College football is nothing but bad football now. I think every team sucks.

I loved football and started my interest in Aggie football in 1965, two years before I started at A&M. I quit watching NFL when they started kneeling for the National Anthem disrespecting my 58,478 brothers and sisters who had greater love than this to lay down their lives for their friends. Yet I still had Aggie football, followed recruiting, and loved to see athletes commit to A&M. Commitment is a lost word today. I still watch Aggie football but now I recall the quote, "the beauty of sports is you can throw all your compassion into it, without consequence"

F4GIB71 said:

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I loved football and started my interest in Aggie football in 1965, two years before I started at A&M. I quit watching NFL when they started kneeling for the National Anthem disrespecting my 58,478 brothers and sisters who had greater love than this to lay down their lives for their friends. Yet I still had Aggie football, followed recruiting, and loved to see athletes commit to A&M. Commitment is a lost word today. I still watch Aggie football but now I recall the quote, "the beauty of sports is you can throw all your compassion into it, without consequence"

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It's always difficult to answer a question like this because of the wins and losses. But if you could remove the excitement from a good year or the pain from a bad year, when do you think you enjoyed Aggie football the most?

My interest has definitely waned since college became the pros. I'll always root for our football team, but I have very little interest to see a game in person any more (and spend my own money). I've been to one game since Covid, and I don't really miss it. We might go to the Tennessee game this year, but we're waiting as long as we can to give ticket prices time to come down after each loss.

that is an important distinction

losing interest in college football

or

losing interest in spending money on college football

infinity ag said:

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Well… one more thing ruined by capitalism.

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I don't think this is what you meant (unless you're trying to be sarcastic).

Texas A&M said:

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My interest has definitely waned since college became the pros. I'll always root for our football team, but I have very little interest to see a game in person any more (and spend my own money). I've been to one game since Covid, and I don't really miss it. We might go to the Tennessee game this year, but we're waiting as long as we can to give ticket prices time to come down after each loss.

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Yah, I've gone to far more tailgates than games over the past 5 years. It's fun seeing old friends and watching the game, but I don't really feel like I'm missing out by sitting in Aggie Park or on Kimbrough Blvd.

zephyr88 said:

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infinity ag said:

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Well… one more thing ruined by capitalism.

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I don't think this is what you meant (unless you're trying to be sarcastic).

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It's best to just ignore him.

F4GIB71 said:

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I loved football and started my interest in Aggie football in 1965, two years before I started at A&M. I quit watching NFL when they started kneeling for the National Anthem disrespecting my 58,478 brothers and sisters who had greater love than this to lay down their lives for their friends. Yet I still had Aggie football, followed recruiting, and loved to see athletes commit to A&M. Commitment is a lost word today. I still watch Aggie football but now I recall the quote, "the beauty of sports is you can throw all your compassion into it, without consequence"

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If i read this wrong, I'm sorry in advance.

But if i read it right, thank you for your service. My dad was right there with you. And a nobler class of man there could not be than my dad. We need more like him.

NIL, the portal, and primadonna players that are anointed before doing anything with egos off the charts have made a beautiful fall tradition just NFL Lite.

I love college football, but what made it great is sliding away.

The only college football I watch in depth is A&M football. And Here of late it's been excruciating. I care nothing about any other college teams. Saturday afternoons are for channel surfing looking for a game that will hold my attention for more than 15 minutes.

Sundays are for being outside on good days spending time with family. Sunday evening I can catch up with all I could ever want to know about the nfl via the ESPN website. Video of all the crazy plays and statistics of each game without watching a minute of the game itself. I mean, it's a waste of time watching an entire game,

I'll say this the end of the broncos/pocohauntus swift game was a thing of beauty. Good for Bo Nix and Travis gets to sleep on the couch with the poodle tonight. Otherwise, I can't even remember the last time I've been invested in a complete nfl game.

And it's crazy to think that I have watched more caitlan clark/indiana fever basketball than i ever watched nba games. As far as MLB is concerned I am glad the brewers won it all this year. Though I didn't watch a minute of the WS much less any MLB game during the entire season. It's wild how my sports viewing habits have changed the last ten years or so. Impatience, boredom of the sport, woke itdiotology pushed by the teams have taken its toll on me I guess.

texagbeliver

WELL SAID!

W said:

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that is an important distinction

losing interest in college football

or

losing interest in spending money on college football

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Technically isnt the 2nd just a version of the 1st. If you are interested in something you will pay to experience it. If you arent interested enough to pay for it you have therefore lost interest.

Also if you arent paying money, your investment will drop so too your interest.

I'm still interested, but other things in life have jumped college football and it's a lower priority.

the athletic department thinks there is a significant distinction

it wants and needs fan to spend their $$$

W said:

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the athletic department thinks there is a significant distinction

it wants and needs fan to spend their $$$

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That would be foolish. Losing interest precedes decreasing $$ spend. Especially on something that has a delayed 1 year sign up. Athletic department won't really see things change until renewals come up. By the time that hits it might be too late to correct any problem.

Aggie football is like any show that I follow. Some episodes piss me off, some are a lot of fun. None of them matter and are forgotten quickly.

Agreed on the amounts. Let the kids live comfortably, let them maybe send some money home, pay for insurance for kids with genuine pro prospects to give them a cushion in case of injury, but diamonds and luxury cars don't sit right.

Not knowing more than six returning players on my football team (or three in basketball), is my real beef.

After being a fan since the 80s, for the first time it is getting tiresome.

texagbeliever said:

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W said:

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that is an important distinction

losing interest in college football

or

losing interest in spending money on college football

---

Technically isnt the 2nd just a version of the 1st. If you are interested in something you will pay to experience it. If you arent interested enough to pay for it you have therefore lost interest.

Also if you arent paying money, your investment will drop so too your interest.

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I have lost interest in spending money on college football (former season ticket holder), and I am fast losing interest in college football. It's hard to be passionate about the sport, now being played by hired guns who eschew loyalty and school pride, but instead, jump to the highest bidder.

I have actually renewed my interest in high school sports - easy because I live near a mega sports cathedral used by multiple schools for several different sports.

Texas Tech fan chiming in:

NIL and transfer portal don't bother me... it levels the playing field that has been badly tilted for decades.

What bothers me and causes me to lose interest is conference realignment. Being stuck in the Big 12, I don't know about or care about 2/3rds of the teams in this disaster conference. Genuinely do not care. There is apparently a big rivalry game this weekend between Utah and BYU. Yeah, don't care. Don't care if Arizona State is playing Cincinnati. Don't care.

I don't know why anyone would care if USC is playing Michigan State, or if USC is playing Purdue, or Oregon is playing Rutgers.

I don't know why anyone would care if Texas is playing Kentucky or Florida is playing Missouri, although at least the SEC has done a better job of staying closer to regional and preserving some traditional rivalries than the Big 12 or B1G.

I'd vote for Josh Pate for Czar of College Football:

Skubalon said:

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Texas Tech fan chiming in:

NIL and transfer portal don't bother me... it levels the playing field that has been badly tilted for decades.

What bothers me and causes me to lose interest is conference realignment. Being stuck in the Big 12, I don't know about or care about 2/3rds of the teams in this disaster conference. Genuinely do not care. There is apparently a big rivalry game this weekend between Utah and BYU. Yeah, don't care. Don't care if Arizona State is playing Cincinnati. Don't care.

I don't know why anyone would care if USC is playing Michigan State, or if USC is playing Purdue, or Oregon is playing Rutgers.

I don't know why anyone would care if Texas is playing Kentucky or Florida is playing Missouri, although at least the SEC has done a better job of staying closer to regional and preserving some traditional rivalries than the Big 12 or B1G.

I'd vote for Josh Pate for Czar of College Football:

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Skub, perhaps you should look at it from other schools' perspectives. Tech now has taken the position in the Big 12 that was held by t.u. - a single school running a whole conference. NIL and the portal has divided the 138 D1 football schools into the 40-50 "haves" and the other "have nots." It has destroyed the junior college sports programs. Schools without money routinely lose their good players. A small school like Sam Houston has 50 or 60 new players on their roster every year.

Yeah, I liked it when I could drive to practically every away game. But as for "staying regional," full stadiums and big TV audiences show that somebody must care about those games.

Money talks.

mortal said:

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Skub, perhaps you should look at it from other schools' perspectives. Tech now has taken the position in the Big 12 that was held by t.u. - a single school running a whole conference. NIL and the portal has divided the 138 D1 football schools into the 40-50 "haves" and the other "have nots."

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Yeah, you raise some fair and good points. I would argue back that it used to be 10-15 "haves" and the rest were the "have nots", and Tech was definitely in the latter category and has (sort of) moved into the "haves". So yeah, I am definitely near-sighted where this is concerned. But even so: the B1G and SEC are doing everything in their power to tilt the table even further.

I think within 5 years - maybe much less than that - there will emerge a "super division" that takes the SEC and B1G schools, minus a few stragglers and picking up a few higher-end leftovers and basically leaving the rest behind. Maybe that would be good. I don't know. I think it is questionable whether Tech would be picked up or dropped. And honestly I'm not sure which I would even want if I were in a position to pick. If Tech were to be picked up by that super division, we'd be right back to our role of playing occasional spoiler but decades between winning anything that actually mattered. It might be more enjoyable to not be in that position.

All that said, I'm an old guy. I still miss the SWC. My buddies and my work colleagues and folks at church would talk trash about our teams on Friday over a beer and over-analyze stuff on Mondays. As it is now, I literally don't know a soul who went to or supports most of the teams in the Big 12... there's UH, OkState, Baylor and TCU, and that's it. I just don't care about the rest.

And frankly, I miss Tech playing A&M. I know most of y'all don't miss playing Tech, and that's fine, but I have tons of Aggie friends and family and Saturdays used to mean something to us mutually when we played in the same conference.

I have lots of UT friends and family too... but they can kick rocks. :P

Anyway. I have zero influence on any of this. Just chiming in that I think conference realignment and NIL/transfer portal are two sides of the same coin that are making college football less interesting and more like a NFL minor league.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment.

Ive been watching Aggie football for over 50 years, and until about 5 years ago, usually planned my weekends around the Aggie game.

But my interest has continued to fade due to the constant reminder that every decision about the sport: tv, conference affiliations, playoffs, bowls etc. is solely about making more money. Then add in the fact that even the calls on the field are biased, usually protecting the "blue-blood" school. Also add the NIL transfer portal BS mentioned numerous times above.

At the individual school level, we are charged exorbitant ticket prices and concessions. The ADs, coaches, players, are primarily interested in lining their own pockets. They don't give a crap about A&M, except that they like the paycheck. The vast majority of the players couldn't get into A&M based on academics and wouldn't be there if they weren't being paid. The game atmosphere at Kyle Field has gone down the toilet.

And top it off with the fact that we are an embarrassment of a football program -- we really suck. No championship since 1939? Not even a conference championship in over a quarter of a century? Players and coaches come and go, but we really only have a decent team about once every decade. Never has a program spent so much money with such crappy results.

These things have me asking myself why I even waste time on it anymore. So, now I generally record Aggie football games and decide later if I want to watch. I quit going to games, and I'd never contribute money to the circus the way it is now, although I appreciate the BMAs that still do. I really wish it was different, but after 50 years of watching it, I don't have any confidence that things will improve.

Every year, it gets harder and harder. I like the parity but dont like that players are paid assassins with no affiliation to the University.

I stopped watching NFL about 10 yrs ago as I had to make a choice....waste my Sats or Sundays.

I chose A&M and college football.

I am now considering going back to NFL games and letting college foots go to the wasteside.

Just not the same, especially with new faces and basically new rosters every year.

For A&M, I am much more interested in Baseball, Bucky Ball and Volleyball anyway. We rarely spend any money on football games anymore. Those sports are far more enjoyable and also affordable.

I think NIL and the portal has not only hurt the spirit of college football but caused the quality of football to go down quite a bit. Look at ATM, Clemson (dabo is an idiot), Oregon, Indiana (from last year), tu, Alabama, etc. The exceptions seem to be maybe OH, GA, and Miami. I believe the "parity" we are seeing sometimes is poor football.

The constant turnover of players causes teams to have to dumb down playbooks and systems and they can't do that adequately.

I also catch myself much less patient with "kids" making tons of money. It was one thing to watch a kid pour his heart out for a school but now watching a kid not perform making hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and not performing is another issue. I know they are still kids but when making the kind of money they make, my patience is just not there. If any of us gave the effort I sometimes see at our own jobs, we would be fired.

Skull Session said:

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The only college football I watch in depth is A&M football. And Here of late it's been excruciating. I care nothing about any other college teams. Saturday afternoons are for channel surfing looking for a game that will hold my attention for more than 15 minutes.

Sundays are for being outside on good days spending time with family. Sunday evening I can catch up with all I could ever want to know about the nfl via the ESPN website. Video of all the crazy plays and statistics of each game without watching a minute of the game itself. I mean, it's a waste of time watching an entire game,

I'll say this the end of the broncos/pocohauntus swift game was a thing of beauty. Good for Bo Nix and Travis gets to sleep on the couch with the poodle tonight. Otherwise, I can't even remember the last time I've been invested in a complete nfl game.

And it's crazy to think that I have watched more caitlan clark/indiana fever basketball than i ever watched nba games. As far as MLB is concerned I am glad the brewers won it all this year. Though I didn't watch a minute of the WS much less any MLB game during the entire season. It's wild how my sports viewing habits have changed the last ten years or so. Impatience, boredom of the sport, woke itdiotology pushed by the teams have taken its toll on me I guess.

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I relate to this position. other than the ags I'm mainly just chasing dramatic finishes. broncos chiefs was great. okie-st-Iowa-st and the Indiana game, games that would not normally be on my radar had great finishes. didn't like the outcome but the cowboys collapse led to craziness.

Did watch a little of the WS but really only to see the fireball pitcher rather than the teams. basketball I'm generally out until March madness.

Skubalon said:

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mortal said:

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Skub, perhaps you should look at it from other schools' perspectives. Tech now has taken the position in the Big 12 that was held by t.u. - a single school running a whole conference. NIL and the portal has divided the 138 D1 football schools into the 40-50 "haves" and the other "have nots."

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I think within 5 years - maybe much less than that - there will emerge a "super division" that takes the SEC and B1G schools... I think it is questionable whether Tech would be picked up or dropped...

All that said, I'm an old guy. I still miss the SWC.

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Yeah Skub. I believe you are right. We cannot stop NIL now, and most schools would not afford to keep up. A separate league may be the only solution. If they go that way, I would like to see the other schools somehow protected from losing all their good players every year.

Yeah, being in the SWC put you around other schools' supporters That was fun.

Tech gonna' have to find more than one big-money donor. The thing I admire there is that the NIL money is in sports other than just football and men's basketball.