What do you pay attention to? What do you ignore? What do you no longer care about that you used to find intriguing? All good questions.
They came to me recently when I realized how my sports viewing habits changed over the past 10-15 years. The seeds were planted and watered way earlier than that, probably during the early years of baseball free agency in the early-1980s.
At that time, I still knew the lineups of many major league teams. I could tell you who the all-stars were. I grew up as a New York Yankee fan, endured many bad seasons and then they’d come back to the top of the league and I was invigorated to pay close attention, watching several playoff and World Series contests that charged me up.
That joy (and caring) went away slowly as free agency made it more difficult to root for the players (who are what we invest ourselves in as fans). When I stopped connecting with them either because the Yanks were paying monumental bucks to bring in free agents or they were losing players for the same reason, that was when my level of disinterest accelerated. You didn’t know the names of the players on the rosters anymore. Why care?
I remember analyzing this in my head those 40-some-odd years ago. Pre-free agency, the MLB roster of 25 players would typically be 20 or 21 from the year before. After free agency, that number started to drop and you might only know 17 the next year or 15, or 13. It was harder to recognize the names and get to know the players because they shifted so quickly.
That process, in general in professional sports, has only accelerated since then. And, now, it has become ubiquitous in Division I college sports, particularly football and basketball.
The NIL (name, image, likeness) system in college sports is a good and fair thing to me, but a result has been college free agency for athletes. They go to another program to get more money, and you no longer follow the roster of your favorite team as closely.
Another factor weakening my support as a fan at the college level is the additional year of eligibility. Many players now stay for a fifth year and transfer out of their long-term program to a better NIL deal with another school for their last year. You lose your connection to the athletes you wedded yourself to.
These variables hurt the fan and the sport. It’s hard to root for a player if they don’t stay at your school for very long. In they leave after one year (increasingly common), you’ll quickly forget they ever went to your school.
This is sad and has changed my sports viewing and cheering habits dramatically. I just plain don’t watch nearly as much sports as I did 15 years ago. I was a college basketball junkie for 30 years, easily. Now, if I watch one or two full games a week, that would be unusual.
As humans, we focus on what we like. We root for teams and players because of local ties or the types of players/teams that stand out to us in some way. They’re fun. They compete loose and fast. They have some pudgy, slow left-handed guy who can’t miss a three-point shot or masters a shovel pass threaded to his teammates repeatably for layups and you go, “YEAH! DO IT, BIG MAN!”
All that has changed. We aren’t going back. I’m hoping for some sanity in the accelerating transition of players at the collegiate level. I’m hopeful we are in a small period where everyone is figuring out how to adjust, then things will settle down and I can become more of a fan again.
They came to me recently when I realized how my sports viewing habits changed over the past 10-15 years. The seeds were planted and watered way earlier than that, probably during the early years of baseball free agency in the early-1980s.
At that time, I still knew the lineups of many major league teams. I could tell you who the all-stars were. I grew up as a New York Yankee fan, endured many bad seasons and then they’d come back to the top of the league and I was invigorated to pay close attention, watching several playoff and World Series contests that charged me up.
That joy (and caring) went away slowly as free agency made it more difficult to root for the players (who are what we invest ourselves in as fans). When I stopped connecting with them either because the Yanks were paying monumental bucks to bring in free agents or they were losing players for the same reason, that was when my level of disinterest accelerated. You didn’t know the names of the players on the rosters anymore. Why care?
I remember analyzing this in my head those 40-some-odd years ago. Pre-free agency, the MLB roster of 25 players would typically be 20 or 21 from the year before. After free agency, that number started to drop and you might only know 17 the next year or 15, or 13. It was harder to recognize the names and get to know the players because they shifted so quickly.
That process, in general in professional sports, has only accelerated since then. And, now, it has become ubiquitous in Division I college sports, particularly football and basketball.
The NIL (name, image, likeness) system in college sports is a good and fair thing to me, but a result has been college free agency for athletes. They go to another program to get more money, and you no longer follow the roster of your favorite team as closely.
Another factor weakening my support as a fan at the college level is the additional year of eligibility. Many players now stay for a fifth year and transfer out of their long-term program to a better NIL deal with another school for their last year. You lose your connection to the athletes you wedded yourself to.
These variables hurt the fan and the sport. It’s hard to root for a player if they don’t stay at your school for very long. In they leave after one year (increasingly common), you’ll quickly forget they ever went to your school.
This is sad and has changed my sports viewing and cheering habits dramatically. I just plain don’t watch nearly as much sports as I did 15 years ago. I was a college basketball junkie for 30 years, easily. Now, if I watch one or two full games a week, that would be unusual.
As humans, we focus on what we like. We root for teams and players because of local ties or the types of players/teams that stand out to us in some way. They’re fun. They compete loose and fast. They have some pudgy, slow left-handed guy who can’t miss a three-point shot or masters a shovel pass threaded to his teammates repeatably for layups and you go, “YEAH! DO IT, BIG MAN!”
All that has changed. We aren’t going back. I’m hoping for some sanity in the accelerating transition of players at the collegiate level. I’m hopeful we are in a small period where everyone is figuring out how to adjust, then things will settle down and I can become more of a fan again.
