OT: Football Bye Weeks - How Are You Going To Spend Them?

Submitted by chrs5mr on

Its slow and I'm itching for the season...

Looking at the schedule, there will be 2 bye weeks this year (weekends of 9/28 and 10/26) so I've decided to head South and attend my 1st SEC game - LSU @ Georgia the first bye week.

What do you have planned for the bye weeks?

JHendo

May 4th, 2013 at 11:43 PM ^

Just kidding, even she cheers against MSU, Ohio and ND on bye weeks.

Sorry, but I really don't see anything wrong with cheering against your rivals. Matter of fact, to just ignore their existence or cheer them on in their games outside of us is what could be considered really odd. There's a line between disliking your rivals and being sparty level obsessed, and rooting against them on a bye week is not crossing that line at all.

Unfiltered Manball

May 4th, 2013 at 9:21 PM ^

an undefeated season and counting the minutes to the next Saturday.  Maybe hit a local watering hole,  watch state fans crash and burn during their loss, have a few laughs.

DISCUSS Man

May 4th, 2013 at 9:43 PM ^

Watching college football with the girlfriend all day whilst eating White Castle. 

My dream girl for sure. She puts up with a lot during the athletic season. Luckily she is almost on my level of insanity.

XM - Mt 1822

May 4th, 2013 at 9:43 PM ^

so will be coaching and watching them.   will bow hunt too.  may grouse hunt.    i do get the t.v. hooked up during football season, so i'd expect to watch a few games too. 

rob f

May 5th, 2013 at 3:33 AM ^

also have a bye week Oct. 26 (I was thinking about doing the same, and already looked it up), but they do have a home game vs. Les Miles and LSU on 9/28. 

Me?  On 9/28 I have my high school class reunion.   And on 10/26, well, being that the 2013 World Series starts on 10/23 and ends on or before 10/31, ... I'm sure hoping it has my full attention that Saturday!

StoneRoses

May 4th, 2013 at 9:57 PM ^

What to do during bye weeks?

Bitch about bye weeks probably. God. Worst weeks ever.

Maybe pull out some old records, give them a whir.

Section 1

May 5th, 2013 at 9:29 AM ^

I'd like to hear a good explanation as to why bye weeks are necessary in a conference with a balanced number of teams.  It seems to me that the point is simply to stretch out the season to fill Saturday television times over a longer number of weeks.

College football should leave Labor Day weekend alone.

And we should not be playing games in northern outdoor stadiums after the Thanksgiving weekend.

Anybody -- what is the clear and simple reason for not one but two bye weeks in the Big Ten Conference football schedule(s)?

inthebluelot

May 5th, 2013 at 10:10 AM ^

the powers that be are setting up the eventual 16 game season that will result when the playoff goes to 16 teams. That way, they can fill those dates and not extend the season any longer than it is. This will keep the folks who think the season is too long happy. It's all a ploy to eventually have more college football, which is always good.

Section 1

May 5th, 2013 at 10:29 AM ^

You might be right about that, although I am not so sure I understand it.  I expect that if you asked Jim Delaney and Dave Brandon, they would flatly deny that you are accurate in your presumption.

Now, I like Adam Rittenberg as a Big Ten reporter; and here is what he wrote about it.  I don't understand it, even though Rittenberg is a good writer:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/73666/beware-the-b1gs-double-bye-is-coming 

And here somebody named Bryan Kelly trying to explain it in the online pages of the Bleacher Report.  The writing is fine, but I still don't get why two bye weeks are needed.  I mean, if it is contracting/scheduling problems having to do with old agreements with non-conference opponents, that's one thing.  But why the Conference would happily allow and/or promote two bye weeks is weird to me. 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/293747-why-adding-a-bye-week-will-benefit-the-big-ten-conference-in-2010 

 

I'll say again; I don't like college football intruding on Labor Day weekend, and I don't like the season getting stretched further into the late-November early-December weekends.

danimal1968

May 5th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^

If you start Labor Day weekend, there are usually 13 weekends between then and the 3rd Saturday in November, so there was always 1 bye week. A few years ago the B10 decided to move its last game of the regular season back a week, so that added a second bye week to the schedule. No conspiracies or anything like that. Just trying to keep the B10 from dropping out of view in late November.

Section 1

May 5th, 2013 at 12:06 PM ^

I didn't allege any "conspiracy."  That's just your way of minimizing what I was suggesting, right?  To make me the outlier?

Anyway, a "conspiracy" isn't such a ridiculous notion if we are talking about the simple, wide-scale, not-much-discussed agreement(s) on the part of hundreds of people that comprise the major college football powers and their media partners, on how to expand the number of weeks of college football on television.

Your basic outline is indisputable.  I already said, I think it is wrong to start college football on Labor Day Weekend.  They will do it, no matter what I think.  That won't stop me from bitching about it.

There wasn't "always" one bye week.  Long ago, we'd play Ohio State the week before Thanksgiving weekend.

And yes of course you are right that the Big Ten was interested in pushing back the regular season's finish, to compete with what were then new initatives in other conferences, the SEC in particular, in having more late season games and conference championships.

But that doesn't do anything for me, in a cold Michigan Stadium on the last Saturday in November.

It boils down to the Big Ten doing this for television/money and a soon-to-be-outmoded question of "bowl selection" in December.  At least that's as much as I can figure out.

And my bitching is standing up for people like me who want to see good home games in pleasant weather.  I don't care about ratings or the networks.  I'm only mildly interested in how the SEC does things.  I care about my schedule and convenience. 

notYOURmom

May 4th, 2013 at 10:30 PM ^

Always planned around bye-weeks:



September: Mackinac

October: flying to Massachusetts for conference: will squeeze into Harvard-Princeton game

befuggled

May 4th, 2013 at 10:38 PM ^

Which I dread. I support sales people but am not actually in sales myself.

Because of previous sales conferences I have missed the 2009 Delaware State, 2011 Iowa and 2012 Nebraska games. (The 2010 conference was during a bye week.)

Darth Wolverine

May 4th, 2013 at 10:44 PM ^

Planned? How about watching football? Just because there is a bye week, doesn't mean you should be doing something else other than watching football. Bye weeks are great because you can just relax and watch this sport we all love so much without stressing about M.

Darth Wolverine

May 4th, 2013 at 11:34 PM ^

I got married the week before the 2012 season started and told her I will absolutely not accept a wedding during football season. She knows how it is when it comes to autumn. It's not just missing M games, but even if it's a bye week, there are still other games to watch. A man who is a college football fan should absolutely NEVER agree to an autumn wedding. I mean NEVER.