Eight Days a Week?!?

Those of you who read my weekly Bleacher Report Top 25 article might already have heard the term "WTF Wednesday".

(Begin Rant Here; if reading aloud, raise voice an octave)

Is there ANY day that remains inviolate to the total takeover of television by college football? Or to put it more accurately, the total takeover of college football by television?

I used to think Sunday was that day. The preserve of the professional variant of American football; while Saturday was the preserve of the amateurs (in the best sense of that word).

No longer.

Tomorrow, October 26, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane will host the Central Florida Knights, in a Conference USA matchup, at 8:00 pm ET.

To quote Bob Dole (sorry to take a page from the political world at this particular time): "Where is the outrage?"

Now, I'm a college football fan, and no doubt roughly in ESPN's "sweet spot" in terms of target demographic, but when things go this far, I have to speak up.

What happened to Saturday afternoons (and sometimes Saturday evenings) as the designated time for the nation to partake of college football, in person or via radio or television? When exactly did this change?

I humbly point you to the photo above.

Ladies and gentlemen, the downward spiral began in 1979.

Granted, they're not the only guilty party in this trampling of college football tradition; they're just the most omnipresent, and the most obnoxious in their disregard (despite hiring 'gray eminences' of the game as pundits).

It began almost imperceptibly, with shifting kickoff times on Saturday: to early afternoon or late evening. Then, as more and more games were televised, the equivalent of airport gridlock ensued, with only the most prestigious and deep-pocketed programs able to appear in the "prime takeoff slots" when the viewing audience is usually at its highest.

So, some games, in order to remain on television, were moved to 11 am local time.

Now, perhaps I'm just getting too old (I'm "Gundy" age), but I remember when ALL my team's games, televised or not (and usually they were not), started no earlier than 12 noon, and usually after 1 pm.

But as I look at the example of Kansas in 2008, I see non-conference games (which means home games for the most part) with a start time in early evening, after sunset (i.e. when late-summer games *should* start); but I see a large portion of conference games scheduled as "TBA".

That means that game time is more the choice of the television executives than it is of the athletic departments.

Furthermore, in the last decade-plus (roughly coincidental with the conference realignment of the early 1990s), games have been scheduled on days other than Saturday.

The first to go was Thursday; Friday being the preserve of high-school football, it was assumed that there wouldn't be an audience for college football on Friday. At least, that's what was assumed then.

Some conferences or individual teams leapt at the chance to play on Thursday; it was easier to get a prime-time viewing slot; it guaranteed television exposure, with much less competition for eyeballs from other college football games; and it allowed the program to "sell" the game as a "special event" to students.

I remember one such game between Kansas and Kansas State in the mid-1990s, when Kansas State was on the ascendancy, but not yet "ready for prime time"... at least not on Saturday.

Well, indeed, Friday was next to fall. Of course, in states like Texas or Florida, this was never likely to go over too big, so the teams playing on Friday were of a lower "prestige" still than the teams playing on Thursday.

Then, more recently, came Wednesday.

And Tuesday.

And I swear I saw a game (if only for a few minutes, like rubber-necking at a car wreck) on Monday earlier this season...

The game tomorrow between Tulsa and Central Florida is the first time I can remember a regular-season college football game being intentionally scheduled for Sunday.

Isn't there already NFL football on Sunday night?

Oops, I forgot.

That's NBC's deal now. ESPN used to do the Sunday evening NFL games; now they're doing Monday Night Football. So now they have some space to fill on Sunday, and of course they'd like to compete with NBC for the football addicts (Hi, I'm Scott...), because you never know, the NBC game might be a snoozer.

So why do I have my boxers in such a wedgie over this?

The college football week is now actually EIGHT DAYS LONG.

That is, this past football week started on Sunday, October 19, with no college football games scheduled, the release of various polls, etc.

However, instead of ending late on Saturday, October 25 (or in the wee morning hours of Sunday), representing a span of seven days, this week in college football will last eight days.

The last college football game of the week will be played hours after the Sunday polls are released. And it's important because Tulsa is (for now at least) a ranked team. The polls that will reflect the results of this weekend's games will not take Tulsa's game into account.

Next weekend's polls will therefore reflect the results of two Tulsa games, since Tulsa travel to Arkansas on Saturday, Nov. 1.

The poll issue is not the point I'm getting at, though. What's happened is that we have become the proverbial frogs in the pot.

Cable television turned up the heat on us incrementally, so that we wouldn't take much notice that our Saturdays, and what they mean to college football, were being steadily cheapened, and our free time during the rest of the week (i.e., time spent doing other things than watching college football in person or on TV) was being gradually eaten away.

I, for one, am feeling boiled, bothered, and bewildered.

I need some down time, to reflect on the week gone by.

I prefer keeping my college football addiction to Saturdays.

I know that makes me "old school". Guilty as charged!

(End Rant Here; if reading aloud, lower voice to pre-rant level)

So, with the increasing intrusion of televised college football on every possible waking hour of every day of the week, I'm going to have to start cutting back, and set some limits.

Perhaps there's some patch or chewing gum I could use?