Before the Bowls, What Have We Learned About College Football in 2021?

In October 2018 one of history’s most bizarre college football tweets surfaced on the account of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad. Someone tweeted at him asking about the University of Michigan’s football team. In 2017, Michigan had finished 8-5, was in its 14th straight year without a Big Ten title and, despite being 6-1 at the time, someone wanted to ask the former strongman about the Wolverines’ future.

Surprisingly Ahmandinejad responded with a tweet:  “With a hard work ethic Inshallah the U of M will return to its glory days.” (“Inshallah” meaning “God willing”).

In the two and a half seasons that followed that tweet, Michigan went 15-10 without a Big Ten Title. Apparently either the work ethic was missing or God wasn’t willing…

But that all changed in 2021, a year of vindication for both Michigan and Ahmandinejad’s prediction because, Inshallah, the Michigan Wolverines ended their conference title drought and are in the College Football Playoff.

There is a lesson in there. A few weeks ago we interviewed former Michigan quarterback Brian Griese for the show Nittany Game Week. Brian quarterbacked Michigan’s 1997 AP national championship team, played in the NFL and is now on Monday Night Football.

During the interview, he talked about Coach Lloyd Carr’s leadership and how much they rallied around him. Lloyd had been under fire for a couple of four-loss seasons. But they found a way to win it all. 

A few days after that interview Michigan came into Beaver Stadium and emerged with a victory after a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter. After the game, ABC’s Molly McGrath interviewed quarterback Cade McNamara. What came through was the respect he had for his teammates, specifically mentioning center Andrew Vastardis and how happy he was to help them get that win.

Then the week of the Ohio State game the Big Ten Network ran a piece on defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and linebacker Josh Ross. Aidan’s father and Josh’s brother both played at Michigan. The two players spoke about how much they understood what beating Ohio State would mean for the program and the men who played there.

And in the back of my mind was something that another football guy said to me this summer. He said “Watch out for Michigan this fall. It just smells like Harbaugh is sitting on something out there.” And that guy went on to explain how Harbaugh had renegotiated for more years, but for less money—in essence placing a big bet on the confidence he had in his team.

Now these are only an outsider’s take on a few glimpses into that program. This is a team that may not be the most talented in the playoff and may not even be the most talented in the Big Ten. But they are showing all the characteristics of what often allows one team to defeat more talented teams.

They work hard and play hard because they know what they are, they have confidence in who they are, and they really love one another enough to put the team above themselves. How will that play in the playoff? Stay tuned…

So while actual gameday college football attendance (not announced numbers) still seems to be in a rut, viewers are watching on TV. One of the most interesting recent developments has been the shift of big games away from primetime to earlier TV slots. To their credit, Fox renewed that charge with the Big Noon games. It hearkens back to the days when Keith Jackson was on the ABC national game at noon every week.

Of the top 13 most-watched college football games four of them were in the noon slot and four were in the mid-afternoon slot. Only one of the top five games was a primetime game and that was the Big Ten Championship Game. Ohio State-Michigan led all broadcasts with 15.9 million viewers followed by the SEC title game, which kicked off at 4 p.m., with 15.3 million viewers. Rounding out the top five were the Big Ten title game  Michigan-Iowa (11.7 million in primetime), Alabama-Auburn (10.4 million at 3:30 p.m.) and Michigan-Michigan State (9.3 million at noon).

Overall Alabama appeared in four of the top 13 games, Michigan in three, with Georgia, Auburn and Ohio State all appearing in two. One team that has been a past ratings powerhouse continues to be a softer draw this year. Notre Dame’s most-viewed game was an ABC game against Florida State, which came in 10th with 7.8 million viewers. As for Penn State, the Nittany Lions’ most watched game was against Auburn, which ranked 12th in viewership with 7.6 million viewers—just ahead of Army-Navy (7.57 million viewers). It will be interesting to see how the presence of both Michigan and Alabama in the College Football Playoffs impacts viewership when the games are played on New Year’s Eve, a date which produced low viewership in the past.

And speaking of playoffs, only two conferences have sent 3 different teams to the playoffs in what is now the eighth year of the current format. The SEC has sent Alabama, Georgia and LSU while the Big Ten has now sent Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan. The Big Ten East is the only division in college football that has sent three different teams to the playoff.

And while some will cite the imbalance in East versus West in the Big Ten this season, the split was relatively close with the East winning 11 cross-division games and the West winning 10. Since the East/West split came about, the East has won 52.7% of the games with a 77-69 record. For five of those eight years the difference was just one game, with two seasons where they split games evenly. The big difference has been that teams that are currently in the East have won 9 of the 11 Big Ten Championship Games. 

With the Big Ten TV ratings doing so well under the current system that ensures that Michigan and Ohio State will play once a year, one suspects that the Big Ten would not want to diminish that rivalry’s draw by potentially pitting the two teams against each other in back-to-back weeks.

But if anything has been certain in college football, it has been a cycle of constant change. Inshallah the game will continue to thrive as teams with hard work ethics keep drawing the eyes of the world to the most uniquely American game.