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I think there is probably room to have it both ways to some degree. I mean the coddling ends now on game day when the player gets judged based on his on field performance. I think they could close off most of the early camp stuff to allow the players time to make their stupid mistakes and then open up when the product becomes more polished. At the end of the day though, a D1 player needs to learn very quickly to have thick skin. Protecting them from criticism becomes removing accountability at some point.
Read up on Fighting Irish TV. ND has a full blown subscription service. In the not too distant future, we will have to pay for FITV to see ND home games when VT plays them. They are making a killing off of it, b/c they have the cache and nationwide fan base. (plus the backing of the US Catholic church). They can stream classes on there, schoolwide events, the whole 9 yards.
The only other programs that can pull this off are Ohio St and Alabama. That's it.
This is similar to Longhorn Network. But Texas has to give it up to join the SEC. Texas has boatloads of money, too. Yet, they're willing to give this up for the SEC b/c they don't have the nationwide fan base they though they had, that ND does. They even put some G5 Texas schools on the LHN just to get eyeballs.
Had the ACCN been a streaming option, available through the ESPN app, the ACC would have made their money. But....hindsight is 20/20.
I don't think most people (including myself) care about the practices, etc. I am more concerned that if it truly is a decision to save the team from embarrassment then we have bigger issues, i.e., the on-field performance is embarrassing enough.
Its a great question. I don't really follow anyone else close enough to know.
It is fair to say that social media is still very new, and evolving though. Im sure there is a whole slew of different tactics coaches across the country have taken to manage/control its impact. We're just familiar with the fall-out of our own coaches similarly new tactics. Gotta try something. Maybe in the long run this strategy isn't worth it. But Im pretty confident if there was conclusive evidence the program was losing donor support or viewership as a result of closed scrimmages/ non-televised spring game, Whit would step in.
"I love to fill my tub with water, turn the shower on, and pretend I'm in a Submarine that's been hit" Steven Wright
perhaps a mis-calculated strategy
Reposting an old favorite:
Did you know that there are no canaries in the Canary Islands? And the same thing applies to the Virgin Islands;
There are no canaries there, either!
All fair criticisms. No idea if its the right thing/best thing for success in the long run. But the lack of access isn't apathy, or laziness, or lack of interest in fan engagement. Its a calculated strategy.
yeah, exactly
Winning teams don't coddle their players. I respect the players ability to speak up and help make decisions. But if they are afraid of being embarrassed during practice that doesn't say much about how they will actually be embarrassed during games which are much more widely viewed.
sounds about right
I'm curious how much of the decision was the players? Did the coaches ask the players if they wanted closed off practices? IF so, and the players responded saying they wanted that privacy then I can't really complain about it. I have my doubts, though. The trouble with coddling your players too much is that they get soft. If we're over coddling (I'm not saying we are or we aren't) we're never going to be the tough team we want to be.
I can agree with that logic, but why do other teams have open practices? Wouldn't those coaches be worried about the same thing happening to their players?
Yeah he committed to psu last June but he decommitted from them in January so i think they are just gonna keep them there until they hear something new
Agree- the ACC should boot Cuse and BC. Tell the playoff committee and ESPN that you don't get any Duke/UNC/Louisville hoops games if you try to boot the ACC. It could work
The only outcome really I don't want is for the Power 5 schools to be officially broken up into tier 1 and tier 2 categories. Even though it hasn't happened in a while, the possibility of a Cinderella season is one college footballs most appealing aspects.
I also have anxiety that we would be on the bubble between tier 1 and 2, but honestly if there are 30 to 40 teams in tier 1, I think we make the cut pretty easily.
David Teel was on Packer and Durham this morning and I think summed up the ACC's problem. The per school tv revenue distribution was $30 some mil last year. You bring in another school, they're going to have to at least bring it that much more in order to just break even with the distribution. Now factor in two to make it an even 16. You're probably looking at over $100-150m in additional value in two new schools in order to make it a winning proposition. First, I don't think that will even be enough to come close to what the SEC and B1G could generate, and second, I don't see two schools with that much value that would make the jump to the ACC. Adding WVU/Cincy/UCF ain't going to make it happen.
I think the conference is honestly doomed if this comes to sheer dollars and cents, GoR be damned. There are too many schools with no real emphasis on football, and adding Pitt, Cuse, and BC was nothing but dead weight. If anything, the ACC would have a better shot at staying afloat if it booted some schools out, which we know won't happen.
VT picked to finish third in the coastal
I was reading some pieces over the weekend that said it wouldn't be surprising for the SEC to cherry pick schools in order to grow to around 24 teams and essentially create their own athletic division within the sport. If something like that were to go down, then it very much would be in the same vein of the ESL, especially if they decided they would still like to compete for the CFP on the side.
Agreed. When you have OSU and Michigan looking under seat cushions for money it seems, the SEC has plenty to offset these deals.
A majority of football programs are going to be on the outside of the SEC and not have the chance to play against these opponents.
That's probably a fair assessment of trying to schedule Mega-SEC teams for OOC games, but it really isn't comparable at all to the proposed-and-scrapped ESL, which was more games between the historically relevant European teams on top of their typical league and cup schedules. An undefeated VT squad would still make the CFP
This is absolutely true today. 10 years ago the ACC was more balanced than it is now. I think the ACC is in real peril of completely folding, depending how other dominoes fall. I don't think ND football will ever join a conference (recent playoff expansion essentially cemented their status as an independent) and the ACC's only real shot at long term survival, IMO was adding ND. That ship has sailed. IF Clemson bolts for the SEC or the B1G the ACC will likely collapse. My only hope at this stage is that VT lands in one of the inevitable super conferences.
Agreed, and fwiw, he's stated a few times that the reason for closed scrimmages isn't so much fear of giving away plays and schemes, but wanting to create a closed/private environment for the kids to feel comfortable making mistakes, learning, and growing. I think he even said something about it in this interview where if a corner for example has a clip posted of them getting burned in practice, it can negatively impact how much they're willing to take chances and focus on the lessons they're learning. Whether that's overly sensitive, or not in line with "practice like you play" in terms of constant pressure, idk. Im sure there are plenty of differing opinions. But the closed practices are definitely a conscious, player-first/team-first decision.
I wish the spring games were televised, cause I can't get up to bburg very often and Im fiending for some actual content in the spring, but I imagine the reason for not doing so is in-line with the above.
The OU/UT to the SEC isn't the same because it's a rearrangement and concentration of teams, and it's effectively within the current NCAA structure. They're still competing for conference championship, they're still competing for national championship within the structure of NCAA CFP system.
I guess it wasn't clear in my previous posts, but when I was talking about 'CFB becoming more like European Soccer' I was referring to Graham Coffey's Tweet, where he mentioned that "the SEC could become its own division. More teams have reached out than what's being reported. 20-24 within the realm of possibility." I'm hoping that IF this happened, it would not be a static league; Instead it would be a league that teams could be promoted to after a great season in a different conference. I'm not sure if that's likely/possible/etc.
I get what you're saying. Its closed scrimmages one day, and then participation trophies the next.
Mental fortitude is definitely a component of this, but it might also just be about distraction. Like if you're worried about getting some views and some likes during practice, maybe you're not focusing on the lessons as much as you could be.