22 College Football Thoughts for 2022, No. 16: The NFL announcers are fine, but the college stars are better … and we can’t lose them to the next level
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22 College Football Thoughts For 2022
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22 College Football Thoughts For 2022
22, College football is changing, and it’s okay
21, Texas & Oklahoma, you really want the SEC?
20. SEC is really, really good if you like it or not
19. James Madison, welcome to the show
18. Sun Belt is the cool conference
17. Transfer Portal will only get bigger
16. Here’s the deal, NFL broadcasting world …
The NFL hates to admit that some aspects of the college game are better.
The college version of instant replay … better.
Overtime system – as contrived as it might be … better.
Rivalries and traditions … way better.
Length of halftime … okay, so the NFL wins that by seven touchdowns, but there’s one area that college football has all over the NFL.
1) Pregame shows, and, with some huge exceptions calling college games that I won’t get into, 2) the announcers.
Nothing against all the hard-working and more-than-competent people doing NFL broadcasts, but there’s a reason why Peyton and Eli made it so easy for fans to move away from the normal call of a game – and why ESPN spent a gajillion dollars for Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
Oh sure, there’s Al Michaels, and Buck is terrific – he’s so unfairly dogged – but the NFL announcing teams are all … fine.
It’s the NFL. It likes things to be uniform, which is why Tony Romo can be goofy and he sounds like a breath of fresh air.
Now, find the NFL announcing team that has as much fun calling a game as Mark Jones and Robert Griffin III when they’re rolling.
There will never be another Keith Jackson, but Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit are far better than you think. The NFL figured out that Herbstreit would be fantastic for its broadcasts, too, as he pairs up with Michaels on Amazon’s Thursday Night Football. That’s where it needs to stop.
Of course these are professional talents who can be great juggling different levels of football – certainly Jackson did other sports without a problem and Fowler is terrfic with his tennis work – but having signature voices in college football matters.
It’s part of the identity of the sport. Having a side hustle is fine, but the top college announcers and analysts need to stick around.
Eventually, the NFL is going to figure out just how miserable the pablum of their big-network pregame shows are – seriously, NFL, fewer big brand name ex-jocks and coaches doing fluffy talk – and it’ll steal the whole College GameDay crew. Everyone tries to imitate it now for every sport, but it’s just not the same. It’s not as authentic.
So here’s the deal, NFL.
Yeah, fine, college football loans you Herbstreit for Thursday night games, and college football gets Peyton and Eli for Tuesday night MACtion and the occasional Saturday afternoon SEC showdown. The Mannings actually like the college world better, anyway.
Cool?
22 College Football Thoughts For 2022
22, College football is changing, and it’s okay
21, Texas & Oklahoma, you really want the SEC?
20. SEC is really, really good if you like it or not
19. James Madison, welcome to the show
18. Sun Belt is the cool conference
17. Transfer Portal will only get bigger
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