Boola Boola brought back some memories I actually remembered. One day some of my brother's friends came over to our house when I was in High School. The guys were Northwestern fans, decked out in purple and riding in a convertible on a beautiful autumn day. They asked him if he wanted to go to the homecoming game with them. But, he had to agree to wear a long racoon coat. They were celebrating NW's history in retro-wear. My brother wanted nothing to do with the long hairy coat. "I'll go!" I shouted, Yeah, okay, I guess a girl can wear the coat. So they put me in this huge weighty racoon coat and I hopped in the back seat, and off we went 33 windy miles with the top down South along Lake Michigan. NW football there started in 1882. The Team was known as the Big Ten in Chicago. The fur coats were popular with the college students in the 1920s & 1930s, It was known as the Fur Pimp Coat Phase. If a man could afford one, he had one. Boola Boola was a common song heard back then, but it was officially adopted by Yale in 1910 when it was first recorded. NW's song was "Doin' the Racoon". Ara Parseghian was the coach from 1956-1963 at this particular time,...the 20th Head Coach of NW and the youngest at age 32 in 1955. He lowered the intensity of practice as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically" something he learned from Paul Brown. The young Otto Graham tried out at NW during a special HS football game held there one year. The Mascot, named "Wildcat" was a name coined by a Chicago Tribune reporter in 1924 when he wrote "the players appeared as a wall of purple wildcats" describing one of their games. (Of course, the reporter's name was not given to receive the credit...)
Here's the Song "Doin' the Racoon":
College men, knowledge men,
Do a dance called raccoon;
It’s the craze, nowadays,
And it will get you soon.
Buy a coat and try it,
I’ll bet you’ll be a riot,
It’s a wow, learn to do it right now!
Oh, they wear ’em down at Princeton,
And they share ’em up at Yale,
They eat them at Harvard,
But they sleep in them in jail!
From every college campus comes the cheer: oy-yoy!
The days of Chip Hilton working his way through State U with a part-time job while being an All-American in three sports is over, I guess??? :-) RIP, Clair Bee.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and be the one guy on TML today who's gutsy enough to proclaim this crazy conference shuffle/money grab is bad. It's one more example of the deterioration of universities as primarily centers of higher learning. The absurdity of their movement into operators of minor league sports teams is obvious. That's not their mission. Universities in the US are already a big mess. There's the failure of colleges to contain their insane spiraling costs of an education; there's the suppression of free speech and pushing of specific agendas nationwide. Now we're seeing the addition and expansion into this insane money-chase sports world and the coming corruption/damage, some already happening as uber-rich alumni obsessed with creating winning minor league football at good ol' State U bend rules. IF you think the NCAA had their hands full before, you aint seen nothing yet. This willingness to bend the rules is just starting, and when it gathers speed, it's gonna be a freight train. The product will soon be so tainted, it'll be unrecognizable to the crazed lovers of the old system. By putting the cart in front of the horse, colleges have lost their way. Everything has changed, mostly for the worse. Mark my words. When colleges become minor league franchises and are unable to provide affordable higher education to all but the rich, the foundation of the system has become firmly mired deep in the mud. It may not be next week, but sooner or later this thing will collapse. The days of the attraction of rooting for our favorite college teams, knowing the kids are not jaded yet by the distractions, responsibilites, and booty of pro sports, are over.
I feel bad for the players in non-revenue sports having to deal with insane road trips unless the conferences come up with regional divisions for them somehow. But I can’t object to anything that helps put $ in the pockets of the players whose sports actually generate the revenue.
I'm a casual OSU fan, so I like the idea of a regular season game against the likes of USC. But unless the tournament expands to 16 teams, I have to think die-hard fans of the team will be less welcoming of the notion. It's hard enough to get into the Tourney now. Sweating games in LA, Seattle or Eugene hardly sounds like fun to fans already dealing with Ann Arbor, State College, East Lansing or Madison.
Another downside, IMO, is that this will mean fewer good games being played at 3:30. Prime time games are just not as much fun for me to watch. Even at my age, I try to have better things to do on a Saturday night than watch football. I love sitting on the deck with a steak, a beer and an after-dinner cigar while watching USC / Notre Dame at South Bend. Or OSU / Penn State. That doesn't happen as much as it did. And will happen even less now.
I fully support the idea of 6 Majors. Pretty much as your proposed schedule suggests.
I love college football, I love the pageantry, the traditions, rich refracted autumn sunlight bouncing off of campus buildings--the Keith Jackson-ness of all of it. I also do not have a college team to call my own. As a kid I liked Holtz's ND teams, then they kinda fell off...then I did NOT go to UC, OSU or anywhere else that had a football team and the allegiance-building phase of my life passed me by. This allows me to fully (albeit vicariously) enjoy whatever meaningful matchups each weekend has to offer. I really don't see how die-hard say, OSU fans can get really jazzed up in anticipation of that mammoth upcoming tilt against Youngstown St. (OSU -47), and that's where I win. Because I'll be jazzed up about whatever relevant games are going on that week. For this reason I am all about the re-alignment. I want good games and tight point spreads. The pageantry and tradition of students doing kegstands on the quad at 7am will persist no matter what.
I'm good with the 4 majors. But I am a weird one who will watch any golf and don't really care about how big the tourney is. Miguel-Angel Jimenez in Italy, Tiger at Augusta, Schauffele at Pebble Beach, Eddie coming in on 9 at our Neumann Monday night league, some guy trying to make a putt while I'm driving down the road. I just love watching golf because I play golf and automatically place myself in their situation. It's one of the few sports whose spectation value is so clearly driven by the participation of the spectators.
"Or, maybe you’d rather see the Bearcats host ECU. In the name of tradition."
That line flat-out made me laugh out loud at work, for a good half-minute. That's about the only way ECU and tradition can be in the same sentence.
As far as the college football landscape goes, to quote the infamous Tracy Jones, "it is what it is." I think, in the back of our minds, we all knew this day would come where mega-conferences would emerge, and your Miami of Ohios, Western Kentuckys, et. al., would be passed by like hitchhikers on the highway.
As a UC fan and alum, I appreciate that they were able to finally pick the lock on the door and get into the main power structure, but, it wouldn't have made my life any worse if they ended up on the side of the road like a Miami (Ohio), either. It wouldn't have taken away my memories, sentiment or friends from my time at UC, and I've never been one to attach my self-worth to where I went to college, what conference they're a part of, or how many championships they've won. Maybe that's the lifelong Cincinnati fan in me, where I've seen some sparse magical moments of winning hidden in the much larger haystack of losing (sometimes in the most ignominious manner) our teams have endured over the last four decades.
But hey, if it somehow betters UC and its (cough) secondary mission of education by being in the Big 12 -- and ditto for the other schools joining these mega-conferences -- I'm all for it. Not going to hold my breath by any means, but you never know!
This is quite a different take from the old "Is a $40K-per-year education worth nothing?" lament The Morning Man used to espouse on the quasi-am front. No, it's not been an abrupt 180, but it's a little disorienting all the same. I may need a little time.
Change is neither inherently good nor inherently bad. It's just inherently different from what was. Time will reveal the relative merits - and there will be plenty of opportunity for "Why did we ever..." and "I told you so" - but for now I just want the dust to settle and get my bearings in this new normal before trying to assess the value, good or bad.
Terribly for the RIGHT NOW LOUDLY landscape of social media, but prudent for keeping my sanity.
You’re right; the games will go on. I will still be able to watch TBDBITL and the Bucks; however, I will also be able to watch my local team, the CU Buffs, now that they are back in a league with TV coverage! Deion Sanders gives the best coach interviews!
Feudal Lords and Serfs reference. Followed by Pearl Clutching! Haha!!
One of my favorites was when you described the Covid-era social distancing that required NFL teams to take two chargers instead of one with the headline “Mike Won’t Like This”
Excellent summary, Doc! I agree completely. Let’s face it, the word collegial has always been a bit of a sham in reality and now that GREED has reared its ugly head in the academy, the hypocrites are on the run. As for loyalty to one’s historic competition, well, GREED was always there in the shadows, and we were just waiting for deliverance. Hypocrites will say they need the money for Olympic sports but who believes that? Stanford dominates the Director’s Cup standings year after year but what did that do for them?
GREED does have downsides. How long does before the FSU approach becomes the standard? You know, our brand is better than your brand – we should get more than you. Those elite doormats like Vandy and Northwestern, how strong is their brand? Why should gold standards like tOSU and the Tide share evenly with them? Beyond that, why call them student-athletes after all when independent contractor is more appropriate? And about that non-profit tax status, how long before the world figures out what we’re up to? Someone call the IRS, please.
Capitalism takes over the academy! Nothing under the table anymore! Free at last! GREED is finally here to save us! Hallelujah!
Doc, I was expecting more of an OG rant from you but, and confessing that I’m a few autumn’s more OG than you, I actually reluctantly agree with you. As a UC student way back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, I enjoyed watching UC/Miami on a Saturday at The Nip while, at the same time, anxiously waiting for the OSU/ Michigan score to be announced and cheering wildly when we heard a 50-14 OSU win. Those are great memories. BUT...fast forward 50 or so years and I’m still attending some games and completely excited for UC’s future in a POWER Five conference. Have I been corrupted? I don’t know.
I had season football tickets from the final Minter years until just before Tubervlle tried to destroy the program. I was at their Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl games and I guess I caught the fever. Whatever, now I realize that I might as well get with program.
But, I do still savor those memories of days gone by.
My OG is showing. NIL and the transfer portal is ruining college sports. Only transfer when a coach does. Or, old school, make the coach sit out a year before pursuing the next jackpot. Get off my lawn!!
College football is moving to an NFL model. Eventually there will be 2 or 4 conferences that vie for a College Super Bowl trophy. Smaller schools may have a similar structure, similar to D3. The days of tuneup games like Alabama vs. Appalachian State will disappear. The money is too big to not have interesting match-ups from the get-go. The networks won't be able to afford it. Maybe that's not a bad thing.
Boola Boola brought back some memories I actually remembered. One day some of my brother's friends came over to our house when I was in High School. The guys were Northwestern fans, decked out in purple and riding in a convertible on a beautiful autumn day. They asked him if he wanted to go to the homecoming game with them. But, he had to agree to wear a long racoon coat. They were celebrating NW's history in retro-wear. My brother wanted nothing to do with the long hairy coat. "I'll go!" I shouted, Yeah, okay, I guess a girl can wear the coat. So they put me in this huge weighty racoon coat and I hopped in the back seat, and off we went 33 windy miles with the top down South along Lake Michigan. NW football there started in 1882. The Team was known as the Big Ten in Chicago. The fur coats were popular with the college students in the 1920s & 1930s, It was known as the Fur Pimp Coat Phase. If a man could afford one, he had one. Boola Boola was a common song heard back then, but it was officially adopted by Yale in 1910 when it was first recorded. NW's song was "Doin' the Racoon". Ara Parseghian was the coach from 1956-1963 at this particular time,...the 20th Head Coach of NW and the youngest at age 32 in 1955. He lowered the intensity of practice as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically" something he learned from Paul Brown. The young Otto Graham tried out at NW during a special HS football game held there one year. The Mascot, named "Wildcat" was a name coined by a Chicago Tribune reporter in 1924 when he wrote "the players appeared as a wall of purple wildcats" describing one of their games. (Of course, the reporter's name was not given to receive the credit...)
Here's the Song "Doin' the Racoon":
College men, knowledge men,
Do a dance called raccoon;
It’s the craze, nowadays,
And it will get you soon.
Buy a coat and try it,
I’ll bet you’ll be a riot,
It’s a wow, learn to do it right now!
Oh, they wear ’em down at Princeton,
And they share ’em up at Yale,
They eat them at Harvard,
But they sleep in them in jail!
From every college campus comes the cheer: oy-yoy!
The season for the raccoon coat is here, my boy!
(AAhhhh...how simple life was then....)
The days of Chip Hilton working his way through State U with a part-time job while being an All-American in three sports is over, I guess??? :-) RIP, Clair Bee.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and be the one guy on TML today who's gutsy enough to proclaim this crazy conference shuffle/money grab is bad. It's one more example of the deterioration of universities as primarily centers of higher learning. The absurdity of their movement into operators of minor league sports teams is obvious. That's not their mission. Universities in the US are already a big mess. There's the failure of colleges to contain their insane spiraling costs of an education; there's the suppression of free speech and pushing of specific agendas nationwide. Now we're seeing the addition and expansion into this insane money-chase sports world and the coming corruption/damage, some already happening as uber-rich alumni obsessed with creating winning minor league football at good ol' State U bend rules. IF you think the NCAA had their hands full before, you aint seen nothing yet. This willingness to bend the rules is just starting, and when it gathers speed, it's gonna be a freight train. The product will soon be so tainted, it'll be unrecognizable to the crazed lovers of the old system. By putting the cart in front of the horse, colleges have lost their way. Everything has changed, mostly for the worse. Mark my words. When colleges become minor league franchises and are unable to provide affordable higher education to all but the rich, the foundation of the system has become firmly mired deep in the mud. It may not be next week, but sooner or later this thing will collapse. The days of the attraction of rooting for our favorite college teams, knowing the kids are not jaded yet by the distractions, responsibilites, and booty of pro sports, are over.
I feel bad for the players in non-revenue sports having to deal with insane road trips unless the conferences come up with regional divisions for them somehow. But I can’t object to anything that helps put $ in the pockets of the players whose sports actually generate the revenue.
I'm a casual OSU fan, so I like the idea of a regular season game against the likes of USC. But unless the tournament expands to 16 teams, I have to think die-hard fans of the team will be less welcoming of the notion. It's hard enough to get into the Tourney now. Sweating games in LA, Seattle or Eugene hardly sounds like fun to fans already dealing with Ann Arbor, State College, East Lansing or Madison.
Another downside, IMO, is that this will mean fewer good games being played at 3:30. Prime time games are just not as much fun for me to watch. Even at my age, I try to have better things to do on a Saturday night than watch football. I love sitting on the deck with a steak, a beer and an after-dinner cigar while watching USC / Notre Dame at South Bend. Or OSU / Penn State. That doesn't happen as much as it did. And will happen even less now.
I fully support the idea of 6 Majors. Pretty much as your proposed schedule suggests.
I love college football, I love the pageantry, the traditions, rich refracted autumn sunlight bouncing off of campus buildings--the Keith Jackson-ness of all of it. I also do not have a college team to call my own. As a kid I liked Holtz's ND teams, then they kinda fell off...then I did NOT go to UC, OSU or anywhere else that had a football team and the allegiance-building phase of my life passed me by. This allows me to fully (albeit vicariously) enjoy whatever meaningful matchups each weekend has to offer. I really don't see how die-hard say, OSU fans can get really jazzed up in anticipation of that mammoth upcoming tilt against Youngstown St. (OSU -47), and that's where I win. Because I'll be jazzed up about whatever relevant games are going on that week. For this reason I am all about the re-alignment. I want good games and tight point spreads. The pageantry and tradition of students doing kegstands on the quad at 7am will persist no matter what.
I'm good with the 4 majors. But I am a weird one who will watch any golf and don't really care about how big the tourney is. Miguel-Angel Jimenez in Italy, Tiger at Augusta, Schauffele at Pebble Beach, Eddie coming in on 9 at our Neumann Monday night league, some guy trying to make a putt while I'm driving down the road. I just love watching golf because I play golf and automatically place myself in their situation. It's one of the few sports whose spectation value is so clearly driven by the participation of the spectators.
"Or, maybe you’d rather see the Bearcats host ECU. In the name of tradition."
That line flat-out made me laugh out loud at work, for a good half-minute. That's about the only way ECU and tradition can be in the same sentence.
As far as the college football landscape goes, to quote the infamous Tracy Jones, "it is what it is." I think, in the back of our minds, we all knew this day would come where mega-conferences would emerge, and your Miami of Ohios, Western Kentuckys, et. al., would be passed by like hitchhikers on the highway.
As a UC fan and alum, I appreciate that they were able to finally pick the lock on the door and get into the main power structure, but, it wouldn't have made my life any worse if they ended up on the side of the road like a Miami (Ohio), either. It wouldn't have taken away my memories, sentiment or friends from my time at UC, and I've never been one to attach my self-worth to where I went to college, what conference they're a part of, or how many championships they've won. Maybe that's the lifelong Cincinnati fan in me, where I've seen some sparse magical moments of winning hidden in the much larger haystack of losing (sometimes in the most ignominious manner) our teams have endured over the last four decades.
But hey, if it somehow betters UC and its (cough) secondary mission of education by being in the Big 12 -- and ditto for the other schools joining these mega-conferences -- I'm all for it. Not going to hold my breath by any means, but you never know!
This is quite a different take from the old "Is a $40K-per-year education worth nothing?" lament The Morning Man used to espouse on the quasi-am front. No, it's not been an abrupt 180, but it's a little disorienting all the same. I may need a little time.
Change is neither inherently good nor inherently bad. It's just inherently different from what was. Time will reveal the relative merits - and there will be plenty of opportunity for "Why did we ever..." and "I told you so" - but for now I just want the dust to settle and get my bearings in this new normal before trying to assess the value, good or bad.
Terribly for the RIGHT NOW LOUDLY landscape of social media, but prudent for keeping my sanity.
You’re right; the games will go on. I will still be able to watch TBDBITL and the Bucks; however, I will also be able to watch my local team, the CU Buffs, now that they are back in a league with TV coverage! Deion Sanders gives the best coach interviews!
Feudal Lords and Serfs reference. Followed by Pearl Clutching! Haha!!
One of my favorites was when you described the Covid-era social distancing that required NFL teams to take two chargers instead of one with the headline “Mike Won’t Like This”
You’re a funny dude.
Excellent summary, Doc! I agree completely. Let’s face it, the word collegial has always been a bit of a sham in reality and now that GREED has reared its ugly head in the academy, the hypocrites are on the run. As for loyalty to one’s historic competition, well, GREED was always there in the shadows, and we were just waiting for deliverance. Hypocrites will say they need the money for Olympic sports but who believes that? Stanford dominates the Director’s Cup standings year after year but what did that do for them?
GREED does have downsides. How long does before the FSU approach becomes the standard? You know, our brand is better than your brand – we should get more than you. Those elite doormats like Vandy and Northwestern, how strong is their brand? Why should gold standards like tOSU and the Tide share evenly with them? Beyond that, why call them student-athletes after all when independent contractor is more appropriate? And about that non-profit tax status, how long before the world figures out what we’re up to? Someone call the IRS, please.
Capitalism takes over the academy! Nothing under the table anymore! Free at last! GREED is finally here to save us! Hallelujah!
Doc, I was expecting more of an OG rant from you but, and confessing that I’m a few autumn’s more OG than you, I actually reluctantly agree with you. As a UC student way back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, I enjoyed watching UC/Miami on a Saturday at The Nip while, at the same time, anxiously waiting for the OSU/ Michigan score to be announced and cheering wildly when we heard a 50-14 OSU win. Those are great memories. BUT...fast forward 50 or so years and I’m still attending some games and completely excited for UC’s future in a POWER Five conference. Have I been corrupted? I don’t know.
I had season football tickets from the final Minter years until just before Tubervlle tried to destroy the program. I was at their Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl games and I guess I caught the fever. Whatever, now I realize that I might as well get with program.
But, I do still savor those memories of days gone by.
I love administrative sports news, Just don't get enough of it. Not so interested in hearing how Chas was able to catch a pass one handed.
Great Blog today …. All things change embrace the change and show me the MONEY …
My OG is showing. NIL and the transfer portal is ruining college sports. Only transfer when a coach does. Or, old school, make the coach sit out a year before pursuing the next jackpot. Get off my lawn!!
College football is moving to an NFL model. Eventually there will be 2 or 4 conferences that vie for a College Super Bowl trophy. Smaller schools may have a similar structure, similar to D3. The days of tuneup games like Alabama vs. Appalachian State will disappear. The money is too big to not have interesting match-ups from the get-go. The networks won't be able to afford it. Maybe that's not a bad thing.