One of our local stations broadcasts high school football, and while the talent level isn’t up to college and the pros, it’s still fun to watch. The only college team I follow is Penn State sitting at number 7 right now and the Big 10 teams they play. I get interested in the military academy teams once in a while. They can shove the NFL. Now some helmets display socially conscious messages and I even saw one as a commercial. The behavior of some can be a turnoff.
I've always loved college ball. That was the only thing I missed when I went to antenna TV and got rid of Direct TV, since the important playoff games are rarely televised over-the-air.
My husband used to be a huge Cowboys fan for years, until the kneeling controversy and now that the NFL is "woke" and playing TWO "National" anthems. We tuned out and have not missed it at all. He still enjoys college games, though. (Particularly recently with the "F! Biden!" chant, lol.)
I'm on antenna too. While I never watched them all in their entirety, I miss the New Year's day games where it was wall to wall football. That's the fault of the new playoff system and the money to be made by how it's televised. High school football here now has a playoff system where there are no more traditional Thanksgiving Day games with rivals as in the past. Games were early giving time to go home and feast on turkey.
Before I moved to OklahomaI followed high school football. Texas has always had great high school football. Their playoffs watched and talked about all across the state.
I like football, mainly college football, but now the season is over.. All except final signing day. I used to watch Pro football but when in season but one of my owners thought both pro and college football was too much. I was hogging the TV. So I gave up the proball, preferring the college games. I live in Oklahma, in a little town where the University of Oklahoma is located. So naturally I followed Oklahoma who usually has a pretty good team. A few years ago Oklahoma hired an offensive coordinator named Lincoln Riley. I was tickled pink I knew Lincoln Riley. He had been a walk on quarter back at Texas Tech in Lubbock TX from a little high school in Muleshoe, TX. That was my part of the country. I had lived in Lubbock before moving to Oklahoma. When Lincoln Riley wa quarterback at Texas Tech, they never had a losing season. Then, Oklahoma and Texas from here in the Big 12 conference suddenly blasted out they were moving to the SEC, the South Eastern Conference. Oklahoma and Texas could make more money inn the SEC. Now most everybody knows college football is all about money and power. It was much like when Nebraska went to the Big 10 Conference and Arkansaw and Texas A & M left for the SEC, Arkansas saying the competition was inferior in the Big 12 conference. Before this conference was the Big 12, it was The Southwest Conference and was thought to be easy pickings for other Conferences.Texas and Oklahoma were exceptions. Everyone mostly said , the Southwest conference would dissolve and be no more. The Big 8 dissolved and the Big 12 was born. After Texas and Oklahoma stated their intention to move to SEC, there was rumors and talk that Big 12 would disappear. Not so. Big 12 only had ten teams, not twelve, so they brougnt in four teams to replace Texas and Oklahoma: Houston, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Brigham Young University. Big 12 will survive and flourish. I will remain a loyal fan of the Big 12 regardless what Oklahoma and the SEC does. I will be loyal to Oklahoma because their campus is right down the th street, and my son works there. However I will be taking on other college football interests. The day after the regular football season ended Southern California hired Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma. Southern Cal has had no winning program in several ears. Riley was hired to bring Southern Cal back and make them competitive nationally. Pac 12 has been the weak sister in college footballl, except for Oregon. I’m going to be following Lincoln Rile and Southern California and hoping for his success if I live that long.
High school football is HUGE in Texas. But I thought it's almost as huge in Oklahoma, isn't it? Did you not pick up on it when you moved to Oklahoma, Bill, or is it not really big there? I had the TV on either last Saturday or the Saturday before and there was a high school all-starts game on...East vs West. They're entertaining, but of course those boys have never played together, so it's not really a "good game."
Yeh, that's a double-edged sword. It's too bad, because the joy of watching college ball is that it lacks the overt money motivation that the pro league has. I think we may have already talked about colleges making money off of these athletes, and how it's a required stepping-stone to the pros that's tough to circumvent. I still prefer it over pro ball.
Yes, high school football is huge in Oklahoma but I never got into it here. I knew the towns and schools in Texas but none in Oklahoma.