Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Actually, being a cord cutter is more problematic in BB season than football.  Football games are only once a week and they are big enough "events" that I can usually go to a party or my brother's house or a bar.  BB is more difficult, I can't run out twice a week for two hours for a tOSU BB game so I end up seeing very few games per year. 

And you wouldn't know about this, but being a cord cutter is also more problematic if you're a fan of a non-helmet. 

You get pissed off on the rare occurrences your team is not available on a major broadcast network. The rest of us get excited when our team IS on a major broadcast network--even if it's only because we're playing your team. 

This is true but I'll add that it also has to do with being a good team.  Helmets that suck get on national TV more often than non-helmets that suck but still not nearly as much as helmets that are good in that year. 

It also helps that I live local.  I'm in Ohio so if there is a game on OTA, it IS going to be tOSU.  For you as a Purdue fan in SoCal, even if the Boilermakers are on OTA, they might not be on OTA in SoCal. 

To add context, from 2012-2024:

• Ohio State has been ranked in 211 out of 213 AP Polls.  The exceptions are the two weeks in 2020 when the B1G was inactive due to COVID and thus tOSU was ineligible.  Only Alabama has been ranked more, all 213 and third place is Clemson with 188 appearances (25 less than tOSU).  
• Ohio State has been in the top-10 in 191 out of 213 AP Polls (89.7%).  This is again second only to Bama with 199 and WAY ahead of #3 (UGA).  
• Ohio State has been in the top-5 in 137 out of 213 AP Polls (64.3%).  This is again second only to Bama with 170 and well ahead of #3 (UGA).  

So in recent times my team has been OTA a LOT not only because they are a Helmet but also because they've been a contender almost all the time.  Obviously those two things are related but they aren't exactly the same.  There are a LOT of Helmets that haven't been in the top-25 as much as tOSU has been in the top-5.  

Holy wall of text, batman!  Take it to the cord-cutters thread.  It's over there ------------>

f*** that.  Somebody smart tell me if there are any streaming options for network channels besides YTTV and Hulu now.  They're too dang expensive, it's just about cable prices now.  With Texas now in the SEC, I think pretty much every cfb game we watched came on the ESPN family.  Sling is still an option for that, and I think I can use Sling credentials to watch ABC games on ESPN3.  

However, there is the occasional non-SEC game that we'll watch.  And the elephant in the room is the NFL, which the wife won't do without, so....  Antennae is not an option for me, we live too far from the city and the signals are weak as hell.  Anything obscure y'all know about that I don't?

Those have to be old people watching local news and Wheel of Fortune.  I can't imagine anyone who cares about college football just getting over the air broadcast TV

There are a ton of old people who pay whatever to have their TV channels unchanged for decades.  

As for me, as soon as the season was over, I cancelled my youtube TV and will continue it when August rolls around.
I don't watch any traditional shows on TV and 90% of anything I'd want to watch, including news, is on youtube itself.  Getting it w/o ads with youtube premium is a great deal, especially w/o the cost of a TV service.

we wring our hands and nash our teeth but the numbers say the game is as healthy as EVER
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While the 12-team bracket did not increase the ratings of individual games, the expanded format and the added meaning it carried to a wider number of games generated increased interest down the line. The number of games to draw 20, 15, 10, 7 and 5 million viewers were all up; the number of 10+ million games nearly doubled year-over-year.

With 1 entity having a show and podcast and youtube channel being so common, there's not a lot of reason to have traditional TV.
Any show you want to catch, you can see it on youtube (for the most part).  
News?  The internet is like 40% news/half porn/ and the rest of it fits in that 10% left over.

Netflix is still a great deal for the price.
I have Prime just based on having it for purchases through Amazon, so it's basically free.
And I just find it well worth the $15 or so per month to not have ads on Youtube, which I use more than the others now.

So for like $40/mo, I'm happy in the college football offseason.  
I'm never at a loss for finding great content.

I also have Max, but rarely watch it.  I shared it with a friend and she uses it much more than I do.  I catch Real Time.  In the past year, Max has really added a ton of non-HBO content.  Oh, and some newer movies come out on Max while still in theaters, but I don't rely on that.  It's nice to discover sometimes.

I just know there's a TON of mostly older people, just plugging along, unnecessarily paying their $200+/mo cable bill that don't have to.
BUT it would mean new hardware they're unfamiliar with, totally new channels on multiple platforms they feel they couldn't navigate (which may be true).
When you have money, ease of use is worth every penny, I guess.

That list shows me that no one gives a shit about SMU football, aside from a few rich Dallas dudes.
They're still a mid-major program - that doesn't go away in under a year.