01-01-2022, 09:59 AM
I am looking forward to the championship game. There is no question there will be some great athletes out there and some wonderful plays made. However, I don't actually "watch" sports on TV these days, especially football. I turn it on and do something else at the same time. Due to so many commercial breaks, each containing many commercials, there is no game continuity. The content per unit time just isn't there. I can do productive work at the same time without difficulty.
Unfortunately the same is true of attending Stanford football games in person. The action is too "low density". Football always was 30 seconds of actual play followed by 30 seconds of discussion/analysis/planning. The game moved along (and if Oregon was involved it went even faster). That was about the right mix on a nice afternoon where being in the sun with your friends was a good experience. Currently, it may be dark and cold instead, and you probably won't know that until two weeks in advance. Every change of possession we must endure a two minute "break" for commercials, plus a few more breaks thrown in by the networks. This doesn't include any "further reviews" or PAC-12 officials conferring on how to make a call that nobody will understand. So indeed, "watching" kind of has to be a qualified activity. This is also a primary reason why people complain about bad wifi at the stadium. A good part of the time they aren't watching the game that isn't actually being played.
Unfortunately the same is true of attending Stanford football games in person. The action is too "low density". Football always was 30 seconds of actual play followed by 30 seconds of discussion/analysis/planning. The game moved along (and if Oregon was involved it went even faster). That was about the right mix on a nice afternoon where being in the sun with your friends was a good experience. Currently, it may be dark and cold instead, and you probably won't know that until two weeks in advance. Every change of possession we must endure a two minute "break" for commercials, plus a few more breaks thrown in by the networks. This doesn't include any "further reviews" or PAC-12 officials conferring on how to make a call that nobody will understand. So indeed, "watching" kind of has to be a qualified activity. This is also a primary reason why people complain about bad wifi at the stadium. A good part of the time they aren't watching the game that isn't actually being played.