We here at the Buckeye Battle Cry are big fans of our friends over at the Buckeye Planet forums. One of those good friends, DaddyBigBucks, penned this well thought-out article for us to share with you. Enjoy!
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Before examining the “commercialization” of college football, it might help to explain what is meant by the term. There were debates about the commercialization of college football when Ohio Stadium was built in the early 1920s. Comparing that to the era of ESPN vs. The Big Ten Network only highlights the fact that “commercialization” is a relative term that only has meaning when given context. The context for the current climate of sports in general and college football in particular can be distilled to one word: Television.
Heisenberg Would be Proud
On September 30, 1939, NBC broadcast the Waynesburg vs. Fordham game from Triborough Stadium in New York City. It is doubtful that anyone in attendance or anyone watching any of the estimated 1000 television sets that it reached had any idea that this change in the way that a game could be observed would have such a profound impact on the game itself. One could understand if the observers of that first college football telecast (from a single, field-level camera) were skeptical about the future of the medium. The world at large gave it little notice and less fanfare. The commercial-free birth of what would become a multi-billion dollar industry might as well have occurred in a manger on the other side of the planet. Only a birth that did occur in such a place has had as great an impact on the way that people would one day spend their weekends.
The Good Old Days?
While the first telecast was commercial-free, it would not be accurate to say that college football was free of commercialization. There never was a time when it was 0% commercial, any more than it is 100% commercial now. While some who read this may beg to differ, the recent debates over conference expansion have made some things very clear: among them, that college presidents still hold a great deal of power in the world of college football world and that they are motivated by academic prestige and power as well as by money.
Today’s university presidents are not that different from those of generations past. By the early 1950s, the effects of television on college football had attracted the interest of that era’s college presidents who, through the power of the NCAA, voided the contracts that schools had negotiated with networks and applied tight controls on the live broadcasts of games. Over the course of a few years this resulted in a plan that allowed only a single, national telecast on eight Saturdays of every season while allowing a limited number of regional telecasts on five specified Saturdays each fall. This lasted until 1981, when the University of Oklahoma and the University of Georgia filed suit in federal court, alleging that the NCAA had violated the Sherman anti-trust act.
The case would not be put to rest for good until the Supreme Court ruled on the NCAA vs. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma case in 1984. This ruling found that the college presidents, vis-à-vis the NCAA, had not been acting in the commercial best interests of their employers. The Federal Courts, beginning in 1981 and throughout the legal process, found that the presidents (the NCAA) had violated Sherman in three ways:
- The NCAA fixed the price for particular telecasts.
- Its exclusive network contracts were tantamount to a group boycott of all other potential broadcasters and its threat of sanctions against its members constituted a threatened boycott of potential competitors.
- Its plan placed an artificial limit on the production of televised college football.
It was this last point that was arguably the most important to the college presidents and to those who filed suit against them. Most fans did not realize it at the time, but this was also the thing that would change the most, and the most quickly from that point forward.
The presidents knew it though. It was something they had feared for a long time. They were afraid of the commercialization of college football and did everything they could to stop it. Their most effective weapon in that fight was the limitation on the number of times each year each team could be telecast. It was because of this that the baby boom generation (and their parents) look back on this as the era when they could only get their favorite team on the radio most weeks. It is for this reason that most fans do not regard this era as “the good old days” at all. Yes, there were aspects of those days we look back upon fondly; but not fondly enough to wish for the days of listening to the exploits of a 2-time-Heisman winner rather than seeing them.
Slicing the Pie
Before 1984, college football was a one network show as the NCAA would sell the whole pie rather than pieces of it. Then the Supreme Court invalidated the contract and the world of college football began to fracture and realign. Most of the NCAA schools collectively negotiated with TV networks as the College Football Association (CFA), while the Big Ten and Pac Ten negotiated their own deals. This was the true beginning of the modern era of commercialization.
There are those who claim that the modern era began when Notre Dame left the CFA in 1991 and signed a deal with NBC, but this was only a continuation of the fracturization that had begun seven years earlier. This did lead to the collapse of the CFA, but it would not have lasted much longer anyway. The pie has been sliced, re-sliced and realigned numerous times since then.
Chickens, Eggs and Genies
It would be an oversimplification to claim that the Supreme Court decision in 1984 brought us the modern era of commercialization of college football. It would be just as accurate to say that the commercialization of football brought about the suit that resulted in the case being brought before the Supreme Court.
One way or another, the game was going to grow and change and be affected by the market forces that affect everything that is in high demand and limited supply. Whether the NCAA had continued to artificially limit that supply is a moot point. The genie in that particular bottle was far too powerful to be contained forever.
Many people think of the genie that is commercialization as a villain and think back wistfully on the days when it was bottled up. They rail against the TV time-out; but the same genie has allowed Ohio State fans to see every Buckeye game on TV for over 20 years now. They long for a time when earning a bowl berth meant something and bowl games did not have corporate names; but the same genie has given us near-non-stop college football through the month of December. Some people cherish the memory of the 4 major games, of which the Cotton bowl was one; and they futilely argue for a return to that era, knowing that it will never happen. Yet the bowl games they cherished as traditions were born of the same genie, and were therefore subject to the same force of change that created them.
It is not my intention to scold those who long for the good-old-days as being too fearful of change. I have very fond memories of going to the Horseshoe with my father and grandfather to see Archie Griffin, Steve Myers, John Hicks, Randy Gradishar and so many others dominate the gridiron. Those memories are made sweeter as those glimpses of the team were rare. They are sweeter still because the only media available in those days was local newspaper, radio and television that supported the Buckeyes nearly as blindly as I followed them (except for Dick Fenlon). The sacred cathedral of football was a solemn place back then, not marred by Lady Gaga commercials blaring from a giant scoreboard before the game. I know as well as anyone that there was something special about those days; and would not trade those memories for anything.
Just as certainly, there are negative aspects of commercialization that are irksome at best. The advent of ESPN and their transparent bias for teams in which they have a vested interest is a pox on the sport. The internet haters and trolls are less troublesome and do provide unintentional comedy; but they too are a net negative. But even these faces of the commercialization genie have counter-points to offset them.
While ESPN has been telling everyone that will listen numerous stories about Ohio State that would later turn out to be exaggerations or just plain false; the same medium of cable/satellite television has brought Ohio State fans alternative programming in The Big Ten Network. It is coldly ironic that this alternative is, at least in part, the reason why ESPN has slanted their coverage against the Buckeyes while their serfs in the south and out west engage in similar shenanigans or worse.
Similarly, the same internet that gives every troll a voice, also brings us the voices of current and former Buckeyes speaking the truth about ESPN and those like them. The same internet allows us to read the NCAA report and not just rely on the media to tell us what it says. The same internet allows us to follow the Buckeyes without having to rely on anyone else.
Parting Shots
So, to those who long for the good old days, I can honestly say I am with you. Those days are precious to me. But if you mean it when you say that the opinions of the rest of the college football world are of little importance; then join me in embracing this, the true golden era of the sport we love.
Embrace the fact that we get to see every Buckeye game on television if not in person.
Embrace the fact that a growing number of those games are available on a network that the Buckeyes have a stake in, not one that has a stake in other teams.
Embrace the fact that we can use the internet to get more information about our Buckeyes than was ever available in the past, highlights of past games that used to be unavailable at any price, conversations with other Buckeye fans that we never would have met otherwise…
Just as television has changed the face of college football over the past few decades (and vice versa), so the internet will be the driving force of change as we move forward. While you embrace what you can get from the internet, and what it lets you ignore; embrace the true power of it. The internet gives you a voice Buckeye Nation. Let’s hear it. Go Bucks!
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