Good article on 1987 Fiesta Bowl

[jthomas666]

at ESPN.com "The Night College Football Went to Hell"

 

[NYBamaFan]

Really well written. Thanks...

 

[NOSty]

I was a good article until the end.

Saying the BCS is flawed and these games don't happen anymore. EXCUSE ME? OSU vs Florida and USC vs. Texas for two years straight. In any other year, someone would have still been on the outside looking in.

 

[cbi1972]

I was a good article until the end.

Saying the BCS is flawed and these games don't happen anymore. EXCUSE ME? OSU vs Florida and USC vs. Texas for two years straight. In any other year, someone would have still been on the outside looking in.

If these games don't happen anymore, it's because the #1 vs #2 matchup is guaranteed, instead of being unusual. If it happens every year, there's no reason to hype the matchup to the extent that the 1987 Fiesta Bowl was hyped.

It's sort of like no longer being excited about color TV, since it's so common now.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Although this is a decent article, there are a number of errors that jump out

1) This was Jan. 2, 1987, and for the first time, the college football season had been extended beyond New Year's Day.

FACT: Not true. Miami and Va Tech played in the Peach Bowl on January 2, 1981.

2) NBC, which took the radical step of shifting the game to a Friday night and preempting its most popular television show to make room for, of all things, a college football game

FACT: The Cosby Show was number one at that time and was on Thursday night. By moving it, it ensured Cosby WOULD be on.

The game capsule was pretty good, but the conclusion is flawed as has been noted.

 

[Bama Torch in Pcola]

Although this is a decent article, there are a number of errors that jump out

1) This was Jan. 2, 1987, and for the first time, the college football season had been extended beyond New Year's Day.

FACT: Not true. Miami and Va Tech played in the Peach Bowl on January 2, 1981.

2) NBC, which took the radical step of shifting the game to a Friday night and preempting its most popular television show to make room for, of all things, a college football game

FACT: The Cosby Show was number one at that time and was on Thursday night. By moving it, it ensured Cosby WOULD be on.

The game capsule was pretty good, but the conclusion is flawed as has been noted.

Maybe the Cosby Show was #1 but Miami Vice was incredibly popular, besides there is no drama in moving the game to Friday to avoid pre empting the #1 rated TV show. I'm willing to grant a little dramatic license. The article was excellent in every regard. I loved the fact that they focused on the least remembered player for Penn State. I thought I was the only one who remembered his name.

I remember as a fifteen year old rooting hard for the Nittany Lions, not because of anything Miami had done, but because PSU had beaten Alabama 23-3 in Bryant-Denney earlier in the season. If we were going to be humiliated like that on national TV I at least wanted the team that did it to win the national title.

 

[jthomas666]

I remember as a fifteen year old rooting hard for the Nittany Lions, not because of anything Miami had done, but because PSU had beaten Alabama 23-3 in Bryant-Denney earlier in the season.

God, I was at that game. A couple of things really stick out in my memory:

It was a wet and dreary day in T-town.

I have never seen or heard a crowd as fired up as the Bama crowd was, beginning about 45 minutes before kickoff. It just got louder and louder and louder. Beach balls were bouncing around the stands, toilet paper was flying . . .

Then, of course, Penn State came out and administered a first class butt-kicking. I don't think it was so much a matter of us playing poorly, they were just better than we were.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

This is a great article for any who have not read it.

Kinda tragic given what we NOW know about the Penn St coaching staff, though.

 

[GrayTide]

at ESPN.com "The Night College Football Went to Hell"

Very good article, thanks jt.

 

[Crimson1967]

We played a Sugar Bowl in the 1970s because 1/1 was on a Sunday.

Putting the game on Friday probably helped ratings as people are more likely to stay up late if they don't have to work the next day.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ALA2262]

We played a Sugar Bowl in the 1970s because 1/1 was on a Sunday.

Putting the game on Friday probably helped ratings as people are more likely to stay up late if they don't have to work the next day.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep, '77 team played tOSU on 01/02/1978 in the Sugar Bowl.