Right. And they don't act that way towards leagues/schools that objectively have fewer people giving a shit about them.
I understand why posters on this board hate the Big 12. I don't understand why people in the CFB media apparatus do. It's always unpredictable, it's always entertaining, and generally shows off a lot of what people like about college football. Just without blue bloods. Which, while certainly a reason to pay it less, doesn't feel like a good reason to be so blatantly hostile and dismissive.
Desmond is a massive part of our problem. Or he's at least a symptom of it. A lot of people have a negative opinion of the Big 12 BECAUSE of shit like this. Notice how when people talk about TCU in 2022, they never say a fucking word about their convincing win over the Big 10 champion. It's just all "Georgia beat them lifeless".
I don't think anyone expects to be put on the SEC's level, just knock this kind of shit off.
Exactly. If this train wreck doesn’t entertain you, you don’t understand college football.
Give me TNT over low tier ESPN every day. Beats the hell out of the ACC on the CW
Got ya. I read it as a question about what shoulder pads protected, which made me wonder if shoulder pads had changed in recent years (in terms of what they cover)and I had missed it altogether
I came here to post this exact second paragraph.
This is the only solution. Every conference has bad officials, and specifically being employed by a conference creates this.
It’s utterly endemic in the entire sport. There need to be full time well compensated officials that work for some central body - not a conference. That way there’s no “school X needs to be kept unbeaten” bullshit.
That said, he’s Harlan is being a bitch. Every conference has trash officials. The P12 was just as bad as the Big 12.
Yes. Of course.
We just want to be entertained and the Campbell era has delivered that in spades. We don’t have high expectations at all in football and likely never will.
A couple reasons Campbell hasn’t left:
1) He would suck at a blue blood and he knows it. If he takes the bigger job, he’s on his ass in 3 years. He has a lifetime contract in Ames, and he’s still making generational wealth. His strength is motivating and developing raw but talented guys. He can’t relate to the higher end athletes, and he’s kind of a shitty in-game coach.
2) He has complete control of this program. The AD lets him do as he pleases. He’s stripped so much traditional coach expectations from this job.
3) He’s a private guy who hates glad handing BMDs and being in a microscope. He’s a huge celebrity in Ames, but people leave him alone. He could take his wife out for supper tonight and no one is going to bother him about that abortion of a football game.
4) His wife and kids love it here. Allegedly his wife and a childhood friend turned lawyer serve as his agent(s).
5) Small expectations. He’s a god for winning 8 games/year. He’s not getting fired for going 4-8.
TLDR; he makes a shit load of money to do a job he loves, in a place his family loves, where there is very little pressure on him.