There are rules to this
Dear College Football,
I’m not sure how we got here, but we’re here now and we need to talk about it. College football has a NOONER problem, and the powers that be don’t quite understand those problems — or worse — they just don’t care.
For those that need a quick refresher… In an effort to compete for viewers to get more advertising dollars, Fox decided to that it will take the television rights it holds and use them to broadcast the biggest games in a time slot that normally doesn’t have multiple big games being played at once. That’s right buddy, they moved the best games on their schedule to 12:00 PM and called it Big Noon Kickoff.
On the surface, it actually is a good idea. There’s a time slot on paper that doesn’t have many big games (if any at all) and Fox wanted to deliver that to the people.
Except… big games aren’t what noon is for.
Noon is for pregaming for the hotter and heavier afternoon and evening rolls in the hay. A good nooner kind of comes out of nowhere, and that surprise is mostly what makes it incredible. It’s not supposed to be the main event, but you can be satisfied all the same with less on hand.
And you also get a wee bit of a nap.
That’s college football tradition, and Fox is screwing it all up. Even worse is that they think it’s doing the right thing by fans by saying, “LOOK AT THE RATINGS” which isn’t the point. Of course we get big matchups (which almost always involves Ohio State) but the good nooners are the ones we stumble into — not shoved down our throat shortly after recovering from last night’s hangover.
Essentially, Fox is also diluting the prime time spot. The mid-afternoon slot will always have a solid mix of games, but when we’re ready to slide into something comfortable and fully enjoy our night experience — there’s one less chance of a massive climax, and several more duds (not dudes — but you do whatever makes you happy).
There are rules to everything in life, and Fox is breaking college football rules left and right to be greedy for their own pleasure. That’s just sinful.
Don’t get me wrong — I absolutely love a good nooner, and I have always said I wish Notre Dame would have at least a couple every season — preferably the Navy game and whatever MAC school that doesn’t beat the Irish. There have been built-in solid nooner rivalry games for decades too — shouldn’t that be enough?
All I’m saying is that for like 25 years prior to Fox doing this, there was a formula to college football which worked amazingly well — so well that interest in college football has only grown more and more each year. 25 years ago we had a really good Thursday night game, a fun Friday night game after eastern time zone high school football, Saturday noon games that may or may not contain some of the best upsets, a massive mid-afternoon slate filled with every type of game imaginable, and prime time “big games” that we worked for all day long.
This new position isn’t working. Please change.
Sincerely,
Joshua Vowles