Correction: The NCAA TOURNAMENT is very popular. people love the office pools, the upsets, the drama, etc. People (and the fanbases of most schools), however, simply do not live and die with it the way they do with football.
Does having an elite basketball program take the sting out of football sucking?
- Thread starter Robcatt24
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Correction: The NCAA TOURNAMENT is very popular. people love the office pools, the upsets, the drama, etc. People (and the fanbases of most schools), however, simply do not live and die with it the way they do with football.
florida, mich st, louisville, ohio st, even duke. would much rather see a more balanced level of high performance across the high profile sports than the all of one, none of anything else we have. we're freaking Kansas. nobody likes Kansas!
Anyone can say this (top end basketball schools I mean). Duke in 99, Duke in 94, Duke in 2002, are 3 Duke seasons in the past less than 20 years I can think they should have/could have won it all. Hell if they beat UK in 98 they probably win it all. I am sure I can find similar examples for other top programs
Florida would disagree, they were pretty elite in basketball for 10-20 years. Ohio state reached two title games in basketball. Michigan has won titles in both sports. UCLA has rich history in football while also being a top 5 basketball school. There is no natural environmental limiting factor that prohibits a school from being excellent at both sports (unless you have a fanbase that doesn't care about one sport or if you have an administration that doesn't invest resources in one sport - neither is the case at UK).
It's true that cfb is bigger than cbb by a good margin, but the tournament in March is the highest non-NFL ratings draw/advertising budget sporting event in the country every single year.
So while it doesn't have the year-round appeal of cfb, some of the fb board regulars act like we're talking about women's gymnastics, which is silly.
Hell, even outside the tournament, when UK plays a good opponent, the national ratings are only topped by football games.
And the other thing I'd mention is that everything is regional in some way. Most people kind of live in like-minded bubbles and imagine that their interests are bigger deals than they are.
I live in Boston and have spent time in NYC - basically nobody gives a damn about college football in the Northeast. Seats at sports bars for all the bowl games are easy to find, with only small clusters of expats smattered about.
And on the flip side, people from this corner of the country wouldn't believe how little the average Kentuckian cares about MLB.
And guys from the northern midwest/Canada feel the same way about the NHL.
In India, you have a billion people for whom cricket is the entire sporting landscape.. yet they are one of just a handful of countries that even plays it seriously. And nobody outside the US gives a damn about the NFL.
So really, you can sit there and downplay just about anything that someone enjoys unless it's international soccer. And I don't want to watch soccer.
I enjoy watching CFB and CBB, whether it's 12 million people watching a high level cfb game (~4% of the US population) or 6 million people watching a high level CBB game (~2% of the US population) or 20-25 million people watching a CFB playoffs or Final 4 game (~7-8% of the US population).
At the end of the day, you like what you like.
Nobody has ever matched Cals current F4 run except K and Wooden, and they both had the best or second best talent in the country every year of their primes. I'm not crying for them, and if that's Cal's company, I'm not crying for him, either.
Not even a little bit. I want them both to be great, same for the baseball team while we're at it.
Honestly - no offense to anyone - but this thread pisses me off.
The two sports are independent of one another.
I am very much a football first guy - and I really think there are fans that don't want us to be good in football - it would take resources away from their beloved BB team.
There is 100% no reason why we cannot be successful in both - maybe not title contenders annually, but at least competitive on the gridiron.
While the contract extension is/was a joke for Stoops - we now have the infrastructure in place to be on par with our peers - now we just need the proper leadership and coaching to move us up the SEC ladder a notch or two
The two sports are independent of one another.
I am very much a football first guy - and I really think there are fans that don't want us to be good in football - it would take resources away from their beloved BB team.
There is 100% no reason why we cannot be successful in both - maybe not title contenders annually, but at least competitive on the gridiron.
While the contract extension is/was a joke for Stoops - we now have the infrastructure in place to be on par with our peers - now we just need the proper leadership and coaching to move us up the SEC ladder a notch or two
If our men's bb program is profitable enough to support itself, and without any money generated by football--then more power to them. Heck I hope they're able to spend a cool million on the next BBM.
As long as every dollar of football $$$ is not used to support another profit center at UK..I say let bball flourish and chase #11
As long as every dollar of football $$$ is not used to support another profit center at UK..I say let bball flourish and chase #11