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<p>Because that’s all that life offers. Football, or reading. </p>
<p>But actually, I’d rather spend the weekend reading. The audience and traditions are somewhat interesting, but the game itself doesn’t grab me. I’m glad I no longer have to pretend to care. I’m glad the cultural tyranny of football is on the wane. It’s no more important than any other sport.</p>
<p>^ In our house, H watches football on weekends and I read. We are both happy.</p>
<p>I enjoy seeing certain traditions, like the Sooner Schooner, on TV. I like to see the interesting mascots, like Texas A & M’s dog Reveille, and watch the marching bands. The ancillary activities around football are interesting to me.</p>
<p>We are not a sports family. That said, if a local team is doing well H may watch an occasional game. If it is something that actually moves along then I may join for a few minutes…in solidarity. The thing with football is it is just soooooooo dang sloooooowwwww. As someone who admittedly does not understand the game beyond the John Madden level of discourse…(uuuhhhh they gotta get the ball and then they gotta run with the ball…that’s what they gotta do)…it is mind boggling how something that has 60 minutes on the clock takes a minimum of 2. 5 hours to play out…unless it’s a BIG game…then it takes 3.5 or more. I mean really, get out there, do what your supposed to do and get on with it. </p>
<p>Although, given all the head injuries and concussions maybe they need to re-study the rule book after each 3-10 second play because the memory is shot. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Football is a lot of standing around while anxiously awaiting the next 3 seconds of action. At least with soccer they keep moving on the field and one knows that even with double death overtime one can be assured of being released within about 90 minutes.</p>
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<p>Mini, have you been to a Williams football game recently? I have and I doubt there were 200 people in the stands and that was parents weekend. In recent years at least, basketball draws a crowd.</p>
<p>I went to a PAC - whatever number it was then school. Went to a few dozen games. It was fun but free and no hassle to just walk in. If it had required prior effort I probably would have gone to one or two in all the years.<br>
Of course it was usually sleeting and we were always losing…</p>
<p>I went to Wellesley and the University of Chicago. I am happy to say that neither one had a football team. </p>
<p>My HS was a big football school, in the NY suburban universe. I was very happy to find that few schools in Maine had football teams. Soccer tends to be the big thing here. Unfortunately, football has been brought in by boosters here. With it comes cheerleaders and all of the other negative HS stuff. I’d rather see girls competing in their OWN sports.</p>
<p>wow…so most CCers are non football fans, or non sports fans in general. I really do like it here, it’s like bizarro world to me.</p>
<p>So many think football doesn’t have enough action?..you folks must love baseball…lol
…and don’t get me started on soccer…talk about booorrrinnnggg.</p>
<p>I’m thinking not all schools are as big on football as Alabama or UofO, so maybe they’d rather not watch their school’s team get crushed? Or as others have already stated, there just isn’t interest or drive for most students. I for one prefer NFL, so maybe that’s what some other kids would rather watch. Football is certainly not “declining”, especially with the media coverage that it gets.</p>
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I don’t think that this really comes as a shock, considering that most of the CC forumers are students/parents with academically driven goals. It would make sense that they would not have the time for it.</p>
<p>“Mini, have you been to a Williams football game recently? I have and I doubt there were 200 people in the stands and that was parents weekend. In recent years at least, basketball draws a crowd.”</p>
<p>I haven’t been to a Williams football game in 46 years. A twinkling of an eye in historical terms. 
(I hadn’t been to one for 46 years before that.)</p>
<p>When I was there, ice hockey was big. I have funny stories!</p>
<p>Glad to see they lost to Colby!</p>
<p>You’d think an institution of higher learning would have higher priorities than worrying that not enough of its students are attending football games. Do they sweat over the attendance at field hockey too?</p>
<p>Soccer is not boring & neither is baseball, of course that may depend one what you know about the game.</p>
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Some people manage to do both. My neighbor’s son managed to get a PhD, be a football fan, and date and get married all while pursuing his degree. </p>
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Tell that to UMich that started a new policy this year for student tickets trying to make sure the students fill in their section by game time. </p>
<p>Maybe UMich is just a different school than most, but you can certainly care both about academics and sports. They are not mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>Does anybody here really think that if Umich were to suddenly lose their football team, the interest in attending would be the same? I’m sure there would still be many, many who attend just for the academics, but not all. Not to mention the revenue that would be lost.</p>
<p>Even at the University of Oklahoma, one of the most football obsessed schools in the nation (Boomer Sooner!), there was an editorial in the school newspaper imploring students to come to the game against Tulsa.</p>
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<p>many people believe baseball to be boring, especially the younger generation.(I guess they are used to instant gratification) I do think you need a better understanding of the game too fully appreciate it. Soccer to me is boring(and I know the game very well)…I prefer hand eye coordination in my sports.</p>
<p>People here have criticized football because of a lack of flow. Well, it’s a sport based on a series of plays and you never know what will happen on any given play.</p>
<p>Back in the day most our home games were Saturday nights. On a non-football home game there wasn’t much to do other than bowling or parties. Football added another option to the mix. It tended to be very social, and a ton of fun. It helped that back then football was in a division where we rarely lost, and often won by a landslide.</p>
<p>Fast forward to today and tv is available everywhere including on most laptops. With the advent of hdtv you can really see the ball much better than you can from the stands. Add to that the push for ECs in high school has rolled over to college, and both my kids are heavily into those type of activities. Students seem to be busier now. And if that former night game was moved into afternoon study hours, well, forget it.</p>
<p>I find both soccer and baseball interesting to watch. An added advantage of both is that they are played at a high level by normally-sized humans.</p>
<p>I find basketball boring. They all run to one end and score. They all run back to the other end and score. Yawn. The game is too easy for the freakishly tall people who play it. Maybe they should put the basket up 3 or 4 ft.</p>
<p>BTW, I believe that the NFL has some kind of program to push football for young kids. Something that I consider to be deeply irresponsible, in light of current medical knowledge.</p>
<p>Whether or not a sport is “boring” or not is subjective.</p>
<p>Personally, I love watching football and “football” 
The first because of living in a city with a big football culture and the second because the kids played soccer from 4 or 5 years old through high school and I began to appreciate the skill of the pros after watching the young ones struggle with it. </p>
<p>I find going to a basketball game or baseball game a form of torture, even though we have professional teams in the area. And hockey is hardly on a higher ground than football as regards thug behavior.</p>
<p>Basketball, hockey and soccer are all the same to me. The teams take turns taking the ball or puck down to their end and either scoring, as in basketball, or not as in soccer and hockey. Only the uniforms and fields are different.</p>
<p>I like College football and professional baseball. In that order.</p>
<p>But it certainly is subjective.</p>
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<p>I personally like it when young men still have a neck ;)</p>