Hypothetical: Would you boycott/give up p4 football?

[Jaydumo20]

I had to reclarify my post. This is not about uconn football joining a big conference

I don't mean getting rid of uconn football or not watching uconn.

This is about stopping the big ten and sec takeover by not watching any of their games for years, for example.

Or boycotting your nfl team because the league has become oversaturated, over-kelce'd, over-swifted, over-fantasy'd, over-commercialized?

Would you boycott the bcs playoffs for example to send a message to the big ten and sec? If 8 million non big ten-sec fans stopped watching those games, their revenue would take a hit.

Would you boycott the nfl, for example, if they went to 20 game season? Or football 6 out of the 7 days/week in an effort to crush baseball or cbb in ratings?

In simple terms: would you stop watching the BIG TIME non-uconn games to show the men in charge that they need MOST fans if they want to take over the world. Like "I'm Not gonna watch Michigan v. Ohio State because F Ohio state!"

 

[Huskybass]

I care zero about UConn football. Absolute zero. Every bit of my attention and energy is on UConn Basketball.

 

[NJHusky]

I used to be a huge football fan but to be completely honest, I can't separate the sport from the greed, oversaturation and fantasy-focused rules changes in the pros, and the elbowing-out big ten, SEC nonsense going on as we speak. 20 game seasons, the kelces, taylor swift, the Mannings, no more college sports outside of football... it's all too much. I still love baseball, and college bball. But it gets zero attention anymore. I still watch football but I don't love it like I used to and I kind of resent it's bulldozing dominance in every corner of life.

My question is:
would you give up football if enough people decided to boycott it? (note* this is not an impossibility. Remember the kaepernick boycott? It wasn't enough to bring down the league but it was substantial)

Problem is with your premise. Can u generate enough revenue without football in a legit conference?

 

[UC1995]

If football goes away we will never get in another conference and will be way behind in the long-term revenue game. This affects basketball and all other sports. It will solidify how others see us, "small time".

The only way we get into the ACC or another conference is through football.

 

[TheShot1990]

Well said Jaydumo20. I hate the fact that every college is literally forced to join a P3 conf. and if you don't, all of your other sports, including our beloved UConn Basketball will be left in the dust. Football is becoming the bullies and they know there is no championship caliber team in the entire northeast so they are shoving everyone around. "Maybe, maybe we let you guys in for basketball, but even then, you will have to wait until 2099 to join for football." Beat it. Getting fed up as well.

 

[Scoe]

Good question and I have had these exact thought too. Football has always been my favorite sport, and I am equally a UConn football and basketball fan, I have gotten into UConn hockey and baseball of late. I’m not a fan of college football but a UConn football fan and believe me it hasn’t been easy but just don’t have it in me to not watch or not go to games anymore.

I have never understood why there is this divide amongst UConn football and basketball fans. The coaches and athletes all support each other in the other sports, fans should do the same if you watch only UConn basketball that’s fine btw.

 

[UCTitleTown]

Well, I gave up the NBA and MLB, sports I loved and played since a child and I never played competing football, so anything's possible.

 

[Jaydumo20]

Problem is with your premise. Can u generate enough revenue without football in a legit conference?

I'm not referring to giving up uconn football. More like this, for example: would you join millions of non-sec, non-big ten fans in boycotting the bcs playoffs?. If only alabama and buckeye fans watched their games it's not enough revenue to squash other schools on an nil rout.

 

[Jaydumo20]

Well said Jaydumo20. I hate the fact that every college is literally forced to join a P3 conf. and if you don't, all of your other sports, including our beloved UConn Basketball will be left in the dust. Football is becoming the bullies and they know there is no championship caliber team in the entire northeast so they are shoving everyone around. "Maybe, maybe we let you guys in for basketball, but even then, you will have to wait until 2099 to join for football." Beat it. Getting fed up as well.

Yes. Thank you for saying what I didn't.

 

[NJHusky]

I'm not referring to giving up uconn football. More like this, for example: would you join millions of non-sec, non-big ten fans in boycotting the bcs playoffs?. If only alabama and buckeye fans watched their games it's not enough revenue to squash other schools on an nil rout.

Sorry, I thought u meant UConn fb. Hell I gave that up when all this crap started. I prob watch less than 10 hours of college fb all season combined

 

[phillionaire]

My interest in football (college and pros) gets lower and lower every season. Between the very obvious harm to the player's brains and the increasing corporatization of everything around it, especially with respect to gambling, I'm finding it easier to pay less attention.

 

[RuffRuff]

Football has becomes a gluttonous buzzkill for me as well. It’s indulged itself in gambling and fantasy, with every inch focused on economics. Realignment has scorned traditions and rivalriesfor $$ and cross country flights.

Beyond that, the quality of the game has just diluted to a point that I don’t even find it entertaining. Once upon a time it was a field full of passionate gladiators, now it’s just a bunch of Gen Z athletes playing flag football.
12 minutes of action time, that it what you get with football. It ends up being 10x more commercials than actual action. So much of what entertains and engages the college fanbase is the pageantry, the tailgating. No thanks.

All you need to do is go to one SEC or B10 game to understand how culturally imbedded the sport is in middle America, the regional bus that drives the economics. These are states who plan their years and vacations around following their teams around. They are just different out there, and what drives the revenue.

I could give two sh@ts about UConn football beyond its financial impact on UConn hoops. The reality is even if we get into a P3, there is zero potential to ever win anything of substance on a sustainable basis. We are just not in an area that offers the local recruiting.

I barely watch the NFL beyond the 3:30 marker of the 1pm games. But you have to give it credit, the NFL has evolved and marketed so much better than other major sports.

I attended a Mets game last week and I couldn’t believe how fast it went by with the new pitch clock. The issue is that it’s two decades late. Now baseball has to figure out how to make its 162 games meaningful. My idea - quarter season winners that get bids into a playoff. Rather than an arduous marathon to meaningful games, you have 4 mini seasons of 40 games. Much of the overall scheme would need to be worked out, but this makes a June game far more interesting without impacting season length/records.

 

[Scoe]

Giving in would be what the powers that be want, it wouldn’t be the Jim Calhoun way, fight the system and we will win in the end, I really believe that. This notion of having to join in a power 2 or 4 or the world is going to end is crap, and I’m not saying it won’t suck to get left out. We will have to get creative the state has enough money. There are more that have the same feelings as the OP then the Greg Sankys of the world so let’s find a way.

Villanova and UConn’s recent national championships in dominating fashion have definetly helped a great deal in regards to the general sports fan who only watches college basketball in the NCAA tournament.

 

[ucp990411]

I used to be a huge football fan but to be completely honest, I can't separate the sport from the greed, oversaturation and fantasy-focused rules changes in the pros, and the elbowing-out big ten, SEC nonsense going on as we speak. 20 game seasons, the kelces, taylor swift, the Mannings, no more college sports outside of football... it's all too much. I still love baseball, and college bball. But it gets zero attention anymore. I still watch football but I don't love it like I used to and I kind of resent it's bulldozing dominance in every corner of life.

My question is:
would you give up football if enough people decided to boycott it? (note* this is not an impossibility. Remember the kaepernick boycott? It wasn't enough to bring down the league but it was substantial)

Are you talking about the NFL or UConn football?

 

[HuskyHawk]

I already don't care about the CFB playoff. I do appreciate college football as it once was. I think the FCS game is probably better, and closer to "college sports". I'd prefer if the top 40 programs broke off, and then UConn could compete with the next level of programs and probably have a reasonable chance.

 

[NJHoops]

Seeing the suffering of too many former, and current, players has kind of turned me off the game. Anything they can do to increase player safety should be applauded, not derided. Of course the choice is theirs, but these guys don’t owe anyone their long-term physical health and mental well-being.

 

[ucp990411]

I have not watched an NFL game including super bowls in at least 25 years. I used to sit on my couch from 1pm to 7pm every Sunday but stopped watching because of the violence and hype. All the gambling crap is pushing away from other sports. I still love playing baseball or softball even at the tender age of 69. I like watching and coaching basketball more than baseball. And I love my Huskies. Screw NFL football and college football other than UConn.

 

[Kenny11]

I like being a casual football fan. I have a team (the giants) who suck, I watch sometimes, I can enjoy watching games on tv on Saturday or Sunday and might do some tailgating once every 2 years but I’m just not invested in it. To me, basketball is just a better sport.

 

[NJHusky]

Seeing the suffering of too many former, and current, players has kind of turned me off the game. Anything they can do to increase player safety should be applauded, not derided. Of course the choice is theirs, but these guys don’t owe anyone their long-term physical health and mental well-being.

Good points, but for many players sports are their opportunity for life changing money, and at 20yrs old, very few think of the long term consequences

 

[Jaydumo20]

I have not watched an NFL game including super bowls in at least 25 years. I used to sit on my couch from 1pm to 7pm every Sunday but stopped watching because of the violence and hype. All the gambling crap is pushing away from other sports. I still love playing baseball or softball even at the tender age of 69. I like watching and coaching basketball more than baseball. And I love my Huskies. Screw NFL football and college football other than UConn.

Well said all around. I agree. I love uconn football. But as we know, uconn football doesn't factor into the "football" problem. We don't make waves.

 

[CL82]

Good points, but for many players sports are their opportunity for life changing money, and at 20yrs old, very few think of the long term consequences

It's also genuinely a fun sport to participate in and teaches an abundance of life less such as sacrifice of self for the good of the whole, long-term goals, benefits of hard work, etc. It also generates a tremendous amount of scholarships that might not otherwise be available for a lot of players. That can be life-changing.

I absolutely have concerns about players' well-being and absolutely agree that anything that can be done to safeguard them, or minimize risk of injury, particularly long-term debilitating injury should be pursued aggressively. Of course that isn't a problem that is unique to football. There is a Connecticut women's basketball player who has been struggling to make it out of concussion protocol for a couple of years now.

 

[KryHavok]

...would you join millions of non-sec, non-big ten fans in boycotting the bcs playoffs?. If only alabama and buckeye fans watched their games it's not enough revenue to squash other schools on an nil rout.

If the playoffs are only BIG and SEC teams, then yes, I wouldn't watch the games. Having now lost the possibility of the Big 12 play against the PAC for a natty is a mar on the sport (hate the ACC with unbridled passion, but if they are involved I can at least root against them). I have the NFL if I just wanted to watch 1 of 10 teams with a real shot to win it all.

 

[Jaydumo20]

It's also genuinely a fun sport to participate in and teaches an abundance of life less such as sacrifice of self for the good of the whole, long-term goals, benefits of hard work, etc. It also generates a tremendous amount of scholarships that might not otherwise be available for a lot of players. That can be life-changing.

I absolutely have concerns about players' well-being and absolutely agree that anything that can be done to safeguard them, or minimize risk of injury, particularly long-term debilitating injury should be pursued aggressively. Of course that isn't a problem that is unique to football. There is a Connecticut women's basketball player who has been struggling to make it out of concussion protocol for a couple of years now.

C.D.'s concussion issue is probably the worst I've seen in non-football sports. I really hope she can stay on the floor.

 

[SubbaBub]

Pinning your AD's future on the C7 and friends worked so well last time. If the power conferences have their way, BB will follow FB's model and breakaway from the NCAA. None of the current BE teams will make that cut.

Imagine this is 1979 and the BE offers you a full FB membership. Do you take it knowing you are 20 years from the BE imploding? Well, in the next 20 years the BE basketball conference could be left out in the cold. FB is necessary to join the new Big3, TBT style for profit basketball leagues. Do you still want to boycott FB?

 

[CTBasketball]

No.

I’ve been a season ticket holder for a long time now and love going to the games. I realize there are hurdles with being an independent, but it’s better than not playing football at all. When the dust settles we’ll be alright. But if we abandon football not only will we be putting all our eggs in one basket, but I will be sad every fall.