The Sickos Committee logo from Reddit. The Sickos Committee logo from Reddit. (r/SickosCommitteeCFB/.)
College FootballESPNBy Andrew Bucholtz on

The Sickos Committee has become quite the presence in college football (and other sports) over the past few years, using a Twitter account, a Discord server, a subreddit, a Substack newsletter and more to cover the quirky and often less-loved sides of the sport. And that’s now led to them getting discussed at the half of the Quick Lane Bowl.

That game between the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Bowling Green Falcons was just 10-9 at the half. And that was with just 19 passing yards for Minnesota. And that led to ESPN play-by-play voice Connor Onion shouting out the committee on air:

That was a great “Ha ha ha…Yes!” delivery from Onion. And it was quite a fitting way to send a game this low-scoring, with such poor passing numbers at that point, to half.

For those unaware, the Sickos Meme started with a cartoon Ward Sutton (under his Stan Kelly pen name, where he presents “the wrong-headed one-panels of an ultraconservative middle-aged cartoonist“) drew for The Onion in 2015, with the initial image depicting a world where TV detectives have no more crimes to solve due to drug legalization. But the “Sickos” man in the window and his “Yes, hahaha, yes!” have spread well beyond the initial image, often “used to express excitement about events others might find distasteful or unwanted” (as per KnowYourMeme).

And the Sickos Committee has done that on many fronts in college football, through their Twitter, podcast, Substack, merchandise, and more. And while they call themselves Sickos “because we watch all the games,” they’re perhaps most identified with the enjoyment of games with terrible offensive performances that few others choose to watch. (Oh, and mayo Pop-Tarts, but no one actually wants those.)

That list of games with poor offensive performances that few others choose to watch includes many games from the Big Ten West.  There, the week-by-week tracking of Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s dismal failure to live up to his contractual scoring goals (with that failure leading to the unusual midseason announcement he would not return next year) drew particular attention this fall:

https://twitter.com/SickosCommittee/status/1715885059507470707

And they’ve done plenty of other Big Ten West content over the years. Here’s a small sampling of that:

https://twitter.com/SickosCommittee/status/1727826621753700766

https://twitter.com/timetravelduck/status/1576295505914576896

So it’s pretty fitting for one of the final games involving a Big Ten West team (the Big Ten is ending its divisions next year due to the additions of UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington) to feature an on-air Sickos Committee shoutout. And that’s especially true when the offensive numbers at halftime were this low. That had many thinking of the Sickos, including apparently Onion in the ESPN booth.

For the record, the game did eventually get higher-scoring, finishing with a 30-24 Minnesota win. But it still didn’t have much passing:

In any case, this was a fun heading-to-halftime moment. And it was a moment where the broadcast discussion reflected the discussion taking place on Twitter and elsewhere.

[Awful Announcing on Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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