With Michigan winning its first four games of the season, more than one college football analyst has made the comment that Michigan’s success is “good for college football.” The idea is that when a Michigan, Notre Dame or Southern California, just to name three of the long-time powers of the sport, does well, the sport garners more attention and the regular sports fan takes more notice. People even voiced those sentiments about Miami of all teams after they won their first two games as younger audiences, instructed by ESPN that sports began in 1979, view the Canes as a traditional power.
Certainly the ratings and media attention attracted by recent clashes of titans, like USC-Texas in the 2005 BCS Title game or Ohio State-Michigan less than a year later, Oklahoma-Texas over the past few seasons or any of a number of Florida games in recent memory offer evidence to that fact. But is it true that the sport suffers when these traditional powers stop hogging the limelight?
As some evidence to the contrary, let’s take a look at the 1970s. That was the decade, one could argue, that professional football pulled away from the college variety to become not only the preeminent form of football in the country, but the nation’s most popular sport of any kind. Yet college football was ruled by Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, Nebraska and USC. They dominated the polls, media coverage and won-loss columns. In the NFL, meanwhile, traditional powers the New York Giants and Chicago Bears generally struggled throughout the decade, as too the Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. Relatively new teams like Miami Dolphins, Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings did very well and the one traditional NFL team to win multiple championships, the Pittsburgh Steelers, were from a smaller city and were previously known more for finding different ways to lose every week. While the NFL set ratings victories with a fresh group of winners, the college game slipped a bit in popularity with the old standard bearers leading the way.
Is this proof that it does not really matter how good Michigan does this year? No. It is just something to think about. And if we are happy that the Wolverines are “back” then let’s not be correspondingly upset about the undefeated seasons being turned in by Cincinnati or Kansas. College football is wonderful because there are great players, stories, events and traditions throughout the sport’s spectrum of teams and divisions. Sure we should be excited about November’s Ohio State-Michigan game, but let’s not forget Harvard-Yale.
Certainly the ratings and media attention attracted by recent clashes of titans, like USC-Texas in the 2005 BCS Title game or Ohio State-Michigan less than a year later, Oklahoma-Texas over the past few seasons or any of a number of Florida games in recent memory offer evidence to that fact. But is it true that the sport suffers when these traditional powers stop hogging the limelight?
As some evidence to the contrary, let’s take a look at the 1970s. That was the decade, one could argue, that professional football pulled away from the college variety to become not only the preeminent form of football in the country, but the nation’s most popular sport of any kind. Yet college football was ruled by Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, Nebraska and USC. They dominated the polls, media coverage and won-loss columns. In the NFL, meanwhile, traditional powers the New York Giants and Chicago Bears generally struggled throughout the decade, as too the Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. Relatively new teams like Miami Dolphins, Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings did very well and the one traditional NFL team to win multiple championships, the Pittsburgh Steelers, were from a smaller city and were previously known more for finding different ways to lose every week. While the NFL set ratings victories with a fresh group of winners, the college game slipped a bit in popularity with the old standard bearers leading the way.
Is this proof that it does not really matter how good Michigan does this year? No. It is just something to think about. And if we are happy that the Wolverines are “back” then let’s not be correspondingly upset about the undefeated seasons being turned in by Cincinnati or Kansas. College football is wonderful because there are great players, stories, events and traditions throughout the sport’s spectrum of teams and divisions. Sure we should be excited about November’s Ohio State-Michigan game, but let’s not forget Harvard-Yale.
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