Climate Change In College Football Part Three

Climate Change in College Football

Science is settled, climate change is real in college football Part three

Toe will finally meet leather this Saturday when The Midshipman of Navy set their sails across the pond and square off against their old rivals, The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, in Dublin, Ireland. This will be the 96th on the field meeting between the two storied programs with the first game in 1927. That game was played in Baltimore, MD, with The Irish winning 19-6. For more on the history of this game and preview of this Saturday, check out the link below from Irish Breakdown.

https://www.si.com/college/notredame/football/notre-dame-football-navy-game-preview-2023

It is difficult to imagine back in 1927 any of the contributors to the first match played between these schools thinking to themself, “You know, self, one day I bet we take this show on the road internationally.” Although it is neat that college football has evolved to the point that the powers to be think it is an innovative idea to start the season in Europe, several pundits disagree. Tuning into a few national shows leading up to the game, newly found traditionalist of the game are having a tough time rationalizing the players’ weeklong excursion while missing classes, the revenue lost for either team not playing at home, and the player safety issues it causes with fatigue due to the longer travel times involved with this game’s production. How rich?

Both The Fighting Irish and The Midshipman have a history of taking their games on the road. Not counting this game in Ireland, the two teams themselves have played one another at over twelve different cities across the USA including San Diego, CA. This will be the third time the two schools play in Ireland. The first time was 1996 with Notre Dame winning the game 54-27. The second in 2012 saw The Irish crush Navy 50-10. Notre Dame made a national name for itself historically by playing football all over the country during the game's genesis. Their current athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, wants to recapture the magic of those times and thinks the game Saturday is a good place to begin.

“It’s back to the barnstorming days, a hundred years ago taking Notre Dame across the country,” said Aaron Horvath, Notre Dame’s senior associate AD for media, brand, and communications. “Jack has always said that he’ll go to new places to help grow the game and grow the university.”

You mean, grow the revenue?

As you can see in the above quotes, longer distance travel will quickly accelerate into the new reality of college football. Take for example the imminent dissolution of The Pac-12 and mergers or acquisitions of other conferences and teams happening in college football. It is one thing to play the occasional exhibition type game in an effort to expand game awareness, but sending two teams in California, one in Oregon and one in Washington consistently across the country plus back home in all sports for league play seems ludicrous. With UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington joining the Big-Ten, a conference with teams that span from Nebraska to New Jersey, is there anyone with a straight face that can still ask the question about student-athlete safety or well-being?

The fact is that the upper management guiding college football today do not care about the student athlete, the average fan, the local people covering the game in media or the 95% that will never be able to afford sitting in the luxury boxes at stadiums across the country. If you do not believe me, look at what has happened to tailgates at Auburn University alone. What once was one of the most spiritual acts of fandom itself, has been monetized, controlled, and restricted to the point of being unaffordable at best, and no doubt exclusive to the few. Back in the day, the average family would “pop the curb” anywhere on campus, open the trunk of the ole family roadster, unpack the small table, the cold snacks for the family depending on age, break out a bucket of Lee’s Family Chicken, toss the leather ball around and then proceed to watch The Tigers take on The Vols at high noon. Try that now on campus and see what happens. “White Tents” continue to spread like fleas, like condominiums in downtown, all over campus to the tune of at least thousands per year rental if you are lucky, pushing the green space, and the “Regular Joe” out for good. In college football money and “White Tents” talk, and the colleges make the masses walk or ride the bus in from the local mall to the stadium.

In an effort not to completely sound like “get off my lawn guy,” can we point out that colleges across the country really are telling people to get off their lawns? There has always been change in college football, critics will say. When they first started playing in Piedmont Park in 1892, players did not have helmets. Many people in the early days of the game died from severe injuries while playing. Like the current targeting rules now in place in college football, formations like “the flying wedge” have been outlawed. Conferences, teams, and leagues have always come and gone. Sewanee, Georgia Tech, and Tulane were once in the SEC, so what does it matter that Oklahoma and Texas are now coming in? Coaches have always come and gone while rules have always been broken to acquire the best talent. Winners will always be winners in the game of life and in football, while losers will always be losers.

The sad reality is all those comments above are true. The difference is that over the first 100 years of college football, the game changed but at a more deliberate and determined pace. Since 1992, the overall environment of college football has accelerated into something recognizable but completely against the founding principles of amateur sports. The game and everything surrounding it has become professional. From tailgates to electronic tickets, to travel, to players being paid, to coaches being paid more than ever, to luxury boxes, neutral site games, to TV rights, to expanded playoffs, to divisions, to style of play, to ticket cost, to food at the games, to paid parking, paid everything, let us all raise a toast Saturday while watching NBC at 2:30 when Navy plays Notre Dame to the accelerated manmade climate crisis known as today in college football! Welcome to the new age and bring your wallet-you're going to need it.