Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - Printable Version
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RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - Phogge - 11-09-2021
Sporting Green had seven or eight pages on the Saturday of Big Game. Bill Leiser had a column of paragraphs of the best BG's that occupied half a page. Each team had a beat writer and there were historical photos like the sequence of Bobby Garrett's Pick Six in 1953.
Local college football interest is at its lowest point that I can remember and I've been going to Big Games since 1953.
It's now Big Yawn.
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - Farm93 - 11-09-2021
(11-09-2021, 06:41 AM)Phogge Wrote: Local college football interest is at its lowest point that I can remember and I've been going to Big Games since 1953.Demographics and the trends in those demographics are not favorable for Big Game.
It's now Big Yawn.
In other places in the USA Stanford's last decade of excellence would create packed stadiums for several years, especially for games against its closest conference rival. Stanford went to 4 Pac-12 CGs in the last decade. There are very few programs with that rate of excellence, and even some of them have had bad years with far fewer trophy worthy wins than this 2021 Stanford team.
Big Game will be big to me, but I know current Stanford students are not that passionate about football, UCB or the game.
The slide in interest is not about Shaw, Muir, the AD or the current Stanford administrators. The change has to do with college students nationally, but especially in the Pac-12 footprint. USC has had dreadful attendance, there are empty seats visible in most ESPN games not played in the SEC.
2021 has been awful for Stanford football, but the empty seats are not going away even if Shaw and the team win 8 or 9 games next season. If Stanford attendance over a season can only be at capacity with 10+ wins per year, then that's not a healthy program. The endowment and donation dollars can sustain the operation for many years, so I am not too worried about fielding a competitive team at or above Stanford's historic 55-60% win rate over time.
However, if "Big" includes some notion of a packed stadium, ESPN gameday, and intense local, regional and national coverage then "Big Game" is not a "Big" game and is unlikely to become big on a sustained basis any time in the near future.
That's OK BTW. Stanford University's success in driving the area into a major hub for global innovations is a large part of the demographic problem, and I am 100% OK with the idea that the success of Stanford University and Silicon Valley will continue to erode the ability for "Big Game" to be seen as "Big" by...outsiders. ;)
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - gailtate - 11-09-2021
(11-09-2021, 08:38 AM)Farm93 Wrote:(11-09-2021, 06:41 AM)Phogge Wrote: Local college football interest is at its lowest point that I can remember and I've been going to Big Games since 1953.Demographics and the trends in those demographics are not favorable for Big Game.
It's now Big Yawn.
In other places in the USA Stanford's last decade of excellence would create packed stadiums for several years, especially for games against its closest conference rival. Stanford went to 4 Pac-12 CGs in the last decade. There are very few programs with that rate of excellence, and even some of them have had bad years with far fewer trophy worthy wins than this 2021 Stanford team.
Big Game will be big to me, but I know current Stanford students are not that passionate about football, UCB or the game.
The slide in interest is not about Shaw, Muir, the AD or the current Stanford administrators. The change has to do with college students nationally, but especially in the Pac-12 footprint. USC has had dreadful attendance, there are empty seats visible in most ESPN games not played in the SEC.
2021 has been awful for Stanford football, but the empty seats are not going away even if Shaw and the team win 8 or 9 games next season. If Stanford attendance over a season can only be at capacity with 10+ wins per year, then that's not a healthy program. The endowment and donation dollars can sustain the operation for many years, so I am not too worried about fielding a competitive team at or above Stanford's historic 55-60% win rate over time.
However, if "Big" includes some notion of a packed stadium, ESPN gameday, and intense local, regional and national coverage then "Big Game" is not a "Big" game and is unlikely to become big on a sustained basis any time in the near future.
That's OK BTW. Stanford University's success in driving the area into a major hub for global innovations is a large part of the demographic problem, and I am 100% OK with the idea that the success of Stanford University and Silicon Valley will continue to erode the ability for "Big Game" to be seen as "Big" by...outsiders. ;)
During the Shawbaugh heyday (09, 11, 13 and 17) home attendance for "big games" not played against Cal but against the likes of Oregon, ND and until recently the L.A. schools put a lot of butts in the seats. In other words, win and they will come. But only as long as you keep winning. in this neck of woods especially, college football is a fragile enterprise and a "performance" business : When you don't perform, you lose business. Immediately. And it's slow to come back. I've seen a lot Stanford home football across six decades. The overall trend is decidedly down, but if you give the people something to get excited about, they'll show up. The buzz has a very short half-life, that's all. Winning = buzz = butts-in-the-seats.
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - MV72018 - 11-09-2021
Talk about a monumental misnomer.
I suggest a new name:
The Little Fiasco.
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - Papa John - 11-09-2021
What is wrong with you people? This is The CardBoard! This is supposed to be the one place where Big Game is big because we're all Stanford fans. It sounds to me like, for some of you, Big Game doesn't feel big because you're butthurt about the team sucking. Others bemoan the fact that the game can't be big because there just aren't many fans interested in seeing Stanford and Cal play. Well, boo frickin' hoo!
My five years at Stanford:
1980 -- Stanford was 6-4, Cal was 2-8. BIG GAME!
1981 -- Stanford was 3-7, Cal was 2-8. BIG GAME!
Let's take a pass on 1982. Still BIG GAME!
1983 -- Stanford was 1-9, Cal was 4-5-1. BIG GAME!
1984 -- Stanford was 4-6, Cal was 2-8. BIG GAME!
Last year, no one attended. BIG GAME!
When I was growing up in the Midwest in the 1970s, none of my friends cared or even knew about Stanford-Cal and the Axe. H*ll, very few of my classmates or teachers had even heard of Stanford, and if they had, some of them thought it was in Connecticut. Screw them all. BIG GAME!
Bottom line. If you're a Stanford fan, you care about Big Game. You just do. If you don't care, have your pulse checked. If your pulse is beating, check to make sure that you bleed red. If you bleed red, then ask yourself why you are spending so much time on The CardBoard putting down one of the storied traditions that, given all of the divisions in this country and world, is here to unite us.
BIG GAME!
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - 76lsjumb - 11-09-2021
(11-09-2021, 02:33 PM)Papa John Wrote: What is wrong with you people? This is The CardBoard! This is supposed to be the one place where Big Game is big because we're all Stanford fans. It sounds to me like, for some of you, Big Game doesn't feel big because you're butthurt about the team sucking. Others bemoan the fact that the game can't be big because there just aren't many fans interested in seeing Stanford and Cal play. Well, boo frickin' hoo!
My five years at Stanford:
1980 -- Stanford was 6-4, Cal was 2-8. BIG GAME!
1981 -- Stanford was 3-7, Cal was 2-8. BIG GAME!
Let's take a pass on 1982. Still BIG GAME!
1983 -- Stanford was 1-9, Cal was 4-5-1. BIG GAME!
1984 -- Stanford was 4-6, Cal was 2-8. BIG GAME!
Last year, no one attended. BIG GAME!
When I was growing up in the Midwest in the 1970s, none of my friends cared or even knew about Stanford-Cal and the Axe. H*ll, very few of my classmates or teachers had even heard of Stanford, and if they had, some of them thought it was in Connecticut. Screw them all. BIG GAME!
Bottom line. If you're a Stanford fan, you care about Big Game. You just do. If you don't care, have your pulse checked. If your pulse is beating, check to make sure that you bleed red. If you bleed red, then ask yourself why you are spending so much time on The CardBoard putting down one of the storied traditions that, given all of the divisions in this country and world, is here to unite us.
BIG GAME!
Absolutely!!
+1000 !
Beat Kal!
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - martyup - 11-10-2021
This is the Cardboard!
![[Image: 61kiPiwjdtL._AC_SL1000_.jpg]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61kiPiwjdtL._AC_SL1000_.jpg)
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - 82lsju - 11-10-2021
![[Image: 255091829_10159257502071943_187410399637...e=61B2625D]](https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/255091829_10159257502071943_187410399637398492_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=825194&_nc_ohc=D8BhkoOTILoAX-QtJoB&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=0bc90723d8b25311596e2f4ac905d934&oe=61B2625D)
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - terry - 11-11-2021
(11-09-2021, 02:33 PM)Papa John Wrote: What is wrong with you people? This is The CardBoard! This is supposed to be the one place where Big Game is big because we're all Stanford fans. It sounds to me like, for some of you, Big Game doesn't feel big because you're butthurt about the team sucking. Others bemoan the fact that the game can't be big because there just aren't many fans interested in seeing Stanford and Cal play. Well, boo frickin' hoo!
My five years at Stanford:
1980 -- Stanford was 6-4, Cal was 2-8. BIG GAME!
1981 -- Stanford was 3-7, Cal was 2-8. BIG GAME!
Let's take a pass on 1982. Still BIG GAME!
1983 -- Stanford was 1-9, Cal was 4-5-1. BIG GAME!
1984 -- Stanford was 4-6, Cal was 2-8. BIG GAME!
Last year, no one attended. BIG GAME!
When I was growing up in the Midwest in the 1970s, none of my friends cared or even knew about Stanford-Cal and the Axe. H*ll, very few of my classmates or teachers had even heard of Stanford, and if they had, some of them thought it was in Connecticut. Screw them all. BIG GAME!
Bottom line. If you're a Stanford fan, you care about Big Game. You just do. If you don't care, have your pulse checked. If your pulse is beating, check to make sure that you bleed red. If you bleed red, then ask yourself why you are spending so much time on The CardBoard putting down one of the storied traditions that, given all of the divisions in this country and world, is here to unite us.
BIG GAME!
Good post! I'm with you 100%!
What makes the Big Game "big" isn't the W/L record of the teams or the championship implications. It's that this is a 130 year old traditional rivalry between two neighboring schools that are rivals in everything, not just football, and not just sports. The essence of a traditional rivalry is that it always matters, regardless of the teams' records. The bragging rights matter. Winning the rivalry trophy matters. The traditions and the history and the memories matter. Those are the things that will always make it the Big Game.
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - Phogge - 11-11-2021
I could care less about Silicon Valley, innovation, students with tunnel vision centered on sitting in front of a screen and being driven by helicopter parents awash in cultural envy and "success," travel teams, piano lessons, joining 15 clubs and learning 10 languages.
I do care about kids getting dirty in nature and not playgrounds, getting the occasional bloody nose, doing ok in life without all the pressure some parents put on them. I also like hard hitting, knock the snot out of your opponent and highly entertaining football. Some of the best Big Games were when neither team was very good. Maybe we'll get another one.
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - Softball Fan - 11-11-2021
This may have been posted and I missed it. 99% vaccination rate and still big outbreak. Seems like part of the problem is most players are not showing symptoms and think Covid is a minor inconvenience.
https://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/article/cal-football-covid-outbreak-44-cases-berkeley-16608097.php
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - CrazedZooChimp - 11-11-2021
While I think the premise of this thread is pretty absurd, it made me curious when the last Big Game was that BOTH teams were sub-.500.
Obviously for most of Shawbaugh we've been over .500, and in 2019 Kal was (I think).
Before that Tedford's Kal teams were consistently good, although in 2002 appears they didn't go to a bowl, but did finish 7-5 (fewer bowls then, I guess).
So looks like 2000, when we finished 5-6, was the last time the teams were this bad (although we were 4-4 in conference). Pretty long streak of one of the two teams being decent!
RE: Big Game at 4pm PT on Sat 20 Nov 2021 - gailtate - 11-11-2021
(11-11-2021, 01:56 PM)CrazedZooChimp Wrote: While I think the premise of this thread is pretty absurd, it made me curious when the last Big Game was that BOTH teams were sub-.500.
Obviously for most of Shawbaugh we've been over .500, and in 2019 Kal was (I think).
Before that Tedford's Kal teams were consistently good, although in 2002 appears they didn't go to a bowl, but did finish 7-5 (fewer bowls then, I guess).
So looks like 2000, when we finished 5-6, was the last time the teams were this bad (although we were 4-4 in conference). Pretty long streak of one of the two teams being decent!
Y2K vs 2021? I say Randy Fasani and Casey Moore kick the xxxx outta whatshisname and whoshewhatsit going away.