CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: ELA on February 15, 2018, 12:08:59 AM
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The fact that we are like 5 days in without a thread should answer it, but is anyone watching?
On one hand I like how the marquee primetime events are live, but what I always enjoy are the sports I don't otherwise watch, and having them essentially take place overnight kind of takes away from that.
The hockey being garbage doesn't help.
What is always my major issue with the Winter games is simply that in the Summer, you have the athletes racing at the same time in most events, and that adds excitement. It's tough to watch the same thing over and over for the Winter Games, just racing the clock, and to the naked eye, they look close to the same.
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I'm definitely watching this USA v Canada (women's) hockey game. This is always must watch. USA with so many chances tonight. Getting pushed around a bit too.
I do DVR and watch biathlon/skiathlon/cross country events. They are always my favorite events of the winter games. I also watch Curling, but then again, I watch it on NBCSN when it isn't the olympics. Curling is fun to play, but pretty tough to be casually good.
I have little interest in the X game sports, and watch some of the alpine skiing. Speed skating is still a great event to watch, but as the USA struggles NBC has buried it. Amazing how the Dutch fans take over the building. The kids love the figure skating of course, and surprisingly, the curling.
edit: DVR is the only way to watch these games (minus this rare live Hockey game at night).
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Disagree about hockey. I think (with NHL players) the Olympic tournament is as good as it gets. But these guys? It's not good hockey at all, and I don't find hockey to be a sport (much like basketball) that translates well to women's. I don't like hockey enough to watch it played at the level it's being played at in the Olympics. Kind of like what has happened to NCAA hockey over the past 20 years, with fewer of the top players going the college route. I used to love college hockey, and always watched the rare times it was on. Now, it's on quite a bunch between ESPNU, NBCSN and BTN, and it's tough to watch.
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I'm not sure we're in disagreement. I'm not watching the men's hockey at all, mostly for the reasons you stated. I'm only tuning into USA v Canada (at least the women's game). They've had a good history of games over the years, and for whatever reason its compelling to me. I won't be watching say Canada v OAR, or US vs Finland though.
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Yeah, sports generally lend themselves to one gender or another.
It is strange to watch men play figure skating, gymnastics, volleyball, tennis or cheerleading.
It is strange to watch women play basketball, ice hockey, soccer etc.
I do get a kick out of women's lacrosse. But most people probably don't.
That said I do typically attend a game or two of OSU W Ice Hockey every year, just because it's free and I like the old arena. Usually it is just their boyfriends and parents in the stands, but they are pretty good this year. So it was standing room only when they were playing Penn State.
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I'm not watching
I have NCAA basketball to watch
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My wife grew up with Nick Baumgardner in the U.P. of Michigan- they were neighbors. it's kinda funny how many folks of note came out of that small town- for instance Jan Quareless is also from there- i got to sit and BS with him for hours over the holidays...
at any rate, Nick run last night, and i watched the first one... didn't see the others, but he placed 4th.. his highest finish ever after winning x-games several times...
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Yeah, sports generally lend themselves to one gender or another.
It is strange to watch men play figure skating, gymnastics, volleyball, tennis or cheerleading.
It is strange to watch women play basketball, ice hockey, soccer etc.
I do get a kick out of women's lacrosse. But most people probably don't.
That said I do typically attend a game or two of OSU W Ice Hockey every year, just because it's free and I like the old arena. Usually it is just their boyfriends and parents in the stands, but they are pretty good this year. So it was standing room only when they were playing Penn State.
I don't think it's strange. I just don't find the brand very entertaining.
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Last night was the 1st night my family missed watching the Olympics.
Girls love Figure Skating.
I like Hockey (mens and womens,) short track racing, the Snow Boarding race where they all go at once. And biathlon (skiing and shooting as an event, hell yes!)
IMHO they should alter the Winter Olympics to Winter/Indoor Olympics. Summer Olympics are about 4x times bigger but cost is comparable (minus Sochi cost at a corrupt 50 Billion.)
Winter - 2952 athletes, 102 events
Summer - 11,328 athletes, 306 events
Badminton, Boxing, Fencing, Handball, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo weightlifting, and Wrestling (or a subset) all could easily switch to Winter/Indoor at a very small cost increase and bring diversity to the Winter games.
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That's an excellent point. Basketball would be tough if the NBA or NCAA won't give players time off though.
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My oldest was yelling about this last night. I think Norway and the Netherlands might object, but it makes perfect sense. They like being atop the medal standings.
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Been watching a little, but don't have enough time to really dig in.
I'm generally not a fan of judged sports as far as the scoring goes. I still like watching them; whether its figure skating, gymnastics, or snow boarding, those athletes do amazing, awe-inspiring things. I just don't like how subjective the winning and losing is.
Would watch more if I had more time.
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I've been watching the Olympics this year; since I DVR everything, it is pretty easy to just fast forward to events / people I want to see. So far, been disappointed in US Figure Skating results and having the Alpine ski event postponed multiple times hasn't helped me by having to fast forward through multiple events I don't particularly like.
On the other hand, while I am not a snowboard enthusiast by any means, it sure has been fun watching the US get all the golds, ha ha. My jaw about hit the floor in the half-pipe events; no way would I even attempt half of what Shaun White and Chloe Kim pulled off. I hope that Japanese snow boarder is ok after his accident - hitting that concrete hard half pipe sure looked painful.
My preference is definitely for the Summer Games because of the swimming / diving / and gymnastics. For someone who ran track in high school I just can't get into the track and field events for some reason. I think marathoners are crazy.
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Watched a few events, skiing and snowboarding. So far my favorite has been the 5000m women's speed skating, which a Dutch girl knocked off the reigning two time gold medalist from Czech Republic. Was thinking how the Dutch do better at the rink skating events than the outdoor slopes and guessing it goes back to national geography. The Netherlands is the flattest nation in the world and obviously can't grow downhill skiers within it's own borders.
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Oddly I find them EASIER to watch with this timing. It's like they've scheduled for the US audience. You can pretty much get the important shit live watching the NBC prime time coverage. The hockey is garbage, and there are no other team sports. So that coverage has pretty much hit everything I want to seem
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Yah, not sure how they pulled it off, but at least one event occurs at 10am Korea time, so East Coast USA gets 8pm prime time viewing.
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Yah, not sure how they pulled it off, but at least one event occurs at 10am Korea time, so East Coast USA gets 8pm prime time viewing.
Because NBC Universal's rights payments accounts for over half of the TV rights paid to the IOC (and depending on how you measure it, 20-25% of all income to the IOC). So it's not unreasonable for them to throw their weight around.
Also, better get used to much of the action taking place in the small hours of the morning. The next two Olympics are in the Far East (Tokyo, Beijing/Harbin).
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Networks have often jockeyed for preferred time slots of events. The Euro networks have bid for primetime cross country and biathalon. Nbc wanted various Xgame events in prime and of course deservedly took grief for forcing the snowboard cross to take place in less than ideal conditions . That was a shame.
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I really wish US hockey would have just went with all college kids this Olympics. I'd have much rather seen more Troy Terry's than Chris Bourques the past week.
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Awesome moment for the US Cross Country team 'last night'/broadcast earlier/rerun tonight (2 woman Sprint Relay) . The first ever gold medal for any U.S. athlete in cross country skiing, and only the second medal. Bill Koch won a silver in '76. The pair (Diggins of Minnesota, Randall of Alaska) was expected to be in the medals, but things were totally up in the air that entire final lap between (SWE, NOR, USA).
The color guy on the NBC broadcast (Chad Salmela) was brilliant. You gotta sell Cross Country skiing to begin with, but Salmela is really knowledgable about the athletes and has great enthusiasm. He's had other great lines and calls before, but 'Here Comes Diggins!, Here Comes Diggins!' is an all-timer. It made me think of the 'Look at Mills, Look at Mills!' call of the '64 Olympics 10,000m (when Billy Mills won an impossible gold).
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Women's hockey final was fantastic. U.S. dominated from the middle of the 3rd period to the shootout, then had to take it to chance. Then more chance. One of the Canadians ripped her silver medal off as soon as the presenter stepped to the next player. Wow.
No, the women don't play at the same level as the men, but who cares? Cfb isn't the same level as the NFL, and it's still great fun to watch.
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Women's hockey final was fantastic. U.S. dominated from the middle of the 3rd period to the shootout, then had to take it to chance. Then more chance. One of the Canadians ripped her silver medal off as soon as the presenter stepped to the next player. Wow.
No, the women don't play at the same level as the men, but who cares? Cfb isn't the same level as the NFL, and it's still great fun to watch.
I might be off here, but I felt like Canada Woman's Hockey Team was akin to the USA Men's Basketball Dream Team. They dominated the sport for the last 20 years. How would you have felt to be the 1st team to not win the Gold? It would be tough for me to deal with it.
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That's an excellent point. Basketball would be tough if the NBA or NCAA won't give players time off though.
I always played Basketball outside growing up. Didn't even consider it as an indoor sport. And yes that would be a harder one to get the best athletes on board with for switching. Also Gymnastics is always inside, I think that would be a hard sell to switch seasons.
I guess I was just looking for more balance in Summer vs. Winter; and Basketball and Gymnastics have a parrell sport (for me) in Winter games.
Basketball = Hockey
Gymnastics = Ice skating.
And once we get all the smaller Indoor sports ported off to the Winter Games, we can bring American Football.
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Bobsled is badass.
Friends of mine have been practitioners of the sliding sports, and I once went to the track in Park City to see them in action. You really need to see it in person to appreciate just how fast they’re going.
As for the hullabaloo over the silver medal, I believe that it was Floyd Mayweather who once said that you don’t win silver, you lose gold. I guess I understand losing for the first time in 20 Year’s is going to burn, but keep that on.
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Hyperbole? Figure skating announcer just compared the Russian rivalry to "Ali needed Fraser, Ohio State needed Michigan, New York needed Boston, to be truly great. Just like random Russian needs to be at other random Russian to be truly great." - oh boy.
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How is that hyperbole just because you don't pay attention to the sport?
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I watched the Nathan's hotdog eating contest one year, and it was making those comparisons with itself, so yeah, it's hyperbole. Figure skating matters for about a week every 4 years. Nothing wrong with that, but to suggest otherwise isn't really honest.
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I think saying a rival who is your equal or near equal betters you is not hyperbolic, just because you don't care about the sport. That can be true in the workplace, or anywhere. They are simply using examples more familiar to a mainstream audience. If they had said this is a rivalry as great or important as Ali-Frazier, then yes, hyperbole. To say one needed the other to reach her best, like Ali needed Frazier, I think is a perfectly apt comparison.
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As for the hullabaloo over the silver medal, I believe that it was Floyd Mayweather who once said that you don’t win silver, you lose gold. I guess I understand losing for the first time in 20 Year’s is going to burn, but keep that on.
I think it depends on how you win it. If you're racing the clock and the come down the hill to see where you stand, and see all the others you stand above looking at their times, too--particularly if you're never in first, it's a lot easier to appreciate the new jewelry. Or if you're racing next to someone and you see him beat you, but you beat 6 or 7 or 15+ others at the same time. That's one thing. If you play your biggest rival mano a mano and lose, it's awfully hard to appreciate that you're better than all the others who lost before you--at least in the moment.
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I think it depends on how you win it. If you're racing the clock and the come down the hill to see where you stand, and see all the others you stand above looking at their times, too--particularly if you're never in first, it's a lot easier to appreciate the new jewelry. Or if you're racing next to someone and you see him beat you, but you beat 6 or 7 or 15+ others at the same time. That's one thing. If you play your biggest rival mano a mano and lose, it's awfully hard to appreciate that you're better than all the others who lost before you--at least in the moment.
I think particularly here, because it was viewed as a two horse race. Both team's supposed floor was the Silver.
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Rough week for Canada. Curling squads really crap themselves, The Women's team goes down, and the Men (acknowledging the Men's tourney is a joke) goes down to Germany, ouch. Throw in the many fashion faux pas by Trudeau this week in India, and it has not been good for our neighbors this week. (I guess Osmond acquitted herself well last night as the undercard in the Russian duel.).
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How is that hyperbole just because you don't pay attention to the sport?
Too follow up; I don't follow the sport. But I have learned The 15 year old who won, this was her 1st major tournament on the Senor level (Won the World Juniors in 2017) and the 18 year old who got Silver has admitted the "game" has already passed her by, 17 of the top 20 skaters in Russia are still in the Juniors program, the other 3 competed in these olympics. The two trained 1 year on the same ice.
Hyperbole.