<p>Consolation, did you know U Chicago has reinstated its football program?</p>
<p>Geeps, I like sports on a local level. I attended religiously every one of my Ds’ HS home and away field hockey and lacrosse games (that’s 8 years of FH and 7 of lacrosse). Oh, and 5 years of summer travel for a club team. I do watch games on the weekends sometimes. I just don’t care that much about the outcome, and find the level of pro sports fans in Pittsburgh to be extremely obnoxious (especially football), including the media where sports is often the top news story. The Pirates fans and Penguins fans are much less obnoxious. But it is a real turn off toward football and my kids picked up on that.</p>
<p>I’m still a HS senior, but all the schools I’m applying to have D-1 programs. I didn’t necessarily plan it that way, but I was a bit turned off by schools without a large sports scene. I can’t imagine going to a school where sports aren’t big, but that’s probably a result of my HS being a big sports school and nearly all of my family and friends being into sports. </p>
<p>As to why less students are going to games, they probably just don’t like football. Which is fine by me.</p>
<p>I’m a female, huge football fan. I had to drag my future husband to games, and I definitely am smarter then he and had the higher GPA so I’m not falling in with the " when a school attracts better students, their football attendance drops" crowd.</p>
<p>My nieces specifically picked schools with excellent football teams. One is now in medical school, the other has a 4.0 studying Business, both at different state flagships.</p>
<p>I really think football is only boring and slow to those that never got into it. And that’s ok, you don’t have to like it. But I remember teaching a good friend of mine all about football because she liked the social scene, but not the game. When she understood what was going on better, she really liked it and has had season tickets to our Alma matter ever since!</p>
<p>It’s about 3 hours out of a week, more if you enjoy tailgating with family and friends, fellow students if in school. A great tension breaker! </p>
<p>Many stadiums draw 60,000 plus fans a week, many students. Football has replaced baseball in American sports if you look at Pro level attendance. And I like baseball. Big football programs also bring a lot of money into their schools.</p>
<p>That’d be me. Grew up in NYC, my HS had no team, my college had no team and I have still, in my forties, never been to a football game. But my kids’ HS does have a good team and most students go to the home games at least. </p>
<p>Ohio State is a half hour from here and a more rabid group of fans I am not sure I have ever seen. OSU games influence everything from traffic patterns to restaurant/bar business to the best and worst times to hit the grocery stores We have no pro football in Columbus and since OSU is so big, it seems everyone either went there or has a family member or ten who did, so everyone feels very connected to it.</p>
<p>^^^My Ds both went to an all girls private prep school, so no football team. DH and I went to big public high schools with football, cheerleaders, drill, team, and marching bands (I was in band, DH played football). Though we wouldn’t do anything differently, we did occasionally lament the fact that they missed out on the Friday night lights. It was fun, really fun. Not taken too seriously, but still a great part of the teen years. Marching band was a great way to spend my free time. Made lots of friends, got some exercise, played some fun music. Cheered hard for the team as though it was really all that important, and pretended to be devastated when they lost :D.</p>
<p>My Ds really don’t know that they missed out, but I think in a small way, they did.</p>
<p>D and her friends attend most of the games, though if she’s especially busy she may arrive late or leave early. When the games start, the stadium doesn’t look full (we watch on TV), but the stands are always packed by the 2nd quarter. I like college ball because there’s usually more running than in the NFL. I never cared for the pro games that seem to be one huge pile-up of players after another, and only inches of progress made each play. My interest in college football has increased quite a bit now that D’s team is so successful.</p>
<p>Do you wonder at all: if the TV $ is flowing fast; why the ticket prices are rising?</p>
<p>I agree all the tv $ should give the students free admissions first.
How come the parents of the band are not given a section like the parents of the football team? I sat next to a mother of a ref who had a University provided ticket.</p>
<p>I think beyond the economy hitting students in the wallet, UCDalum brought up a good point on how TV now governs the start time. Anyone feel Attending games with all the commercial breaks now really has impacted the mo of a live game?</p>
<p>How do you feel the pageantry has been changed with the piped in music or the tv not showing pregame/halftime shows? Why can’t the bands play these tunes?
The bands at Stanford and Wisconsin are particularly known for their anticsnot always in a good waywhile the Ohio University, Jackson State, Southern are among the best in the land. Ever seen the Worlds Largest Drum at Purdue? as was mentioned unthread Oklahoma and the Sooner Schooner?</p>
<p>^ I really wish they would broadcast the halftime shows! The talking heads can say all their nonsense later during the dull moments in the 3rd quarter rather than pre-empt the students who worked hard to put together a show for the fans.</p>
<p>W and I both went to U of Michigan. I never missed a football game. She went to one game in 4+ years (grad school). We didn’t know each other at the time.</p>
<p>Major differences between the 1970s and now, that I have observed:</p>
<ol>
<li> Teams could only be on tv 3 times in 2 years, not including bowl games. If you wanted to see the game, you had to go to it.</li>
<li> We could bring beer into the stadium and leave at halftime to get more. It was a long-standing Michigan tradition to pass up the wine bottles at the end of the game so that the green glass could be recycled.</li>
<li> We sat down during the game.</li>
<li> The entire football experience wasn’t COMPLETELY about money.</li>
<li> This was pre-100,000+ attendees at every game. They had Band Day once a season with 15,000 high school band members in attendance and filled the field at halftime.</li>
</ol>
<p>I enjoy a good football game and would watch the games (at least a lot of the time) on TV as the kids were growing up. Neither kid is a big sports fan. My S played football all 4 years for a very good HS team. He also wrestled for 4 years. My D played volleyball, basketball, and softball in HS. They like to participate a lot more than watch.</p>
<p>S has ended up playing rugby in college. A nice, sociable sport. I don’t believe he has attended a single football game.</p>
<p>Football is thriving here in the south. People camp out for tickets- tents and all. Everyone says its about the experience, but i haven’t been to a game yet. Giant crowds in the hot southern sun doesn’t scream exciting to me. Plus I have skin equivalent to an albino. I’d rather not go to a game than suffer an excruciating sunburn.</p>
<p>The party is now better outside the stadium. Increased security makes it much tougher for college football games to be the open cocktail parties that they were back in the day.</p>
<p>Also, the traditional college game day (think marching bands and fight songs) is a pretty retro/traditional/conservative/uncool experience for today’s hipster college students with lots of other time demands and entertainment options.</p>
<p>There’s also about 100X more sports on TV today than in the past.</p>
<p>The Ivy I went to has a great band but mediocre football team. The one year they won the Ivies, kids did show up a lot more. But there was a certain “elitism” especially for international students, to not stoop to attend football games.</p>
<p>Are you serious, you think it’s elitism for international students not to watch football and not because, where they come from, football is played with a round ball ?</p>
<p>I never assumed you HAD to attend college football games to have a compete college experience, but that seems to be the implication of the original post. Some colleges don’t have organized sports teams and even the ones that do, there are now so many other weekend student activities, I wouldn’t assume that what one did 20-30 yrs ago in college is what is right for everyone now.</p>
<p>For me, far and away the most important reason why I only got tickets this season is because of the ridiculous prices. I don’t want to spend several hundred dollars for games. </p>
<p>Secondarily, I am a big baby and hate being cold. I had tickets last year and I was just miserable at a lot of the games because of how cold it was.</p>
so I’m not falling in with the " when a school attracts better students, their football attendance drops" crowd.</p>
We have no pro football in Columbus and since OSU is so big, it seems everyone either went there or has a family member or ten who did, so everyone feels very connected to it.</p>