Monday, December 5, 2011
Bring Back The Bands
It is that time of year again:College Football Bowl Season.This should be a glorious time for College Football Fans.In this day and age,where big-time College Football is covered 24/7 by The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network among others,this should be a chance to truly celebrate the greatness of College Football,but something happened on the way to the party.
Last year a terrible thing happened.ESPN took over the entire bowl landscape.With them controlling all of the TV purse strings they now control College Football.Have you ever wondered why so few experts on ESPN call for there to be a playoff? How is it, that the most awesomely competitive sport, is the only one in ALL of college athletics that does not have a playoff? The very nature of sports,is to have a champion decided by teams actually playing each other.So who could possibly benefit from College Football not having a playoff? I constantly come up with only one answer:The NFL.That`s right!The Multi-Billion Dollar, Revenue Generating Behemoth,The NFL.
Now follow this through with me.The Bowls could be incorporated into a playoff system where the revenue would far exceed what they get now, especially the games that have an elimination factor toward determining an eventual champion.Now this would only consist of the upper tier Bowls.So the lesser Bowls would be free to match attractive teams,that do not make the tournament,much like it is now.So it isn`t the current Bowls blocking the playoff.Besides,they don`t have that kind of clout.
Now a College Football Playoff would be the biggest thing EVER!For the life of me,the only group of people that I can imagine,that could possibly be opposed to a College Football Playoff,are the NFL owners.And that is the only group with the leverage to keep ESPN from promoting a playoff.
Even though College Football has always had this ridiculous "mythical" champion,based on(popularity) polls,you could always count on the color,pageantry,tradition and enormity of The Rose Bowl pitting two worthy opponents from The Big !0 and The PAC.Then last year the final outrage.The Rose Bowl for the first time in my lifetime,was not on a major network!My family bought our first color television in December,1965,so that my parents could watch my brother march in The Spartan Marching Band,on January 1,1966,"In Living Color",on NBC.
Now at the time,NBC rarely showed College Football,so they made quite an event out of their coverage of The Rose Bowl and The Tournament of Roses,epitomized by showing both bands almost in their entirety at halftime!This is what helped make The Rose Bowl the best!The bands at halftime are such an integral part of the great tradition of The Rose Bowl,that ABC continued to show the vast majority of halftime when they took over.Now with the relegation of The Rose Bowl off network television,the bands have been relegated to a mere ninety seconds of coverage!This is an outrage!One of the significant differences between Pro Football and College Football is the marching bands.Gee,what possible motivation would ESPN have to make sure that College Football never outshines The NFL? Tweet,e-mail,comment on blogs and post on message boards:BRING BACK THE MARCHING BANDS1
Last year a terrible thing happened.ESPN took over the entire bowl landscape.With them controlling all of the TV purse strings they now control College Football.Have you ever wondered why so few experts on ESPN call for there to be a playoff? How is it, that the most awesomely competitive sport, is the only one in ALL of college athletics that does not have a playoff? The very nature of sports,is to have a champion decided by teams actually playing each other.So who could possibly benefit from College Football not having a playoff? I constantly come up with only one answer:The NFL.That`s right!The Multi-Billion Dollar, Revenue Generating Behemoth,The NFL.
Now follow this through with me.The Bowls could be incorporated into a playoff system where the revenue would far exceed what they get now, especially the games that have an elimination factor toward determining an eventual champion.Now this would only consist of the upper tier Bowls.So the lesser Bowls would be free to match attractive teams,that do not make the tournament,much like it is now.So it isn`t the current Bowls blocking the playoff.Besides,they don`t have that kind of clout.
Now a College Football Playoff would be the biggest thing EVER!For the life of me,the only group of people that I can imagine,that could possibly be opposed to a College Football Playoff,are the NFL owners.And that is the only group with the leverage to keep ESPN from promoting a playoff.
Even though College Football has always had this ridiculous "mythical" champion,based on(popularity) polls,you could always count on the color,pageantry,tradition and enormity of The Rose Bowl pitting two worthy opponents from The Big !0 and The PAC.Then last year the final outrage.The Rose Bowl for the first time in my lifetime,was not on a major network!My family bought our first color television in December,1965,so that my parents could watch my brother march in The Spartan Marching Band,on January 1,1966,"In Living Color",on NBC.
Now at the time,NBC rarely showed College Football,so they made quite an event out of their coverage of The Rose Bowl and The Tournament of Roses,epitomized by showing both bands almost in their entirety at halftime!This is what helped make The Rose Bowl the best!The bands at halftime are such an integral part of the great tradition of The Rose Bowl,that ABC continued to show the vast majority of halftime when they took over.Now with the relegation of The Rose Bowl off network television,the bands have been relegated to a mere ninety seconds of coverage!This is an outrage!One of the significant differences between Pro Football and College Football is the marching bands.Gee,what possible motivation would ESPN have to make sure that College Football never outshines The NFL? Tweet,e-mail,comment on blogs and post on message boards:BRING BACK THE MARCHING BANDS1
Saturday, December 3, 2011
A New Era
The University of Arizona has hired a big name football coach,Rich Rodriguez.It appears that The U of A plans on elevating their program to compete in The Pac-12 Conference.RichRod plans on competing for National Championships.This would be the perfect time to step up the band program.
In 1978,when U of A and ASU joined The Pac-10,it was customary for The Arizona Schools to have the home band play halftime and the visitor to play pregame like high school bands do.That is when The Arizona Schools changed their ways to join the ranks of "real" College Football and have both bands play at pregame and halftime.
With the arrival of a new coach and a new era of Wildcat Football,it is time to have a "real" College Marching Band.Even in the remote Pullman,Washington,their marching band plays a fresh show at every home game.It is a good thing too,because they just hired a new big time coach who would have been very disappointed after his stay at Texas Tech.RichRod`s last two coaching jobs had two of the best bands in the country,and he`s in for a major disappointment when he sees The Pride of Arizona.It is sad to think that Tucson can`t compete with Lubbock,Texas or Morgantown,West Virginia`s band programs.
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