Tag: college football

Swimming Upstream

I can think of a dozen name brands I gotten hooked on for years, only to see them suddenly disappear from the shelves, never to return. Breakfast cereals. Hair spray. Cars. And what do we do when this happens? Simply find another brand and get used to it – easy-peasy. But when your streaming television service drops an essential channel, you can’t just jump to the next provider. Try that and you’ll hit your head on the cage they have you securely locked into.

Even if you’re not a sports fan, you’re probably tuned into my topic today.  YouTube TV – which provides me the five channels of streaming television I care about (and 95 forgettable others), dropped ESPN from its lineup.  It wasn’t like they warned us months ago they were renegotiating with Disney (ESPN’s parent), and that these talks weren’t going so well.  Instead they alerted us last Thursday just before midnight – with an email coyly titled “An update on our partnership with Disney”.  Then, the following morning, ESPN was gone.  On Halloween.  How fitting.

Without going into the weeds on why ESPN was dropped, let’s just call it the proverbial contract dispute.  Disney wants one number.  YouTube TV wants another.  A stalemate akin to what we’re seeing in Washington right now.  Yes, what D.C. is blocking is so much more important than a television sports channel.  But when you’re a die-hard college football fan you can relate to losing an “essential service”.

Getting my ESPN back is not like choosing another breakfast cereal.  If only it were that easy.  Instead, we have to shift to an entirely different grocery aisle.  Make that an entirely different supermarket.  As soon as YouTube TV dropped ESPN, Disney was only too happy to promote its own streaming service.  Sign up for Disney+, including ESPN and Hulu!!!  Only $29.95 per month – a savings of $5/month!!!  Only twelve months of subscription required!!!

All those exclamation points are a ruse, as if this is a service I can’t live without.  Disney Channel?  Not my thing.  Hulu?  I’m already getting enough entertainment on Netflix.  I just want ESPN please.  And apparently I should be happy to pay a minimum of $360 for it, in addition to my monthly $80 for YouTube TV.

Bless our tech-savvy children.  We turn to them for all things electronic.  I checked in with one of my sons – who is every bit the college football fanatic I am – and he came to my rescue.  Fubo – a streaming service looking like a twin to YouTube TV – offers a free one-week trial that includes ESPN.  It’s kind of like Congress signing a stopgap spending bill to keep the government open.  Now I have another seven days to figure out what to do.

YouTube TV promises a credit if the lack of negotiations with Disney continues long enough (sorry, the same does not apply to our government).  But I can’t necessarily wait for that credit.  In one week I’ve got to decide if I’m a YouTube TV guy or a Fubo one.  Can’t have both (at least, according to my budget).

Of course, it feels almost inevitable that Fubo will run into a contract dispute with Disney as well.  So even if I go that route I could lose ESPN again.  Maybe I’m getting forced into a Disney+ subscription after all?  But another $360/year?  No way.  I’d sooner get on a plane and go watch my college football games in person.  Er, assuming the FAA doesn’t cancel my flights.  Swimming upstream indeed.  Sigh…

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LEGO Trevi Fountain – Update #3

(Read about the start of this build in Brick Wall Waterfall)

We resumed our fountain build this week with more confidence than the last, accompanied by the merriment of Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1.  Bags 6 and 7 – of 15 bags of pieces – were filled with tiny, tiny finger-numbing LEGOs, and at times I wondered just what the heck I was putting together.  Didn’t look like the makings of a fountain to me.

Tiny, tiny!

According to LEGO, water is white and blue.  I suppose the white is meant to be rushing water (as in “waterfall”) while the blue is calm water (as in “pool”).  We shall see.  But check out the look of the fountain in the final photo.  Anyone else see a monster’s mouth with white teeth?

Strange creations

Since this is my fifth LEGO model, it’s high time I make the following proclamation:  LEGO never leaves out a piece.  Never.  I still have moments where I’m searching through a pile of pieces in vain for the one I need.  I almost get to the feeling of “it’s not here”.  But suddenly there the little guy is, staring up at me as if to say, “What took you so long?”  Some day I’d love to see how LEGO pulls this off.  Thousands of pieces in every box, not a single one of them left out.  That’s some logistical magic going on there.

I’m proud to say I made zero mistakes on the build this time around, a dramatic improvement from a week ago.  Okay, that’s not entirely accurate.  I left a piece off the back of the fountain, but immediately discovered my error when I added a section and realized there was nothing to support it.  Fixed in a jiffy, but the merry instruments on Paganini’s violin concerto sounded even more gleeful as they saw my confidence take a hit.

Running build time: 2 hrs. 27 min.

Total leftover pieces: 13

American Pastime

Over the next three months, on any given Saturday, the spotlight of college athletics will shine brightly on football. Millions of fans will flock to stadiums (or in one instance, a motor speedway) to witness this most American of sports. Tailgate parties will crop up hours before kickoff.  Team-branded merchandise will fly off shelves to the tune of millions of dollars.  Broadcasters will endlessly debate one team’s merits versus another’s shortcomings.  It’s fair to say college football will be a more consuming topic than the presidential election.

60-indelible

Last weekend my family and I experienced the unique opportunity to attend two college football games in Texas on consecutive days. UCLA played Texas A&M in College Station on Saturday, where A&M’s Aggies won in thrilling fashion in overtime. Then Notre Dame played Texas in Austin on Sunday, where UT’s Longhorns also won in thrilling fashion in double overtime. On Friday we could’ve added yet another game, passing through Waco as Baylor opened its season against Northwestern State.

Here are a few college football statistics for your consideration:

  • There are well over 100 NCAA Division 1 college football teams competing on any given Saturday of the season.
  • The combined attendance to last weekend’s games involving at least one team in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 was over 1.5 million fans. That included UCLA-Texas A&M (100,443) and Notre Dame-Texas (102,315 – an all-time record for a Texas home game).
  • The face value of a major college football game ticket is around $100 this year.  Accordingly last Saturday’s AP Top 25 games alone generated $150 million (not counting merchandise, concessions, and parking).
  • There are eight college football stadiums in the U.S. with more than 100,000 seats, and another twenty-two stadiums with more than 75,000 seats.  The largest NFL football stadium has 82,500 seats.
  • Next Saturday’s college football game between Tennessee and Virginia Tech will be held at Bristol Motor Speedway (TN).  The 150,000 fans expected in the grandstands will shatter the all-time record for college football single-game attendance.

Sure, college football has some impressive numbers.  The game will only get more popular.  Yet last weekend also reminded me there are more indelible memories than the game or the venue itself.  Consider:

  • The heart-warming spirit of hometown Texas A&M.  As a fan of the opposing team, the reception in College Station is akin to a stranger inviting you into his living room for sweet tea and cookies.  I lost track of how many Aggies welcomed us to campus, wished our team well, or simply thanked us for making the trip.  Their politeness is downright 1950’s-sitcom.  With that in mind, add See a football game in College Station to your bucket list.
  • A&M’s Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band.  Also known as the Corps of Cadets, the four hundred musicians comprise the largest military marching band in the world.  Their movements are so coordinated and precise you’d swear you were looking at a computer-generated equivalent.  One Aggie actually apologized to me for the “old-fashioned” feel of the Corp.  On the contrary; it was one of the most impressive halftime shows I’ve ever seen.
  • The Littlest Fans.  Texas A&M and Texas alike draw a healthy number of families to their games.  My favorites are the little ones: those fans between the ages of 5 and 15.  They’re decked out in their team colors and face paint, with shiny hair ribbons and pom-poms.  We had several of them sitting right in front of us at the Notre Dame-Texas game.  Their innocence and unabashed enthusiasm were priceless.

My advice after my mega-weekend of college football?  Ditch the television.  GO to a game and see what you’re missing.  There happens to be one this Saturday, and not far from where you live.