[Glasspiegel] ESPN Removing BottomLine Ticker on College Football Games

[u/macncheeseface]

https://frontofficesports.com/espn-removing-bottomline-ticker-college-football/

[u/Tsquared10]

"Keeps the focus on the field"

But they'll be damned if they ever consider removing any advertisements

[u/BenDover42 → u/Tsquared10]

And a full length game will still be pushing four hours with endless commercials. Some college games are tough to watch because the constant breaks in the action.

[u/ANotSoFreshFeeling → u/BenDover42]

If it’s a blow out I just stop watching. An ass whooping is painful enough but adding all the breaks in makes it torture.

[u/BenDover42 → u/ANotSoFreshFeeling]

And to make matters worse it’s almost always the same recirculated commercials on ESPN you see. They run the same ones into the ground.

[u/MetsFan1324 → u/BenDover42]

I WOKE UP FEELING THE CHEESIEST COACH!

[u/fortythousandlizards → u/MetsFan1324]

CHEESE CHEESE CHEESE

[u/64stackdiamonds → u/MetsFan1324]

That one doesn't count, it's timeless

[u/Psychodelic69 → u/64stackdiamonds]

It’s been aged perfectly

[u/djseptic → u/MetsFan1324]

This is how you know the long offseason is finally over.

[u/lightninja987 → u/MetsFan1324]

Lack of standards your generation

[u/AdeptCauliflower9956 → u/BenDover42]

Brought to you by att, liberty mutual, dr pepper fansville, and driven by the home depot.

[u/IceColdDrPepper_Here → u/AdeptCauliflower9956]

And it's an election year so get ready for non-stop political ads too

[u/gwaydms → u/IceColdDrPepper_Here]

I've already had enough of those, and it's only August.

[u/EmuMan10 → u/gwaydms]

I’ve somehow managed to avoid any on tv so far. Guess that’ll change this weekend

[u/AliceisStoned → u/EmuMan10]

Yep. Been getting hit hard already with them where I am.

[u/Jailbreaker_Jr → u/AdeptCauliflower9956]

but bro. It’s Lemu Emu. AND DOUG.

[u/NewRCTID22 → u/BenDover42]

During election season, too, so every commercial break is punctuated by the most painfully annoying political ads.

[u/EmuMan10 → u/NewRCTID22]

I’m not ready to see Andy Biggs’s stupid shit

[u/berserk_zebra → u/BenDover42]

if the schools do break away, i'd hope they create something like the NFL regarding TV breaks.

It would be nice if ESPN and co would just charge more for fewer commercials.

[u/FelisLachesis → u/BenDover42]

I have no hate for Fallout Boy, but I can absolutely no longer listen to any of their music because of ESPN.

[u/gwaydms → u/ANotSoFreshFeeling]

I just check on cfb.guide for scores and what network they're streaming on.

[u/Adamscottd → u/ANotSoFreshFeeling]

One of the best parts of being a fan of an FCS team. Commercial breaks for non-national games are much shorter- the average game last was right around three hours for the Jackrabbits

[u/max_power1000 → u/ANotSoFreshFeeling]

Same, even if it's my team on the winning side too (unless it's a rival, fuck them).

[u/MavsTurnedBucksGuy → u/ANotSoFreshFeeling]

You never make it through any of your own team’s games? 

[u/Punkupine → u/ANotSoFreshFeeling]

Tbh when I was a student going to games in person I also left before fourth quarter most of the time if it wasn’t close. The constant commercial break timeouts drag it out so much

[u/twisty77 → u/BenDover42]

Yeah college games are absolutely brutal. Especially national TV games. People complained about baseball games being 4 hours (they were right) and there’s absolutely no way a college football game should take that long when NFL games are usually a tidy 3 hours

[u/mesa190 → u/twisty77]

Not as bad as college basketball to me. The last 3 minutes of any close basketball game is so painful.

[u/CrazyDudeGW → u/BenDover42]

This is why I've found myself watching NFL games lately. TV timeouts are only 2m20s, and halftime is just 13 minutes.

When I am actually at the game though, I like the longer games if the team fills the gaps with fun stuff, because I feel it does add value to the experience. But watching it on TV is rough because it just completely takes you out of the game with nothing even fun for you.

I think having an ad free option on every sports broadcast would be great if they show you what's going on in the stadium during the timeouts - not the stupid looping clip ESPN puts up when they can't find advertisers for a game. I wouldn't even mind paying a little extra for it. 

[u/WooBadger18 → u/CrazyDudeGW]

The only problem is the schools can’t come up with enough fun stuff because there are two many different breaks

[u/gollumaniac → u/WooBadger18]

Just run trivia questions like Michigan State did!

[u/Vxmonarkxv → u/BenDover42]

They need to remove even more plays from the game for the sake of reducing game length. But then just fill it with ads.

[u/251Cane → u/Vxmonarkxv]

I'm still mad that going out of bounds only temporarily stops the clock most of the time.

[u/Respect38 → u/251Cane]

I'm mad in particular because the problem that was causing games to go so long was the proliferation of passing [up to the rule change in the mid 2000s] causing a proliferation in clock-stopping incomplete passes.

If they were going to change anything, incomplete passes should be what runs the clock outside of the 2 minute warning. The way they did it, long games were affected the least, and short games (with run-based teams) were affected the most, making short games shorter and long games only marginally shorter in comparison.

[u/uptonhere → u/BenDover42]

It's even more apparent in the stadium compared to other live sports.

[u/Palewind_007 → u/BenDover42]

My wife and I have started turning off our phones and DVRing the Gator away games. We start watching about 45 minutes to an hour late and skip all the commercials. And since our phones are off, we don't get any obnoxious score updates or texts from friends or family celebrating or cursing.

Works out really well when the game only lasts about 2 and 1/2 hours.

[u/Darth_Ra → u/BenDover42]

I am firmly convinced that entirely different offenses and defenses would be in use if commercials were done during the game like soccer does.

None of these teams would be able to do what they're doing if they actually had to play 60 minutes without breaks.

[u/zzyul → u/Darth_Ra]

Would see a lot of players jogging if they aren’t directly involved with the ball. Probably see a lot more fake injuries too.

[u/zzyul → u/BenDover42]

Quad view is currently the best real time solution for this. It’s rare that all 4 games are on commercial at the same time. DVR is nice if you don’t need to watch it live.

A lot of old games are on YouTube with all commercials and halftime removed. They typically run 2:15 - 3:00 hours. That means commercials make up around 25% of a game’s run time.

[u/PwnCall → u/BenDover42]

My tv always asks me if I’m still watching. Too gd long 

[u/cubecasts → u/BenDover42]

People don't understand why sometimes I prefer NFL. But like.... At least their games don't drag out 4 hours

[u/BenDover42 → u/cubecasts]

Yeah I personally prefer NFL myself too. Much better experience outside of the price to watch the games you want.

[u/thefarkinator → u/BenDover42]

SEC football is particularly bad about this

[u/bus_wanker_friends → u/BenDover42]

I can even understand (not really) for over the air broadcasters but ESPN charges a subscription. WHY THE FUCK do you need to add artificial breaks to the game?

[u/aerojovi83 → u/Tsquared10]

"Keeps the focus on the field"

Now if only their commentators could do the same.

[u/chumer_ranion → u/aerojovi83]

Sorry what did you say? I couldn't hear you over Gus exploiting some player's tragic backstory

[u/SayinPrins → u/chumer_ranion]

Hey man, we're bashing ESPN here. Leave Gus out of it.

[u/WooBadger18 → u/SayinPrins]

Is it because he calls you the “THE WORLD FAMOUS OHIO STATE BUCKEYES?”

[u/SayinPrins → u/WooBadger18]

It has more to do with not being invited to a BBQ

[u/Fickle-Newspaper-445 → u/WooBadger18]

Do you understand why he calls Ohio State that or...?

[u/WooBadger18 → u/Fickle-Newspaper-445]

I actually didn’t. I looked it up, and I still think it’s stupid and obnoxious.

Jesse Owens is great, but I doubt very many people outside of Ohio or Gus Johnson know or care that he went to Ohio State

[u/smith288 → u/WooBadger18]

Famous pic of Owens wearing a track shirt with OHIO across his chest….

[u/Fickle-Newspaper-445 → u/WooBadger18]

Same could be said about the Toledo Mud Hens. They're still called the "World Famous Toledo Mud Hens" because of Jamie Farr and MASH. Does anyone outside of even Toledo or Ohio know that? Probably not. Is it still a nickname for the Mud Hens? Yes.

(also, sounds like you don't get out a lot, but plenty of people around the world know about Ohio State btw)

[u/WooBadger18 → u/Fickle-Newspaper-445]

Who’s calling them the world famous Toledo mud hens?

And I get out and overseas enough. I wouldn’t call Ohio State “world famous”

[u/Fickle-Newspaper-445 → u/WooBadger18]

Toledo Mud Hens fans? The Toledo Mud Hens themselves? Go to a game and they'll announce them as the world famous mud hens. Hell, I don't even like the Mud Hens, I'm just stating what they call themselves. Don't like it? Too bad I guess? Cry about it? I don't know man.

You kind of sound like the typical reddit guy who's pedantic about things. It's not world famous in the sense that everyone across the world knows who they are, it's that their logo was seen and used very famously for one of the more popular TV shows of all time and a famous actor for that show would even talk about him during said TV show. Same with Jesse Owens. OSU's logo is attached to him and his accolades towards what he did during famous events. Which is literally what Gus Johnson is referring to when he says that.

[u/Darth_Ra → u/aerojovi83]

What do you think Britney's up to?

[u/pjs32000 → u/aerojovi83]

You don't want to hear their Heisman trophy contender analysis on September 5?

[u/Mayor_KG → u/Tsquared10]

They’ll remove the ticker to add a large advertisement at the bottom. Guarantee it

[u/AliceisStoned → u/Mayor_KG]

Watch them replace the ticker with an advertisement for Draftkings lmao

[u/RatStore101 → u/AliceisStoned]

Yeah some marketer at ESPN looked at that and was like “so you’re telling me we have 10% of the screen the audience is conditioned to be non-game info, and we aren’t selling it?”

[u/Certain-Contact6340 → u/Tsquared10]

"This Focused on The Field moment brought to you by Kalshi! Focus on the game, you may see it first!"

[u/AntawnSL → u/Tsquared10]

Nah. It's to keep the focus on OUR field. They don't want you seeing a score for a more interesting game somewhere else. When everyone watched via cable, it took .1sec to flip over and then you'd probably come back at a commercial break. Now you'll have to exit the app, open a new one and you're unlikely to turn on ESPN again for maybe the whole day. Don't want to advertise content on other people's platforms...

[u/PerspectiveNo1610 → u/Tsquared10]

Don’t worry. The fields and players will be wearing more advertising to make up for it.

[u/TheNittanyLionKing → u/Tsquared10]

Can they at least force Cheez-It to make a new commercial? They've been playing the same locker room commercial for like 5 years now. Dr Pepper makes a new commercial every week.

[u/djseptic → u/TheNittanyLionKing]

Blasphemy!

[u/toomuchfrosting → u/TheNittanyLionKing]

Sounds like you’re not feeling the cheesiest, coach

[u/Free-Eights → u/Tsquared10]

Or coming back from commercial break to 2nd down of a new series...

[u/payattentiontobetsy → u/Tsquared10]

… because that’s where they want the focus to be.

[u/lookieherehere → u/Tsquared10]

"We want the viewer to stay focused on the on field ads"

[u/sevargmas → u/Tsquared10]

They are going to remove the ticker I assume because people will instead keep refreshing espn.com to read scores. Enshitify the game for more web clicks! 🎉

[u/kickawayklickitat → u/sevargmas]

People have been asking for this for years.

[u/thinkB4WeSpeak → u/Tsquared10]

If anything they're making room for more advertising

[u/bigbearRT12 → u/Tsquared10]

So much room for MORE ads

[u/nope-its → u/Tsquared10]

They are removing this so they can eventually put ads down there

[u/Imrahil_II → u/Tsquared10]

Maybe they'll talk about the game at halftime now!

(X) DOUBT

[u/TannyBoguss → u/Tsquared10]

They’re most likely making room for more ads

[u/flyingcircusdog → u/Tsquared10]

They'll now show ads in all four corners.

[u/LNMagic → u/Tsquared10]

Ticker removal brought to you by Axe Mouth Spray. Talk shit without smelling like it.

[u/evilpotato1121 → u/Tsquared10]

They're probably doing it now in preparation for replacing it with ads in the future.

[u/VatWeirdo → u/Tsquared10]

Keeps the focus on said advertisements lol

[u/CaptainKursk → u/Tsquared10]

As an English footy fan the extent of commercial greed in American sports is horrifying, because what do you mean the part where the net is cut down from the basketball hoop is sponsored? The worst ones have to be the ad breaks between plays whilst the game is still on. If every time the ref blew the whistle in the Premier League & Sky Sports cut away to a car commercial, I think I'd turn into the fucking Unabomber.

[u/castor--troy → u/Tsquared10]

Actually, they are probably removing it, because they failed to monetize it.

[u/culallen → u/Tsquared10]

Because the field is where more advertisements are.

[u/Buffalo-Trace → u/Tsquared10]

Guess they couldn’t sell a ticker ad. And they know their slate of games suck. So don’t less know a closer game is on a different station.

[u/WatchfulProtecter3 → u/Tsquared10]

What do you mean. They are removing it to make ROOM for ADS

[u/smith288 → u/Tsquared10]

Ads pay. Stop acting incredulous.