Saturday Down South: Cable not dying. It's dead.

RollTide_HTTR · Jun 23, 2017

Re: Satruday Down South: Cable not dying. It's dead.

UntouchableCrew said:
Well Alabama is Alabama -- the talent discrepancy is obviously going to lead to bigger PPG totals when you're dealing with the preeminent team in a sport where recruiting is how players are acquired with 120 FBS programs... Obviously in a draft/FA/salary cap sport like the NFL with only 32 teams you'd expect a far more balanced sport. I guess I'm talking in more relative terms here. Even if elite NFL teams don't bulldoze most of their competition the way Alabama, Ohio State, etc. do they continue to dominate the sport in relative terms.

I mean, since 2003 these QBs have won the 14 Super Bowls:

Brady x5
Roethlsiberger x2
Peyton Manning x2
Eli Manning x2
Drew Brees
Aaron Rodgers
Joe Flacco
Russell Wilson

That's probably 11 of the 14 won by future Hall of Famers. Only Eli Manning (who might get into the HOF anyway) and Joe Flacco have won SBs as "average" QBs. Heck, from 2001 to 2016 three QBs (Manning, Brady, Roethlisberger) represented the AFC in 14 out of 16 SBs. Sure, these teams have lots of talent but the QB is the driving force. You put Peyton Manning on some other decent team during that span and they're absolutely making the same runs the Colts made IMO.

I looked up the numbers and Alabama ranked 16th in points per game at 38.8 and Falcons led the NFL with 33.8 and Saints were 2nd at 29.3

You do need a QB who can win you those games and it's much easier with a great QB. I think we need to look at some context though. Brady is paired with arguably the greatest HC of all time and is on an incredible stretch that is probably the best in history. Peyton was terrible when he won his 2nd super bowl. I still don't think you can put Wilson in the Brady, Brees, Rodgers category. And you can't just look at the winners you also have to look at who made it there. Matt Ryan and Cam Newton are great and had MVP seasons but both have had sub par years and are in no way on Brady level. Colin Kaepernick isn't even on a team anymore. Also, one of those Wilson super bowls they completely shut down Manning who was having arguably his best statistical season.

I get that you need a QB but couldn't you make a similar argument for College? Most teams that win championships have an elite QB, incredible recruiting or both. Look at the QBs who have won championships. Who has won a title with just an average QB besides us?

RollTide_HTTR · Jun 23, 2017

Re: Satruday Down South: Cable not dying. It's dead.

UntouchableCrew said:
Right, that's all I'm really arguing here. The league has evolved in a way where the only teams that consistently win are teams with top QBs. Occasionally you'll get a team like the 2015 Broncos that rides an elite defense to a title but 9 times out of 10 teams that dominate are all about the QB.

I guess I should reveal I'm a fan of a team that hasn't had a franchise QB since the 1960s, haha.... But yeah. I think the NFL product has become ticky tacky protect the QB at all costs that has made it less exciting for me. I love the turnover and change college produces, even if top programs stay at or near the top... It's fresh, it's new, while maintaining tradition. NFL is same old same old.

Ok, I appreciate that. I love the constant turnover in college too. It makes it for constant excitement and speculation year to year. I just also really enjoy rooting for a team that has some consistency in their players as well. But not everyone has to be me.

FWIW I feel some of your pain. As a Redskins fan who isn't old enough to remember the 80's glory days I know how you feel haha

RTR91 · Jun 23, 2017

Re: Satruday Down South: Cable not dying. It's dead.

RollTide_HTTR said:
I get that you need a QB but couldn't you make a similar argument for College? Most teams that win championships have an elite QB, incredible recruiting or both. Look at the QBs who have won championships. Who has won a title with just an average QB besides us?

Clemson did last year.

rgw · Jun 23, 2017

Re: Satruday Down South: Cable not dying. It's dead.

The dream to me would be for the colleges to accept some austerity and we keep regionalism intact. I don't expect that to happen unfortunately and it will probably hurt the sport over the long haul. The unique regional competition of college football is what has driven the sport to its current zenith. Many users are hitting on the rub: better competition in the form of a large 30 or so team national league is likely not the solution, just forcing the current power 5 conferences to compete only within power five conferences is the only change necessary. Everyone goes to a 9-game conference schedule while playing 3 power conference foes.

rgw · Jun 23, 2017

Re: Satruday Down South: Cable not dying. It's dead.

RTR91 said:
Clemson did last year.

Some NFL GMs are wondering why you bluefont'd that...

smh

rgw · Jun 23, 2017

triple post:

Another great thing about college football is the wide availability. If you have cable with a sports package, you probably get AT LEAST 90% of all college football games played in a season. I can't tell you how many weeks in the NFL schedule there literally is not one game that interests me in the least without purchasing Sunday Ticket over the top of my cable bill. I know one thing, the NFL distribution model is not one to follow...

RTR91 · Jun 23, 2017

rgw said:
triple post:

Another great thing about college football is the wide availability. If you have cable with a sports package, you probably get AT LEAST 90% of all college football games played in a season. I can't tell you how many weeks in the NFL schedule there literally is not one game that interests me in the least without purchasing Sunday Ticket over the top of my cable bill. I know one thing, the NFL distribution model is not one to follow...

But that's more to do with game time and date than the actual distribution itself. If all but two FBS games were on Saturday in two timeslots and only on two channels, the exposure wouldn't be there. Instead, we get FBS games on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Redwood Forrest · Jun 23, 2017

Re: Satruday Down South: Cable not dying. It's dead.

rgw said:
The dream to me would be for the colleges to accept some austerity and we keep regionalism intact. I don't expect that to happen unfortunately and it will probably hurt the sport over the long haul. The unique regional competition of college football is what has driven the sport to its current zenith. Many users are hitting on the rub: better competition in the form of a large 30 or so team national league is likely not the solution, just forcing the current power 5 conferences to compete only within power five conferences is the only change necessary. Everyone goes to a 9-game conference schedule while playing 3 power conference foes.

I agree with this completely.

Also, I think the gist of the OP article was "when technology" improves. Let someone come out with high speed 39.99 stand-alone internet and then watch the cords being cut. No need for a bundle then. Add Netflix or Sling and you are pretty much set for a basement price ..... compared to now. Question is, when will they come out with it?

Redwood Forrest · Jun 23, 2017

I keep hearing that for the past couple of years ESPN is losing 1 million customer per month with no signs of slowing down. Does anyone have any idea when the bleeding stops? In one more year, two or three? At this rate there won't be any subscribers in a few years.

RollTide_HTTR · Jun 23, 2017

rgw said:
Some NFL GMs are wondering why you bluefont'd that...

smh

I'm part of the group that thinks he will be the best QB in this draft class. Not that I am in any way a scout though.

Redwood Forrest said:
I agree with this completely.

Also, I think the gist of the OP article was "when technology" improves. Let someone come out with high speed 39.99 stand-alone internet and then watch the cords being cut. No need for a bundle then. Add Netflix or Sling and you are pretty much set for a basement price ..... compared to now. Question is, when will they come out with it?

Good point. The biggest benefit of services like sling to me is that they don't try to give you a billion channels that you will never watch. I think I saw a statistic that the average person watches at most 17 channels. So, maybe it the networks that are in trouble not the cable companies. or both

rgw · Jun 23, 2017

RTR91 said:
But that's more to do with game time and date than the actual distribution itself. If all but two FBS games were on Saturday in two timeslots and only on two channels, the exposure wouldn't be there. Instead, we get FBS games on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

If the NFL wanted, the NFL could put more games on regular cable but they don't want to...I agree timeslotting is some of it but access is a lot more of it. I can always choose between a 2:30 SEC game or 2:30 Big Ten game or ACC or Big-12 or Pac-12 in the cfb world. In NFL land, you get two games at noon and usually one at 3:30. The Monday and Thursday games blow. The Sunday games are often good but sometimes victims of pre-season scheduling unknowns.

RollTide_HTTR · Jun 23, 2017

rgw said:
If the NFL wanted, the NFL could put more games on regular cable but they don't want to...I agree timeslotting is some of it but access is a lot more of it. I can always choose between a 2:30 SEC game or 2:30 Big Ten game or ACC or Big-12 or Pac-12 in the cfb world. In NFL land, you get two games at noon and usually one at 3:30. The Monday and Thursday games blow. The Sunday games are often good but sometimes victims of pre-season scheduling unknowns.

I think games will become more accessible as the NFL starts to have more contracts with companies like Twitter and Yahoo to stream their games. Or at least I hope so. Fortunately I live in the region where I can see every Redskins game but I haven't always and it was incredibly annoying to have to watch an illegal stream or watch a different game.

rgw · Jun 23, 2017

I have no deep-seeded rooting interest in any of the 4 franchises around us. I'm more of a "I just want to see this matchup" guy and the way the NFL broadcasting rights are structured fails to entice me quite to often for such a supposed high-value product.

TiderJack · Jun 24, 2017

rgw said:
I have no deep-seeded rooting interest in any of the 4 franchises around us. I'm more of a "I just want to see this matchup" guy and the way the NFL broadcasting rights are structured fails to entice me quite to often for such a supposed high-value product.

The rooting interest is the key. Mine is the Packers who I begun cheering for due to Bart Starr and Lombardi. I think many of us find a rooting interest due to Bama players or dominance as opposed to the franchises near us. I think you would find it more enticing if you could look at more this way.

teamplayer · Jun 25, 2017

TiderJ said:
The rooting interest is the key. Mine is the Packers who I begun cheering for due to Bart Starr and Lombardi. I think many of us find a rooting interest due to Bama players or dominance as opposed to the franchises near us. I think you would find it more enticing if you could look at more this way.

I grew up with a huge rooting interest in the Cowboys. I loved the Cowboys as much as I loved the Crimson Tide. Tony Dorsett, Roger Staubach, Too Tall Jones, and Randy White were guys I loved to watch play the game. As I grew older and attended UA, the university and its teams obviously became more important to me, but I still loved Emmitt and Aikman and those teams. It was mid to late 90's when all of the "news" concerning the NFL seemed to be about guys holding out for more money, and the players always seemed to be doing some look at me throat slash or some other stupid gesture. It's like the saying goes, in the NFL the name on the back of the jersey is more important than the name on the front. In college, the name on the front of the jersey is more important. I would watch Alabama football even if we only had one and two star kids playing. The NFL simply does not interest me very often any more. Although, I will admit to checking the scores and stats more this year because I was glad to see Dak do so well for the Cowboys.

Redwood Forrest · Jun 25, 2017

teamplayer said:
I grew up with a huge rooting interest in the Cowboys. I loved the Cowboys as much as I loved the Crimson Tide. Tony Dorsett, Roger Staubach, Too Tall Jones, and Randy White were guys I loved to watch play the game. As I grew older and attended UA, the university and its teams obviously became more important to me, but I still loved Emmitt and Aikman and those teams. It was mid to late 90's when all of the "news" concerning the NFL seemed to be about guys holding old for more money, and the players always seemed to be doing some look at me throat slash or some other stupid gesture. It's like the saying goes, in the NFL the name on the back of the jersey is more important than the name on the front. In college, the name on the front of the jersey is more important. I would watch Alabama football even if we only had one and two star kids playing. The NFL simply does not interest me very often any more. Although, I will admit to checking the scores and stats more this year because I was glad to see Dak do so well for the Cowboys.

I flirted with Pro Ball for a few years during the Namath Jets era. College football does not "stale" out like the Pros. Many (like Namath with the Rams) stay too long. High School and College has "star" turnover every year. I won't name names but some Pro teams are a team of old men who stay to long and it is painful to watch the team going thru the motions while the owners save money.

Of course not all pro teams do this, just the ones I start following

teamplayer · Jun 26, 2017

Redwood Forrest said:
I flirted with Pro Ball for a few years during the Namath Jets era. College football does not "stale" out like the Pros. Many (like Namath with the Rams) stay too long. High School and College has "star" turnover every year. I won't name names but some Pro teams are a team of old men who stay to long and it is painful to watch the team going thru the motions while the owners save money.

Of course not all pro teams do this, just the ones I start following

Haha, that is also true. Football is a great team game, and it just seems like in college that the game is more about the team. It also seems that the campus comes alive with fans, alums, musicians, flag bearers, and cheerleaders who pour everything into supporting the team and enjoying the game with family and friends. The NFL is certainly full of fantastic athletes, but they seem to be a bunch of individuals instead of teams. Anyway, I do wonder how the cable industry will continue to evolve. I know that I pay a ridiculous amount each month even though I always go in and negotiate a lower rate than they try to charge each year. It is funny how they just keep switching around which services for which they charge the most. For example, they practically give away phone service these days when you bundle it with internet and TV. However, my family and I can hardly imagine not having DVR service any more, and they charge quite a bit for that. I imagine they will continue to charge out the rear for whichever service is most popular and get their money one way or another.

RobK · Jun 26, 2017

I think the ultimate resolution of Net Neutrality will determine a lot about the future of television. If the big players are allowed to throttle and un-throttle bandwidth and speeds into preferred (i.e. paying) online entertainment providers, then the big internet services providers simply take the place of the cable companies (many of them are the same companies to begin with) and will have the power to muscle out the Netflix's and Hulu's that enticed all the cord-cutting to begin with.

Quality college football (i.e. Power 5 vs. Power 5 football) remains a rare product with big ratings that cannot be duplicated (expecially when you factor in the regional/alma mater allegiances) and must be watched live (lucrative for drawing advertising sponsors). Somebody--whether it be the networks, cable channels, ISPs, online platforms, tech companies, etc.--is going to be willing to overpay for it. The big question is which conferences stagger their TV contracts so as not to get caught the gaps of a big migration.

Saturday Down South: Cable not dying. It's dead.

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