When is enough, enough? Somehow, we seem to think that if something is good, more is better. Do you really need the never-ending pasta bowl, the 1,000-calorie burger, so big you can’t even put your mouth around? We need food to live but disproportionate eating results in obesity. Exercise is good for you but is more better? We often find people obsessed with exercise, people who actually get sick if they miss a workout. Marathons used to be a common goal. How about running 100 miles? 200? I’m not opposed to alcohol but too much creates buffoons and robs you of your reflexes.
Sitting more is not better. Sitting too much has become the new smoking, often accompanied by a host of health problems. For those of us who like to watch sports, we’re in big trouble. There is no end in sight. The third week of October is a case in point. The World Series started but how many noticed that the NHL was also starting, the WNBA finals were ending, and the NBA was playing. Football has expanded to most nights of the week. We have become a nation of sitters.
Sports used to be seasonal: football in the fall, basketball and hockey in winter, baseball in spring and summer. Hockey now goes into June. I’ve been to Canada in June; there isn’t any ice. Pro football starts in September and ends in February. The NBA goes on forever with 82 games but that’s just counting regular play; the playoffs go on for two months. Baseball has 162 regular games with the World Series occasionally interrupted by snow.
More talk shows are not better. ESPN began in 1979 and people wondered if 24 hours of sports could be filled. Originally, ESPN actually aired a number of sports besides football and basketball. You could watch skiing, handball games, fencing, weightlifting and more. Most of these amateur sporting events have been replaced, not by sport, but by talk shows, so-called experts droning on endlessly about football, baseball, and basketball. More football analysts are not better. Pre-game and halftime football routinely have 5-6 guys talking and joking incessantly, fighting for air time. Two is enough.
For years college football ended the week after Thanksgiving. A few major bowls occurred on New Year’s Day and it was all over. Then the fun began as everyone argued over who was voted national champion; sometimes there was more than one. So football officials decided to have a playoff. On Jan. 1, 2015, four teams played in a playoff that ended two weeks later. Last year, 12 teams played in the college football playoffs. Results were mixed with some one-sided competitions.
Surely, 12 teams were enough, why not more? Recently, it was announced that it looks like we will have 24 teams in the future. If 12 was questionable, 24 is simply absurd. Does anyone actually believe the nonsense that this will establish a true champion, that all 24 teams actually belong? Don’t be foolish enough to think that this move is a desire toward fairness. We all know that this is simply driven by money. Athletic directors and college presidents are licking their chops. Coaches will probably suggest they need an increase to their already bloated salaries. After all, they’re going to have to work more. More is not better, but don’t tell that to FanDuel and DraftKings. They are eagerly waiting.
More television ads is not better, but they cannot wait for a longer playoff season. Each college game has 125 advertisements. So we have to sit and watch mostly mindless advertising. Do you really want to buy insurance from a duck, or a lizard? How about an emu and his dumb partner? More advertising is not better.
But what about the players? In many respects, they have no choice. After all, they are not amateurs, as they are all paid, some extremely well. But I strongly suspect that the third string guard on the 24th ranked team who has no chance of either playing or winning, will wonder. What will a tournament of 24 bring? More athletes will get hurt, class time will further diminish, more one-sided games will occur. The champion will probably be the same if only 12 teams played, or even 4. The NCAA needs to stop bragging about how they promote the student-athlete. Succeeding in school during football season is already tough enough.
Jim Johnson is a retired professor of exercise and sport science after teaching 52 years at Smith College and Washington University in St. Louis. He comments about sport, exercise, and sports medicine. He can be reached at jjohnson@smith.edu.