Quote:
Originally Posted by Hockey
Every year I say I'm gonna start getting into college football and every time i go to watch a game a team is winning by 3 TD's in the first half. I enjoy watching the national championship games, but would like to try and get into more regular season games.
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College football is funny like that. It probably has the highest number of lopsided games of any major sport, which is a natural byproduct of how they schedule and rank the teams.
However, the rivalries are intense, upsets can be monumental and matchups between the top end teams are phenomenal (and sometimes the unranked teams too). Also, like most other junior level and amateur sports, the mistakes, highs/lows and momentum changes can, and regularly do, far exceed that of the highly structured pro games. Watching game with big time conference implications between two unranked rivals that is full of exciting plays, mistakes and exceptional performances can be amazing. Another thing I love. The season is so short that virtually every game can be do or die. That matters a bit less now that the playoff exists but still applies in a lot of cases. The difference between winning a conference, winning the conference championship and making the playoff can be razor thin. So much on the line in every single game.
The trick is finding the best games and then finding a way to watch them. TSN's coverage is awful for most of the season and you'll only get a limited number of games on the main US networks since ESPN has most of the rights to broadcast in the US. TSN would much prefer to show 3rd round action from some lame golf tournament, or the same tennis matchup across 5 channels, rather than show a college game that isn't on one of the main US networks. So basically anything that is exclusive to ESPN, TSN has the rights to in Canada and they rarely show it. Even worse is that TSN will often choose to simsub the primary game that is already airing on ABC and then not show the highlight game on ESPN (which often means we miss major games, like the Iron Bowl). Although their coverage does improve later in the season and will often show 2 or 3 or more separate ESPN specific games. I think Shaw has a college package similar to Centre Ice and Sunday Ticket but I know Telus doesn't and it sucks.
And none of that comes close to addressing what it is like to see a game live and in person. The atmosphere, tailgating and dedication in many football-centric places is beyond anything we see in sports in Canada. Or at least much different to our level of fandom.