSU had 6 of the p12 after dark games in 2016 and 5 in 2017.  That with UT's penchant for 9am games made for some long drunk Saturdays the last couple years.  This year most of the games seem to overlap...

[TXSooner518 2,438]

2 hours ago, DeadArmadillo said:

Me and my girl are going to drive from Lubbock to Manhattan, KS for the Tech-KSU game.  She has family in Wichita and is from Lawrence and Tech is playing USC in basketball Monday night.  So we are going to leave in a rental on Thursday, work our way up, and fly back Tuesday.  The earlier the kickoff, the earlier we leave.  

We haven't been dating that long and she has an eight year old son, so this will be our first real alone time away from her kid.  She's also quite a bit younger than me and I may have out kicked my coverage.  So I plan to tap it as many times as possible in that window.  I don't know if it's going to work out, so I'm going to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.  So the sooner the kickoff time is announced, the sooner I can start planning, and the better I can coordinate and maximize the action. 

So that's why I hate the six day window

I had to read this like 5 times and then pull up the Texas Tech hoops schedule to figure out why a Texas Tech - Southern Cal basketball game on Monday impacted a trip to Kansas from Thursday to Tuesday.  

Happy fuckin'.

[phdhorn 6,224]

3 hours ago, DeadArmadillo said:

Me and my girl are going to drive from Lubbock to Manhattan, KS for the Tech-KSU game.  She has family in Wichita and is from Lawrence and Tech is playing USC in basketball Monday night.  So we are going to leave in a rental on Thursday, work our way up, and fly back Tuesday.  The earlier the kickoff, the earlier we leave.  

We haven't been dating that long and she has an eight year old son, so this will be our first real alone time away from her kid.  She's also quite a bit younger than me and I may have out kicked my coverage.  So I plan to tap it as many times as possible in that window.  I don't know if it's going to work out, so I'm going to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.  So the sooner the kickoff time is announced, the sooner I can start planning, and the better I can coordinate and maximize the action. 

So that's why I hate the six day window

Now this is how a fucking awesome straw man's done.

[and 73]

3 hours ago, DeadArmadillo said:

Me and my girl are going to drive from Lubbock to Manhattan, KS for the Tech-KSU game.  She has family in Wichita and is from Lawrence and Tech is playing USC in basketball Monday night.  So we are going to leave in a rental on Thursday, work our way up, and fly back Tuesday.  The earlier the kickoff, the earlier we leave.  

We haven't been dating that long and she has an eight year old son, so this will be our first real alone time away from her kid.  She's also quite a bit younger than me and I may have out kicked my coverage.  So I plan to tap it as many times as possible in that window.  I don't know if it's going to work out, so I'm going to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.  So the sooner the kickoff time is announced, the sooner I can start planning, and the better I can coordinate and maximize the action. 

So that's why I hate the six day window

Jesus guy! Just take the Viagra thirty minutes prior. Its well within the six day window.

[DeadArmadillo 907]

I had to read this like 5 times and then pull up the Texas Tech hoops schedule to figure out why a Texas Tech - Southern Cal basketball game on Monday impacted a trip to Kansas from Thursday to Tuesday.  
Happy fuckin'.

I just realized that I missed that detail.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[Constant 6,755]

6-day window is total bullshit. 10-day window is also bullshit. 

[WhatTheBuck 28,801]

3 hours ago, AUinHsv said:

On the other hand I am old enough to remember why we have a lot of these games. In the 80's Georgia and a few others sued to be allowed to market themselves and several cables companies like ESPN wanted content. Before that you were very lucky if you team was on TV 2 or more times per season.

For those of you who don't know the history, this is a good read:

[mulletpelini 5,216]

6 hours ago, DeadArmadillo said:

Me and my girl are going to drive from Lubbock to Manhattan, KS for the Tech-KSU game.  She has family in Wichita and is from Lawrence and Tech is playing USC in basketball Monday night in a tourney type game in Kansas City.  So we are going to leave in a rental on Thursday, work our way up, and fly back Tuesday.  The earlier the kickoff, the earlier we leave.  

We haven't been dating that long and she has an eight year old son, so this will be our first real alone time away from her kid.  She's also quite a bit younger than me and I may have out kicked my coverage.  So I plan to tap it as many times as possible in that window.  I don't know if it's going to work out, so I'm going to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.  So the sooner the kickoff time is announced, the sooner I can start planning, and the better I can coordinate and maximize the action. 

So that's why I hate the six day window

I hope you're a lawyerin cuz one slipped thru the cracks if you're not.  Best damn argument I've heard about anything worth arguing in history.

[El Squared 1,813]

When / If  alternative content providers take over the broadcast/ cable mafia they can contract for more symbiotic synchronization of live games. Empty stadiums are a bad look and reflect to some extent the fan base view. 

The unspoken truth though is that the universities’  greed for TV dollars now will surpass the logic, nostalgia, or sentiment of the alumni, ,students, or other fans. The collapse of cable network sports is the fans best hope.

[ousux 5,602]

I agree, tv contracts and programs fleecing alumni for money to expand/renovate stadiums are at odds with each other. I mean, something has to give otherwise it will get to the point nobody wants to attend games live, yet watching a game on tv being played in a massive empty stadium isn't a great experience either.

 

 

 

[DeadArmadillo 907]

11 hours ago, mulletpelini said:

I hope you're a lawyerin cuz one slipped thru the cracks if you're not.  Best damn argument I've heard about anything worth arguing in history.

Odd that you mentioned it.  I am an attorney, though not a particularly good one

[Zavala 1,384]

11 hours ago, El Squared said:

When / If  alternative content providers take over the broadcast/ cable mafia they can contract for more symbiotic synchronization of live games. Empty stadiums are a bad look and reflect to some extent the fan base view. 

The unspoken truth though is that the universities’  greed for TV dollars now will surpass the logic, nostalgia, or sentiment of the alumni, ,students, or other fans. The collapse of cable network sports is the fans best hope.

Yep. Disney sports is doing its best to crash but I think the money is endless. Youtube isn't any better too..

[TornACL 7,722]

This is the thread where everyone humblebrags about how busy their social calendar is.

Sorry, I only football during the fall. I can't relate.

[Sbbruin 21,894]

I also like to complain because I'm old and don't like staying up past midnight s I can go to a football game.  I''m up at 6 or 7 am the next day regardless.  Now off my lawn, you.

[tbone_ 14,166]

It definitely has caused me to consider giving up my season seats.  If I just stubhubbed 3 games per season, and enjoyed the rest of my Saturdays as I deemed fit, watching the game at home, I would be considerably wealthier not paying the Wooden Athletic Fund mandatory contributions and dragging my ass to a 7:30 kickoff.  I would just skip those fucking games completely.  I will have to think long and hard about it this offseason.  

It’s really not a very long or hard decision.

Pay up for the couple of games you want to attend. Buy in the section you want. Much much cheaper.

[Bull Horn 118]

When these topics come up I think of the old Tex Schramm (original Dallas Cowboy GM back in the day for you whippersnappers, UT class of 1947) prediction decades ago that with TV driving everything, eventually the games would just be played in a giant TV studio.

Probably won’t get there in my lifetime, but with the fan experience and attendance continuing to decline (not to mention the cost escalating) and the at home viewing experience as good as it is, may not be far off.

[kopp0e 1,135]

17 hours ago, El Squared said:

When / If  alternative content providers take over the broadcast/ cable mafia they can contract for more symbiotic synchronization of live games. Empty stadiums are a bad look and reflect to some extent the fan base view. 

The unspoken truth though is that the universities’  greed for TV dollars now will surpass the logic, nostalgia, or sentiment of the alumni, ,students, or other fans. The collapse of cable network sports is the fans best hope.

The question becomes, have we already reached the tipping point of no return...
We now have an environment where school presidents refuse to accommodate fans in attendance, for viewers who (may) flip (back & forth) past (multiple) games..?

[Sgt Hulk 13,840]

Meh I’ve been to UCLA games. 10s of people there don’t care 

[El Squared 1,813]

5 hours ago, kopp0e said:

The question becomes, have we already reached the tipping point of no return...
We now have an environment where school presidents refuse to accommodate fans in attendance, for viewers who (may) flip (back & forth) past (multiple) games..?

I think the question is: who blinks first? The university presidents allegedly representing the "best" interests of the university, OR  the corporate content providers?

Yes the universities need the money BUT the broadcasters need the content.

The only way though to have the fans, alumni, university interests truly represented is to take away the "divide and conquer" mantra of broadcasters and get ALL programs under one representation (like the NCAA without the shittyness) to negotiate a contract that allows al schools to schedule games per THEIR best interests. There are technological advances since the 1950s like DVR and PIP/multi screen mirroring for those overlapping games. Yes initially the payday may be lower, but the long game might be better: preserving local interest and fan base and home game attendance, excitement, and interest, while balancing broadcast advantages. " Join or die" should be the mantra.

The moneybags people will never approve and scare the universities into continuing their relinquished control of the product and content, but the truth is, they have the power IF they wanted to use it.

Convincing them that is in their best interest to unite against the moneybags however, is like herding unicorns and leprechauns.

[Bartles 769]

I understand the motivation, but it has spread out of control. This week's Big 12 holds were mostly about where to place Bedlam vs. UT-Tech. You can't tell me the ratings for one or the other would be THAT different if Tech had pulled off the OU upset, or if we had beaten WVU. No need to wait to make the networks pick between those two games.

And for Pac 12 and lower where ratings are garbage no matter what, there should never be a need for a hold.

[TornACL 7,722]

I'm not sure it's out of control. Networks can only implement a certain number of 6 day holds each season, and to my recollection that number hasn't changed in recent years.