The Awful Announcing Wednesday Newsletter is a deep dive into all things sports media with original commentary, highlights from the week, social media buzz, and much more. Below is our “A Block” that leads off the newsletter. You can read this and more by subscribing here. We send a recap of what’s been on AA on Monday and Friday mornings as well as the extended original version on Wednesdays.
Week 0 of the college football season begins this week and although there isn’t many great games to choose from (Ohio vs San Diego State anyone?) it does mark the return of competitive, regular season action. The nation is so starved for real football games that we would probably settle for a Georgia Tech rematch against Cumberland.
But as the 2023 season gets underway, you may want to take a few minutes to take a mental snapshot, soak it in, and stop and smell the roses… or Rose Bowl if you will. Because after this season, as college football aficionado Jim Weber pointed out, many of the traditions that make college football special over the past generation will be coming to an end. Here are just a few…
* The Pac-12 Conference – We will literally say goodbye to a Power Five conference this fall that has been around in some form since 1916. The famed Conference of Champions will be relegated to the dustbin of history after the 2023 season. Last year’s championship game finalists, Utah and USC, will both be playing in different conferences next year. Ironically, on opening weekend #6 USC’s game will be on Pac-12 Network and unavailable to most of the country, which might be as good of a symbol as any for the league’s downfall.
* The Big XII as we know it – The Big XII’s lineage dates back to another sad day, the dissolution of the Southwest Conference. Oklahoma and Texas leaving for the SEC and the Big XII’s raid of the Pac-12 means next year the league will take on the look of some kind of smorgasbord of side dishes. Somehow, BYU-UCF, Arizona State-West Virginia, Cincinnati-Baylor, and Houston-Colorado could all be games under the Big XII banner. While no elite schools will remain, at least the league will be in existence thanks to beating the Pac-12 to a TV deal.
* The SEC on CBS – No league and television partnership has done as well over the years as the SEC on CBS. It has helped make a regional conference a national powerhouse. The 3:30 PM ET broadcast window has featured some of the most iconic matchups in college football over the league’s stretch of dominance this millennium. Next year, CBS enters into a partnership with the new-look Big Ten while the SEC moves exclusively to ESPN. We will get a small taste of it this year with a limited Big Ten schedule on CBS, but none of it will feel quite right.
* Rivalry Games – The foundation of college football’s great tradition is the rivalry game. Even though players come and go each year, you can always count on the same teams battling it out for bragging rights each year in some of the sport’s storied rivalries. At least until TV money gets in the way. Bedlam (Oklahoma vs Oklahoma State), the Apple Cup (Washington vs Washington State), and the Civil War (Oregon vs Oregon State) may all see their last editions for a while in 2023. On top of that, there’s so many other conference matchups that won’t be played again for the foreseeable future. The sport is counting on lucrative new matchups being able to replace these games, but it may take a long time to manufacture any feeling that can come close for those fanbases.
College football will be a completely different experience in 2024 – super conferences, a 12 team playoff, new rivalries emerging, new television packages, and an ever-changing power dynamic. Who knows how long it will last this time until it’s all blown up again.
Click here to read more and subscribe to the Awful Announcing Newsletter.
