According to college football analyst Rob Stone, Ohio State’s win against Texas that sent them to the National Championship Game prompted a staggering 550% spike in merchandise sales.
John Grindrod/The Lima News
Much to the chagrin of this lifelong baseball fan, it’s been over a half century ago since it was called America’s most popular spectator sport, ceding that claim to football.
I get it. I really do, the pace of the action, the inherent violence that secretly so many crave and the allure of crisp fall weekends has far more allure.
Although we’ve turned the corner on winter as of last Thursday and that Buckeye national championship and Super Bowl LVIII are now both in the rearview mirror and my thoughts today may seem chronologically misplaced, don’t look now, but both the NFL draft and collegiate spring practice are just weeks away.
As for the NFL, as a beleaguered Browns backer, well, what can I say that hasn’t already been said about the multiple icebergs that this franchise steers directly toward year after year? The list of poor draft picks and trade decisions over the years, if put in a book, would rival the girth of the Gutenberg Bible, which, in case you’re curious, covers 1,282 pages.
Despite the Browns’ weekly follies, I’m always interested in watching matchups with legitimate pro teams and their stars. And while I shake my head at the amount of money the sport generates and the size of players’ paychecks, especially when it comes to the $50 million or so per year for the quarterback, I still can lay my jealousies aside and enjoy the games. After all, they’re pros, right?
However, at least for me, the current landscape of college football has changed so dramatically that my interest has waned. Now, I certainly know I’m in the minority given the interest in Ohio State’s January 20th victory over Notre Dame in the title game. I’ve seen all that merch worn by ardent fans that have experienced what the Germans would call, “freudenfreude,” which translated, means “joy in joy,” in describing the happiness vicariously achieved from the accomplishments of others.
Now, don’t get me wrong. As a card-carrying member of the Sports Matter Club, I did watch the title game all the way to its post-11 p.m. conclusion and again this year grumbled that college football is certainly no friend of working stiffs like me who rose yet again early Tuesday to punch my clock when surely a weekend game was possible.
Also, I was happy for my pals who are ardent supporters of the team. Actually, I would have been happy regardless of the outcome, as I have dear friends who’re Irish and Buckeye zealots. Jim O’Neill, a Notre Dame graduate who also made sure his twin sons could lay claim to the same, traveled to all four of the Irish playoff games. And, Mike Schepp, my friend since we were 7 and sitting in tiny desks at St. Charles Elementary before Sister Joseph Andre, is an Ohio State graduate who rarely misses a snap.
As for my disillusionment with college football, well, the same jealousy I’m able to quell on Sundays, I have trouble suppressing when I watch collegiate kids on Saturdays. Since the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 2021 that NCAA athletes can profit beyond free tuition from their athletic endeavors in what’s known as NIL (name, image and likeness) money, the pots have grown exponentially with some college footballers now earning more money in a year or two than working stiffs earned over decades.
Shortly after the title game more than one school tried to poach last year’s freshman sensation, Buckeye wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, offering upward of $5 million dollars if he’d hop into what’s known as the transfer portal, a metaphorical chute that delivers players to new schools whenever they can find more greenbacks elsewhere.
But, of course, it was all hail Buckeyes last January 20, even though three of the most important contributors that night — quarterback Will Howard, running back Quinshon Judkins and safety Caleb Downs — were wearing respectively the jerseys of Kansas State, Ole Mississippi and Alabama the year before. While all three will be gone next season, not to worry, as there’ll be more hired guns wearing the scarlet and gray on their way.
And, of course, coaches also are cashing in. In addition to $87.5 million in base salary in a brand new seven-year deal and millions more in compensation for media services, sponsorship, apparel, shoe and equipment deals, OSU coach Ryan Day was given an additional million dollars in bonus money for winning the title as part of his last contract. Not bad for a guy who hasn’t beaten Michigan since 2019.
Additionally, the demolition of the traditional conferences that I knew by heart when I was growing up has taken with it so many of the geographical rivalries that once existed, except for OSU-Michigan. However, USC-ULCA, Nebraska-Oklahoma, Auburn-Alabama? Please, they’re relatively meaningless. Geography used to matter when it came to conference alignment, but, of course, that was long ago. Just take a look at the conference that still calls itself the Big 10 instead of the Big 18.
As we await warmer weather, and, of course, what is being called a Buckeye spring showcase in April, thanks for letting me vent a bit about a sport that really has little off-season.
John Grindrod is a regular columnist for The Lima News, a freelance writer and editor and the author of two books. Reach him at [email protected].
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