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

nope, no line in the sand moment

just a gradual decline from fanaticism over time, time with under performing program

starting with Bill Callahan - 2004

19 years w/o a legit shot at the national title 

It isn't so much performance related as life related for me.

You mentioned having kids, that us the biggest part of it for me.

The other thing that has changed is the ability to easily price-check and get tickets on the secondary market online. 

Years ago there were two ways to get season tickets for Ohio State football:

• Be an alum from prior to about 1975*, buy your one game per year for a few years, then you'd get the ability to buy season tickets and you would maintain that so long as you kept buying them, or
• Write a check for about a grand to tOSU and that would get you eligible to buy season tickets for that year.

We lucked into a situation where a friend of my dad was too old to go to the games but he got the season tickets and just sold them to my dad for about 20 years.

At first I was in school at Ohio State and my brother (HS at the time) and dad would come down for the games.

Then I graduated and soon after that my brother started at Ohio State so my dad and I would go down for the games. 

After my brother graduated we had two tickets for the three of us. Plus my brother and I each got two tickets to one game through the Alumni Association. 


By that time my dad was old enough to not really want to go to cold-weather games so my brother and I alternated going to early season games with my dad, then my brother and I would go to the October/November games.

Long story short, I probably went to about three-quarters of Ohio State's home games from 1993-2017 or so. Plus dad, brother, and I traveled to all the B1G stadiums to watch them and I went to some bowl games as well.

My oldest turns four tomorrow and he has two younger sisters. Between having kids, my dad having alzheimers, then passing away, and the pandemic, I haven't been to an Ohio State game in years. I think my last one was THE GAME in 2018.

I still watch, but it isn't nearly as much of a plan EVERYTHING around it deal. Part of that is time, part of it is the CFP. In the old days a loss was a HUMONGOUS deal because it pretty much eliminated any NC hopes. This past year Ohio State lost to Michigan and while that still sucks, their very next game was a NC Semi-final. The Game used to BE the NC Semi-final. 

Basketball:
As an Ohio State fan, this is a better comparison for me. I'm not done with the team, but until they make the necessary change at HC there is no reason to expect any notable accomplishments. I've accepted that.


*The season tickets thing:
I know alums from the 60's. They all get season tickets without writing big checks. They bought their one game a year for a few years (meaning <5) then got upgraded to season tickets. 

I know alums from the late 1970's who have bought their tickets to one game per year for almost 50 years and they STILL don't get season tickets. 

What is funny is that I've heard more than a few of them tell their kids NOT to let tOSU know when they die and I know two attorneys in town who have kept estates open to keep getting the tickets, LoL.

I've been scalpin tickets successfully since 1981

No line in the sand for me.

I've been a season ticket holder since 1993 (This will be my 30th year)

I think this may be different for people like you who live locally than it is for people like me or like @847badgerfan used to be where we live 2+ hours away. 

I might spend the $ on season tickets if I lived in Columbus or a Columbus suburb. 

Living two hours away makes going to a game into a full day activity:

• Noon game: Get up early, leave early, game, early dinner on the way home, home in the evening. 
• 330 game: Leave a little later but still not a lot of time to get anything done, game, dinner in Columbus, home late evening. 
• Night game: You can get things done on GameDay at home but Sunday is a mess because you get home at 4am.

overpriced hotels suck!

football saturdays have always been all about football, so spending the entire day is fine
or even Friday through Sunday afternoon

but, it is expensive

Like others, it was more about life, than anything else, for me.  With a family and kids, I just don't have the time to devote to being a fan, that I did in my 20s and early 30s.

And with maturity and increased breadth of perspective, it also just matters less and becomes a lower priority for emotional output.  Why would I let sports give me gray hair, when worrying about my teenaged kids is already doing a bang-up job!

This ties in to what @rolltidefan said. As an Ohio State fan I haven't had it quite as good as he has but really, I can't complain. I've seen two NC seasons and both were played when I was going to LOTS of games so I saw most of the home games in both of those seasons in person plus an away game in each, the 02 NC Game against Miami, and The '14 Semi-final against his team.

That changes perspectives. When I was growing up all through after I graduated from college the Buckeyes' 1968 title team was REVERED in Ohio State fandom.

Understand why:
That NC happened seven years before I was born and it was STILL Ohio State's most recent title when I was in my mid 20's in the early 2000's.

I think Bama has a lot of titles that are almost forgotten already because there have been more recent ones. That didn't happen with Ohio State 1968 because it was THE title that all of us tOSU fans looked back at for 34 years.

The point is that when I was watching NC contenders pre-2002 one reason I didn't want to miss ANYTHING was that there was a very real possibility that I might only get one chance in a lifetime. Even after 2002, at that 34 year rate Ohio State's next would have been when I was in my 60's. Now, I've seen two. I'd love to see a bunch more in a run like what Alabama had but if I miss a game in a future NC season, well I saw them all in '02 and '14.

The 1968 season I was 8 years old and it was the first that I really followed Ohio State Football and knew what was going on.  Was glued to 610 radio every Saturday because most games were not televised live. But would watch the game replays on channel 34 every Sunday. So I started on top and spent a long time thinking we would only be close but never win it again.  It is worst being a Browns fan, I was 4 the last time they won a championship and I have no memory of it.  I still rarely miss a game of either team but rarely live since I live so far away from both teams.