[81alum]

My daughter's school used to do fundraising by sending kids to help in the concession stands.  Certain concessions benefitted certain schools.  But when signing up volunteers, the families needed to know in advance when their kids would be needed, and the changeability of the TV schedule ruins that.  They've given up.  This may seem minor, but it is just another example of the whole experience getting skewed for TV.  Add to that the trashing of reunion scheduling, manipulating the traditional date for Big Game, etc. and we really begin to see that this is all about TV entertainment and any other benefits of the sport are incidental.  Stanford has done well resisting the corrupting influences of this game when it comes to protecting academic standards--but not so well in protecting the traditional fan experience.  Not sure it can.

[81alum]

My daughter's school used to do fundraising by sending kids to help in the concession stands.  Certain concessions benefitted certain schools.  But when signing up volunteers, the families needed to know in advance when their kids would be needed, and the changeability of the TV schedule ruins that.  They've given up.  This may seem minor, but it is just another example of the whole experience getting skewed for TV.  Add to that the trashing of reunion scheduling, manipulating the traditional date for Big Game, etc. and we really begin to see that this is all about TV entertainment and any other benefits of the sport are incidental.  Stanford has done well resisting the corrupting influences of this game when it comes to protecting academic standards--but not so well in protecting the traditional fan experience.  Not sure it can.