Dear american football...

[Pyle]

Didn't finish rest of post because this isn't true.

The NCAA Final Four averaged an 11.0 rating and 18.3 million viewers over three games, according to figures compiled by this website (CBS and Turner Sports did not release averages for the round). By comparison, the NBA Finals averaged a 10.5 and 17.7 million over seven games on ABC, with an additional 142K on ESPN Deportes.

 

[jekelish]

You mean the portugal team that lost 4-0 to Germany?

The Portugal team that entered the World Cup ranked #4 in the world by FIFA. Obviously the rankings are pretty hilariously skewed in some cases, but Portugal is a legit power in the world of international soccer.

 

[jekelish]

but soccer fans already watch the EPL

there are only so many foreign leagues that anyone is going to watch. probably better off with some cheap counterprogramming on espn2 like fishing or kiana tom's bolt-ons or whatever else they put on

But you could argue that, moving away from Bundesliga, La Liga could become more popular in the US than even EPL because they've got Messi and other guys of his ilk. So why not take a runner at one of those two leagues, since those two, along with EPL, are far and away the top three in the world?

 

[Guinness]

4. Commercials. Somebody said the lack of commercials is a positive but it's not. Sorry I like bathroom breaks and a chance to grab some chips and a beer. Part of the SuperBowl's popularity IS the commercials.

It is called a DVR. You pause the TV to get your beer. I am sorry but anyone who thinks the lack of commercials isn't an advantage is crazy.

 

[billsin01]

The Portugal team that entered the World Cup ranked #4 in the world by FIFA. Obviously the rankings are pretty hilariously skewed in some cases, but Portugal is a legit power in the world of international soccer.

They clearly weren't playing that way. I mean, rankings are rankings and I have no idea what they are, but the team that showed up to the world cup wasn't going anywhere.

 

[Pyle]

Thank god you came along to let us know your opinion is fact. Thanks for clearing that up.

Isn't that what we do here, give our opinions? It's an 11 page thread, I added 1 opinion, in the immortal words of Sgt Hulka....lighten up francis.

 

[jekelish]

They clearly weren't playing that way. I mean, rankings are rankings and I have no idea what they are, but the team that showed up to the world cup wasn't going anywhere.

Oh I know that they didn't play up to expectations. But the fact is they were one of the heavy favorites to challenge going in, and we pretty thoroughly dominated them for 90% of the game.

 

[billsin01]

This is underrated.

Baseball's handling of the time concern has been a disgrace; this is probably the #1 reason I now watch 40 baseball games a summer instead of 120 (the #1b reason is that I root for the Mets).

College sports aren't much better; television timeouts have hurt my enjoyment of football games, and the NCAA, in classic fashion, has effectively changed the rules of the game in prostituting itself for more hoops money in exchange for giving 20-minute halftimes and longer timeouts during tournament games.

Soccer's the big winner here. I hope they stay strict about this.

The crazy thing is I think the NFL is among the worst with all the breaks, replay reviews, penalties. God, it gets annoying if you don't have a rooting interest (or like me you root for the bills and therefore don't really have an NFL team). I love that soccer is short. I agree it's a nice thing at least for those of us with families and kids and responsibilities like that.

 

[djcon57]

The NCAA Final Four averaged an 11.0 rating and 18.3 million viewers over three games, according to figures compiled by this website (CBS and Turner Sports did not release averages for the round). By comparison, the NBA Finals averaged a 10.5 and 17.7 million over seven games on ABC, with an additional 142K on ESPN Deportes.

SO because US vs Portugal is bigger than both therefore Soccer is bigger than NBA and College Basketball.

You pointing to TV ratings over the span of 3 days isn't enough. NBA is bigger than CBB.

 

[jekelish]

The crazy thing is I think the NFL is among the worst with all the breaks, replay reviews, penalties. God, it gets annoying if you don't have a rooting interest (or like me you root for the bills and therefore don't really have an NFL team). I love that soccer is short. I agree it's a nice thing at least for those of us with families and kids and responsibilities like that.

That's exactly why football will never catch on abroad, by the way. It's the one consistent complaint I've read from international folks, they just cannot stand the constant breaks in the action, mainly because they are so used to the nonstop action of soccer. And I agree with them. Nothing irritates me more in football, a sport I dearly love, than a "point after - commercial - kickoff - commercial - back to the action" sequence.

 

[OttoMets]

The crazy thing is I think the NFL is among the worst with all the breaks, replay reviews, penalties. God, it gets annoying if you don't have a rooting interest (or like me you root for the bills and therefore don't really have an NFL team). I love that soccer is short. I agree it's a nice thing at least for those of us with families and kids and responsibilities like that.

Yeah, the NFL's guilty, too. I didn't mention it because I don't watch it much; come to think of it, that's partially because it seems like every kickoff is bookended by timeouts. Frustrating.

 

[billsin01]

If you're going to mock quotes you should at least not get them entirely wrong.

The point is that more or less kids playing a sport does not necessarily lead to more or less adults watching a sport on television.

Yeah, I wasn't sure I wanted to go down this rabbit hole, but kids like what kids like and then they become adults. I loved pro wrestling as a middle schooler. I used to follow Cuse football recruiting on a daily basis now I tend to check in in and february and see what happened. I generally used to be a sports nut even like 10 years ago but with kids and all the BS that goes along with it and the time commitment it takes to actually go anywhere to a game, I have pretty much pared it down to SU hoops, SU football (albeit to a lesser degree) and Sox baseball.

Point is, a non-scientific poll of 12-year-olds is a pretty difficult way to determine future viewing habits.

 

[djcon57]

I disagree with that. College basketball is absolutely discussed on a national level outside of March. Definitely moreso than soccer. Sure it gets overshadowed by NFL and college football, but that's just how things go.

CBB is bigger than Soccer. I never said it wasn't. I just don't believe CBB is a national sport. I don't believe Hockey is either. If you turn on national sports radio, CBB is rarely discussed as compared to other sports.

 

[Pyle]

It is called a DVR. You pause the TV to get your beer. I am sorry but anyone who thinks the lack of commercials isn't an advantage is crazy.

There's no DVR at the dome.

 

[billsin01]

That's exactly why football will never catch on abroad, by the way. It's the one consistent complaint I've read from international folks, they just cannot stand the constant breaks in the action, mainly because they are so used to the nonstop action of soccer. And I agree with them. Nothing irritates me more in football, a sport I dearly love, than a "point after - commercial - kickoff - commercial - back to the action" sequence.

Yup, it's miserable. Football is such a monster in terms of popularity but outside of pitching changes, baseball actually tends to be a pretty consistent flow. You may find the actual action boring outside of home runs and stuff and but I actually can watch it easier than the nfl, especially if it's a defensive struggle and you get tv timeouts on every punt. Kills me.

 

[jekelish]

Yup, it's miserable. Football is such a monster in terms of popularity but outside of pitching changes, baseball actually tends to be a pretty consistent flow. You may find the actual action boring outside of home runs and stuff and but I actually can watch it easier than the nfl, especially if it's a defensive struggle and you get tv timeouts on every punt. Kills me.

Agreed. And unless something has changed since I was at SU, the most hated man in the Dome any given Saturday is the dude in the red shirt who walks out to signal when a TV break begins and ends. That dude took so much heat from the student section when I was there because we just wanted to get back to the freaking game.

 

[Scooch]

Yup, it's miserable. Football is such a monster in terms of popularity but outside of pitching changes, baseball actually tends to be a pretty consistent flow. You may find the actual action boring outside of home runs and stuff and but I actually can watch it easier than the nfl, especially if it's a defensive struggle and you get tv timeouts on every punt. Kills me.

Studies show that there is actually substantially more "action" during a baseball game than a football game. Goes to show how perception is reality.

 

[shandeezy7]

CBB is bigger than Soccer. I never said it wasn't. I just don't believe CBB is a national sport. I don't believe Hockey is either. If you turn on national sports radio, CBB is rarely discussed as compared to other sports.

Idk, I think it's just the timing of the season. A big chunk of it coincides with the NFL and college football, so it does get put on the back-burner as far as coverage goes. But I think the national interest in it is still pretty strong, if even just for the sheer size of division 1 college basketball (350+ teams scattered across every corner of the country). It also probably dilutes overall national interest a little bit as well though, since there are so many teams.

 

[Upstate]

You mean the portugal team that lost 4-0 to Germany?

Or the Ghana team that we beat who tied Germany?

 

[Scooch]

CBB is bigger than Soccer. I never said it wasn't. I just don't believe CBB is a national sport. I don't believe Hockey is either. If you turn on national sports radio, CBB is rarely discussed as compared to other sports.

It's not about believing, it's math.

15-20% of the American population are avid college hoops fans. You simply cannot get to a figure that is as large as MLB and NBA if the rabid interest is only centered in Louisville, Lawrence and Durham.

Keep believing what you want, but there are 5, national, major sports in the U.S and college hoops is one of them.

 

[Pyle]

CBB is bigger than Soccer. I never said it wasn't. I just don't believe CBB is a national sport. I don't believe Hockey is either. If you turn on national sports radio, CBB is rarely discussed as compared to other sports.

You're basing your argument over what is said on sports radio? Are any college sports discussed as much? I think alot of that has to do with the fact the Pros have pro personalities and contracts, etc. I don't listen to alot of sports radio but it would seem to make sense, most college players and programs are muffled, outside of the rankings and hot seats there isn't much to discuss. If you look at avg attendance between the top 30 NCAA teams vs the NBA the numbers are very comparable. I will admit without a doubt that those NBA seats cost a crap ton more and therfore the NBA generates far more dineros. If you want to use that as you basis of argument fine, but what's discussed on radio seems a stretch.

 

[billsin01]

Or the Ghana team that we beat who tied Germany?

Wrong. My point is that Portugal played exceedingly poorly throughout pool play. WE played with them b/c they failed to show up. I'm not sure there's an argument against that.

 

[djcon57]

You're basing your argument over what is said on sports radio? Are any college sports discussed as much? I think alot of that has to do with the fact the Pros have pro personalities and contracts, etc. I don't listen to alot of sports radio but it would seem to make sense, most college players and programs are muffled, outside of the rankings and hot seats there isn't much to discuss. If you look at avg attendance between the top 30 NCAA teams vs the NBA the numbers are very comparable. I will admit without a doubt that those NBA seats cost a crap ton more and therfore the NBA generates far more dineros. If you want to use that as you basis of argument fine, but what's discussed on radio seems a stretch.

Basing it on TV ratings for one game is much more of a stretch, imo. Here's reg season numbers.

"TNT’s Thursday night games held steady compared to last year, averaging 2.0 million viewers. The network’s complete 52-game slate, including Monday and Tuesday night games, averaged 1.9 million — down from 2.0 million last year and 2.5 million in 2011-12, and its least-viewed season since 2009-10 (1.7M)."

"ESPN’s industry-leading coverage of the men’s 2013-14 college basketball regular season was the network’s most-viewed and highest-rated ever, averaging 1,454,000 viewers"

ESPN's highest rated CBB season ever didn't compare to a down NBA season.

 

[Pyle]

Studies show that there is actually substantially more "action" during a baseball game than a football game. Goes to show how perception is reality.

The constant throwing to first is what gets me, or some guy who fouls off 6 balls on 0-2 before popping up to the shortstop.

 

[jekelish]

Wrong. My point is that Portugal played exceedingly poorly throughout pool play. WE played with them b/c they failed to show up. I'm not sure there's an argument against that.

I honestly don't know the context of this back and forth, I've somehow missed it in this thread, but it should be noted the US was expected to finish 4th out of 4 teams in the group. The fact we finished 2nd is a minor miracle.