Antitrust

Via BrendanLoy: Here's a piece talking about NFL broadcasting and mandated blackouts.

It's pertinent because the NFL is more or less not allowed to broadcast on Saturdays and thus compete with college football.  Thank God.  Of course, the disinteresting, do nothing NFL style of play itself is often played in many college stadiums throughout the American south so maybe it's not all that missed if you know where to look.

Anyway, interesting read.

Comments

[Solon]

Damn, CFR, you are just having a go at the South tonight.

That said, I think the Pac 10 plays a style much closer to that of the NFL--for example, the number of plays in which a team will pass on 3rd and 3 (a virtual certainty in the NFL) is much higher out West than it is anywhere else in the nation.

The problem with the NFL, as I see it, is that the talent level is so high that the play becomes formulaic. Possessions are so important that things like turnovers are that much harder to overcome; for example, any pro team that finishes -5 in turnovers has no chance of winning (unlike, for example, LSU last weekend against a quality Florida team).

Because the teams are so evenly matched, it's also much harder for a team to make a comeback the way USC did against ASU or UT did against LSU (obviously, this still happens in the NFL, just less often than in CFB). This just makes for a much less interesting product, in my opinion.