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Battling My (College Football) Addiction

Uncle Ken

Uncle Ken

Smoke Chedda tha Ass Getta
Club Member
How it started:

My Fall seasons have been devoted to college football for about 35 years. It's all that I've wanted to do all-day on Saturdays - the Buffs and beyond.

For whatever reason, I just never got around to renewing my season tickets this Spring (it's not a big investment - it's an easy walk to the stadium for me). And then, USC and UCLA left the PAC 12.

I did an inventory of what I loved about college football. I love the feel of a crisp fall day. I loved the quirky traditions and the regional alignments. I loved the engagement of schools, students and alumni coming together. It somehow managed to feel like the most important thing in the world and somehow not important at all - both at the same time. I loved that feeling.

What it didn't feel like was the NFL. Sterile. Instead, it was just some student athletes going out and creating stories on college campuses across our country.

None of that is there anymore. BCS and then the playoffs made it feel that teams weren't creating stories anymore, but instead embarking on a singular quest for a championship. And if you weren't in the hunt, then it didn't matter. The games and the stories used to matter - now I feel they've been dismissed. And those quirky fun traditions? Now they just feel exploited for ESPN/Fox Sports' bottom lines. Maybe I've reached a level of 35-years-old that comes with a bit more cynicism, but it didn't used to feel so exploited.

So I decided not to watch or participate this year. At all.

How it's going:

As Brad mentioned in the game thread, it felt really sad last night. The energy in our neighborhood was great. The next door neighbor girls had a party. I could hear the stadium.

I followed the score/possession/down/yardage while watching Only Murders. Certainly more than I intended - at least in the first half. As the third quarter ended, without hope, I put my phone down and went to bed.

I feel great this morning. Sad for the loss of what I once loved about college football (in the big picture) but there's nothing I can do about that. I can only control how I engage with what's left...

...and ESPN, FOX Sports, the SEC, and BiG and Texas and Oklahoma and USC/UCLA and The Buffs are making it really, really easy not to engage at all. That's what I'm learning today.
 
I watched it. I don’t have any desire to watch any of the other games this week. If I wasn’t excited to get back to Denver and see friends, I would regret committing to the Air Force game. College football was the last sport I followed.
 
i grilled early so that i wouldn't miss the kickoff. game started late anyhow.

i got about 50 texts asking why i wasn't at the game in person.

the rest of the liver family had no interest in watching but i plopped down in front of the tv with a bourbon and hope.

by the end of the third quarter, both the bourbon and the hope were gone. i turned it off and went to bed and read a book.

this is not the college football experience we expected for all the reasons kenny cites.

i don't even have the games on this morning. haeded out for a hike before it gets too hot.

good luck and god bless and, yeah, go buffs... for us, the fans.
 
I looked at my phone 3X. First, saw the game was delayed. Then, I saw that Lewis started, completed a series of short passes and got down to the 15.

I’ve believed for a long time that if you are going to win, you need to be able to convert on 4th and 1. I would have been okay with a field goal, being the opening drive and all, but they chose a QB run and failed.

That combination of events meant I stopped paying attention. I did check one more time near half time. This is weird for me since I’ve basically been a fan as long as I can remember.

I’m in a similar place as the OP. When college football is about supporting a team you’re connected to in some way, and the traditions and fun of a competitive game are consistently there it’s pretty good. The arms race of modern football has killed that for me. I really don’t care if Alabama can win another championship or not. CUs mismanagement since before Hawkins hasn’t helped either.

I may watch a game this season, but I might not.
 
I lost my Buff football Emotion during the Hawk/Embree times. Still have kind of a clinical curiosity, mostly from an academic interest in organizational (mis)management. Still really like college football a lot.
 
I've been trying to fake it even though I haven't been feeling it since MT left and the decision was made to hire KD (while saving budget by keeping the coordinators since they were on multi-year contracts).

At least I've got passion for basketball to go with casual interest in other sports. All of those are in good shape right now despite a lack of university support or promotion.
 
Uncle Ken said:
I've known for a while, but denied it. I couldn't see it for a long time; but when you're hanging out in the politics forum to feel better, you've hit rock bottom.

I had so much identity around college football. I've got nowhere else to go.
Click to expand...
How old are your kids?
 
Uncle Ken said:
I've known for a while, but denied it. I couldn't see it for a long time; but when you're hanging out in the politics forum to feel better, you've hit rock bottom.

I had so much identity around college football. I've got nowhere else to go.
Click to expand...
You could be Hokie…
 
CUAviator said:
How old are your kids?
Click to expand...
As far as anybody here knows, I have no family.
Lonely The Simpsons GIF
 
Last edited:
Seeing UMich dismantle the lambchops is fun. Interested in this Dux-Dawgs matchup.

Oh… RG3 just said “there’s an Orji in the end-zone!”
 
Buffnik said:
I've been trying to fake it even though I haven't been feeling it since MT left and the decision was made to hire KD (while saving budget by keeping the coordinators since they were on multi-year contracts).

At least I've got passion for basketball to go with casual interest in other sports. All of those are in good shape right now despite a lack of university support or promotion.
Click to expand...
During football seasons starting in 1988 or so, my mood was heavily influenced by weekly Buff football results. I will never forget the day we lost to Baylor at home….I didn’t talk to anyone the rest of that day. I wasn’t as intense at the tail end of the MM era, but I was very engaged when MT showed up. Sad to say that I didn’t watch the game last night, and really have no desire to watch the replay. What a shame that CU’s administration does not see the massive benefits of a strong football program. Oh well, I guess I will focus on my hate of the Nubs.
 
My thought almost verbatim. I didn’t watch tv, I hung out with my grown kids instead. They long ago quit following my Buffs and it had gotten harder and harder to get them to come with Dad to a game. So after 23 years I did not renew. I have plans almost every weekend. My wife is elated that I’ve quit the Buffs.

but everything I loved about CFB is gone. Ken said it perfectly. It’s now all about $$$ and free agency but with no draft or salary cap. What I loved no longer exists.

fall is a great time for getting outdoors and I’ll be out every weekend thru November.
 
Didn't watch the game and followed via ESPN Gamecast online. I was going to watch the CU-AFA game next weekend but I don't think I'm going to bother watching the game. That means no CU games for me this year which would be a first since 1988. That was the last time OU was my #1 CFB team (Okie born) and I might as well be headed back that way because I do not believe CU wants to take football seriously again. I still plan on watching the Nebraska & CSU games down the road but I think I'm done with CU being my #1 CFB team for now. It's going to be tough for CU to regain that #1 CFB spot for me due to the adminstration.

I love college football and there are so many teams out there that you can enjoy watching and that isn't limited to FBS football. There's FCS & D2 football you can follow. I don't think it's worth it to be bitter about your favorite team not doing so well...you have a life to live and I think you should make the most out of it.
 
There are not many enthusiastic CU communities, but I suspect that Allbuffs represents some of the most fervent CU football fans.

and this thread is full of diehards who haven’t renewed season tickets and aren’t going to go to games this year.

that seems…not good for the future of the program. Thanks Phil. Thanks Rick.
 
My addiction is moderated by the daughter's soccer season (in Tulsa for a tournament) and my son's football and marching band.

Hell seeing Oregon down 21 and knowing they will beat us by 40 is definitely killing my interest. I would rather watch the women's soccer team play.
 
I will probably record the games and zip through ‘em afterward. But I would definitely rekindle the flame if CU were to become relevant again.

And just in general, I’m much less rabid about sports. This will be the first time ever that I haven’t watched a Rockies game. I didn’t watch the Avs or Nuggets until the playoffs. But that was as much a result of Dish dropping Altitude and AT&T Sports Net.

I’m looking forward to the Broncos but I won’t be jumping up and down, yelling. I won’t be devastated at losses or ecstatic over wins.
 
Lots of the same sentiments.

In the past I got a sense of anticipation going into the season, I had hope, I also had a sense of possibilities thinking about who could pull big upsets, which team could come out of nowhere and surprise the nation.

We discussed this in the playoff thread. I loved the bowls, every game had meaning and winning your league and going to your bowl seemed more significant and rewarding that the playoff is now. Schools in the Big 8 used to throw oranges and being the Orange Bowl Champ meant the season had been a total success. Same applied for schools in the Big 10 and the PAC10 with the most important thing being calling themselves Rose Bowl Champs.

Now going to 12 schools in the playoff losing a game or even multiple games won't be the end of it. Same time a team can go through it's season winning every game to win it's league but then with an injury or two, a bad day, and a bad draw end up losing in the playoff to a team that didn't even win it's division.

And meanwhile players have no allegiance, they go where they get paid the most and if it doesn't work how they like they just bounce to another school.

Getting to one or two games a year in Boulder used to be a priority. Some of you here have seen my son grow up as he attacked anything that looked unclaimed at Sackygate. Now I wonder if it would even be worth going

Money has always been behind college football and there have always been programs willing to compromise the rules to win but now they have simply thrown any pretext of these being "college athletes" out the window.

How long until a bunch of schools tell the big money programs (top of the SEC/B1G, etc) to go on their way and decide to reclaim the sanity of having athletic programs that are actually part of the college experience instead of professional development programs.

At this point the group of people on this site are more important to me than any interest in what brought me here in the first place, my preferred college football program.
 
Really, ken? The reason you're not watching isn't because the Buffs have ****ing sucked for 15+ years, but rather because 'things have changed and i'm old and cranky'

If we were in the national conversation every week, like we were in the mid-90s, i expect all of us would be just fine with the changes to the landscape.
 
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