“a low-energy Midwest conference that takes pride in its football style putting fans to sleep on Saturday afternoons.”
WSJ disrespects B1G football
- Thread starter Fat Koko
- Start date
They aren't wrong. Have you seen some of the Big Ten west games? People like offense and scoring. The conference has 8 teams ranked 100+ in both total offense and scoring offense.
does it show TV ratings and attendance as proof that no one is watching this low energy conference?
Interesting. And the writer is a Wisconsin grad. So I guess he has seen it up close for a while.
People are watching . Just falling asleep while doing so
I have no problem with B1G football. I understand that the “entertainment” aspect of big offense and scoring points is the popular thing. That is more connected to the commercial concerns of the sport. I still think it is a basic game that starts up front on the OL and DL. I don’t have any problem watching a hard hitting defensive 17-13 game, as long as it is well played and not sloppy. The idea is to win the game.
Did they talk to @RUScrew85 for confirmation, or was he asleep when they called?
I remember when Brohm got hired at Purdue, he made a public statement about fans wanting to be entertained and see a lot of offense.
Your team is part of the problem with a total lack of EXPLOSIVE offensive plays. Maybe your DC can coach offense, too?
Looking at the top 10 watched games in the last 2 weeks, last week, 3 of the top 10 were B1G Games:
Week prior, 2 of the top 10:
Week before that, 3 of the top 10.
Without adding up the numbers, it seems SEC has more games in the top 10, but the case does not seem to be people are not watching. Maybe the numbers are high because B1G fans are falling asleep and keeping the B1G games on!
Nope.
Top 3 games last week were SEC, SEC, Pac-12. Rutgers-Ohio State was #4, a game between the #1 media market and the #1 team. BC-Syracuse garnered higher ratings than Nebraska-Michigan State and Illinois-Minnesota.
Here are the stats.
College Football TV Ratings
College football TV ratings for the 2025 regular season, bowls, College Football Playoff and National Championship.
www.sportsmediawatch.com
Let us wait and see the ratings for the Rutgers-Iowa shootout this Saturday.
That may be because there were no really interesting games like the LSU Alabama game. Average college football fans without any knowledge of Rutgers were probably not interested in what they expected to be an Ohio State blowout against Rutgers. Their loss.Nope.
Top 3 games last week were SEC, SEC, Pac-12. Rutgers-Ohio State was #4, a game between the #1 media market and the #1 team. BC-Syracuse garnered higher ratings than Nebraska-Michigan State and Illinois-Minnesota.
Here are the stats.
College Football TV Ratings
College football TV ratings for the 2025 regular season, bowls, College Football Playoff and National Championship.
Let us wait and see the ratings for the Rutgers-Iowa shootout this Saturday.
I posted previous weeks above. I think the article is useless blather.
I only sleep when there's nothing to do and I'm tired.
1. You do realize that Penn State offense is #6 in scoring while averaging 40.2 points per game. Penn State might not have a ton of explosive plays but they are putting points on the board.
2. Did you notice only one of those top 10 games did not feature Ohio State, Michigan or Penn State? Other than Iowa/Minnesota game they all feature the better offensive teams in the conference.
Don't get me wrong I love a great defensive game but the vast majority of America doesn't. When over half your conference is ranked 100+ in scoring you are going to get a reputation of being a boring conference. I mean you just had a game where each teams had fewer than 170 yards of total offense.
WSJ = possibly useful for business news (remember they're "journalists"). Who cares what they think about other topics?
Hey I finally realized what was going on with your weird R avatar. It's an axe in the whitespace. Nice.
I was just trying to get rise out of you with #1. But seriously, I have watched several Penn State games, and I'm not being intentionally mean or biased, but your offense is boring AF to watch. I'm not impressed with Allar. Frankly, I'm surprised by the 40 points, but your point is well-taken, they pile up the points and that is all that matters.
I agree with #2, but sometimes a shootout gets boring too. But I'll take a high scoring game over a low scoring one.
Michigan and Ohio State have an explosive offense. PSUs offense is explosive as long as they’re not playing Michigan and Ohio State. The rest of us are building our offense. Our incoming class should help significantly in this regard.
Oh no, only number 4 for RU vs OSU at noon. Wasn’t BC/SU the only game on during the week? Worst case scenarioNope.
Top 3 games last week were SEC, SEC, Pac-12. Rutgers-Ohio State was #4, a game between the #1 media market and the #1 team. BC-Syracuse garnered higher ratings than Nebraska-Michigan State and Illinois-Minnesota.
Here are the stats.
College Football TV Ratings
College football TV ratings for the 2025 regular season, bowls, College Football Playoff and National Championship.
Let us wait and see the ratings for the Rutgers-Iowa shootout this Saturday.
You are ignoring the big impact the time of the game has on ratings.Nope.
Top 3 games last week were SEC, SEC, Pac-12. Rutgers-Ohio State was #4, a game between the #1 media market and the #1 team. BC-Syracuse garnered higher ratings than Nebraska-Michigan State and Illinois-Minnesota.
Here are the stats.
College Football TV Ratings
College football TV ratings for the 2025 regular season, bowls, College Football Playoff and National Championship.
Let us wait and see the ratings for the Rutgers-Iowa shootout this Saturday.
The OSU games were the highest rated Noon games for the three weeks shown, including over several SEC, ACC and B12 matchups.
The OSU -PSU game at noon had higher ratings than some marquee SEC matchups like Alabama-LSU and Georgia -Florida, which were played later in the day. That is huge.
“a low-energy Midwest conference that takes pride in its football style putting fans to sleep on Saturday afternoons.”
If you don't know Jason Gay.... "Jason Gay is The Wall Street Journal’s sports columnist and a humor columnist for its Review section."
That PAC-12 game that was #3 will be a Big Ten game next year. I guess they will put their offense to sleep in the offseason.Nope.
Top 3 games last week were SEC, SEC, Pac-12. Rutgers-Ohio State was #4, a game between the #1 media market and the #1 team. BC-Syracuse garnered higher ratings than Nebraska-Michigan State and Illinois-Minnesota.
Here are the stats.
College Football TV Ratings
College football TV ratings for the 2025 regular season, bowls, College Football Playoff and National Championship.
Let us wait and see the ratings for the Rutgers-Iowa shootout this Saturday.
Colorado played Oregon State at 10 pm but the game started late due to an earlier game's late start. Then the game started but wasn't on TV yet, You couldn't see anything until after 10:30. With all the passing, the game was approaching @ 2am - Hawaii football territory .
All of CFB has a problem with longer games - 4 minutes per game. Their are too many long reviews and commercials. Then the game slows with the added passing. I stopped going to live games because of all the standing around. You have to go to a high school game to find a normal pace.
Old enough to remember when SEC games were low scoring and the media spin was, "Oh, that's because the whole conference plays GREAT DEFENSE!"
Now, the Big Ten has a bunch of low scoring teams, and the media spin is, "Oh, look how bad the Big Ten plays offense! Zzzzzz...."
But Iowa really does have a bad offense.
Now, the Big Ten has a bunch of low scoring teams, and the media spin is, "Oh, look how bad the Big Ten plays offense! Zzzzzz...."
But Iowa really does have a bad offense.
He’s also making fun of himself as a Badger alum as he states “The undefeated 9-0 Michigan Wolverines are one of the mightiest teams in the land—as a Wisconsin Badger, it pains me to acknowledge this depressing truth…”
GO RU
Maybe they were writing this article watching Washington -- USC. Defense was optional in that game.
A lot of teams aren't tip top.
A lot of players leave earlier and coaches get fired after a few years.
When teams do well their coaches and coordinators get picked off.
If a team wins a title it can disintegtrate as coaches get hired away (including NFL) and players leave.
Seems to me the top 25 rankings have a lot of turnover.
Teams are up and gone in a few weeks.
Football feels mediocre
I not sure what not impressive about Allar. In his two year career he is complete 63% of his passes has thrown 1 interception in 344 attempts, 24 touchdowns and 2239 yards. Yes he struggled on the road against Ohio State but outside of that game he been very good.
Obviously the OP since he loves to dredge up negative RU content.
Sounds like a Wisconsin grad and fan of Coach Prime to me... or Donald Trump with that "low energy" BS.
This guy? We care about what THIS GUY thinks?
A Sports and Humorist columnist?
Jason Gay is The Wall Street Journal’s sports columnist and a humor columnist for its Review section. Jason was named Sports Columnist of the Year by Society of Professional Journalists in 2010, 2016 and 2019. He is author of the upcoming book of essays, "I Wouldn't Do That If I Were Me" (Nov. 1), and the 2015 bestseller “Little Victories,” which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
----
Jason Gay was born and raised in Belmont, Massachusetts.
He went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and upon graduation he worked in a restaurant before getting hired in newspaper advertisement sales.
His first journalism job came for the Vineyard Gazette on Martha’s Vineyard Island, Massachusetts.
Gay covered little league baseball for his first assignment, then settled into news coverage.
After the Gazette, he moved on to the Boston Phoenix where he started to write more long form, feature stories.
Following the Boston Phoenix, Gay moved on to The New York Observer, followed by GQ.
Gay finally ended up at the Wall Street Journal, where he writes today.
Gay has covered many sports events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl for the Wall Street Journal to go along with his role as sports columnist.
Finally, Gay was a contributor on the short-live Fox Sports 1 television show “Crowd Goes Wild,” and he wrote a book titled “Little Victories: A Sportswriter’s Notes on Winning Life,” which was published in 2015.
Colorado got crazy ratings earlier this year when the hype train was rolling, I believe it was the Col St game where their rating at 1:00 AM eastern time beat all of the other games from earlier that Saturday.
I haven't looked at the recent top 10 for the season but a couple of weeks ago Col. had 4 of the 10.
They still made top 10 of the week playing in the middle of the night but (for me) It was hard to stay with.
Colorado's line has been so bad defenders know not to even worry about the run game
Prime had to shuffle coaching because OC kept calling for long balls that there was no time/blocking for and QB was getting killed (Schurmur - NYG - understands you can't pass long if you cant block long lol.)
Top OL recuit been to Col 2x
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Chill out, everyone. The guy's bio said that he is a "sport humorist" not a sports reporter. He is trying to be funny and sarcastic - that's his job. This isn't a story by a reporter from ESPN or The Athletic.