College Football Season Ticket: The Ultimate Fan Guide

By Dave Campbell

Fall Saturdays on a college campus mean one thing: football. From the raucous student sections to the marching bands to the thrilling play on the field, college football is a spectacle unlike anything else. Take a front-row seat to everything that makes college football great in College Football Season Ticket: The Ultimate Fan Guide.

Season Ticket uses engaging and informative storytelling to take readers into the past, present, and future of your favorite sports leagues. With chapters exploring historic moments, game-changing figures, today’s most exciting superstars, and other league dynamics, Season Ticket is your all access pass to sports!

• Language: English
• Publisher: North Star Editions
• Release date: Jan 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781634940689

Dave Campbell

Dave Campbell has reported and written about the Minnesota sports for The Associated Press since 2001. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and his son.

Book preview

By Dave Campbell

College Football Season Ticket: The Ultimate Fan Guide © 2019 by Press Room Editions. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Edition

First Printing, 2019

Book design by Sarah Taplin

Cover design by Sarah Taplin

Photographs ©: The Tournament of Roses/AP Images, cover (top); Jae C. Hong/AP Images, cover (left); David Goldman/AP Images, cover (center right); Scott Stuart/Cal Sport Media/AP Images, cover (bottom right); Ray Carlin/Icon Sportswire, 4, 15; Reed Saxon/AP Images, 9; Chris Carlson/AP Images, 11; North Wind Picture Archives/AP Images, 16; AP Images, 22–23, 24, 28, 34, 39, 40, 43, 57, 60; Mark Lambie/AP Images, 31; Doug Murray/Icon Sportswire, 33; Carl Viti/AP Images, 44; Patrick S. Blood/Icon Sportswire, 49; Carlos Osorio/AP Images, 51; Dave Martin/AP Images, 53, 54; Pro Football Hall of Fame/AP Images, 62–63; Tom DiPace/AP Images, 64; Debby Wong/Shutterstock Images, 66; Jack Harris/AP Images, 70; Chris O’Meara/AP Images, 72–73; Eric Gay/AP Images, 74; Steve Nurenberg/Icon Sportswire, 79; Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune/AP Images, 80–81; Elaine Thompson/AP Images, 82; Austin McAfee/Cal Sport Media/AP Images, 86–87; Matt Slocum/AP Images, 89; Todd Kirkland/Icon Sportswire, 90; John Bazemore/AP Images, 95

Design Elements ©: Pixabay

Press Box Books, an imprint of Press Room Editions.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018952206

ISBN:

978-1-63494-056-6 (paperback)

978-1-63494-068-9 (epub)

978-1-63494-080-1 (hosted ebook)

Distributed by North Star Editions, Inc.

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Mendota Heights, MN 55120

www.northstareditions.com

Printed in the United States of America

Chapter 1

The Playoff At Last

Confetti fluttered down from the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium. Cardale Jones had just received a postgame hug from one of Ohio State’s most famous fans, basketball star LeBron James. Now Jones and his teammates danced on a makeshift stage. The night of January 12, 2015, was one they’d remember forever. The Buckeyes had beaten the Oregon Ducks to claim college football’s national championship.

Of all the forms of entertainment, sports have long stood as the strong favorite. Highly anticipated games can fill stadiums with more than 100,000 screaming fans. TV audiences can reach tens of millions.

We marvel at the agility, speed, and strength of the athletes. We’re captivated by the unpredictable drama that can unfold during any given game. There’s the unmistakable allure, too, of the intensity and tension that surrounds any competition.

But what if we weren’t sure exactly who the winner was?

That used to be an issue for major college football. Until the 2014 season, when Ohio State beat Oregon to win the first College Football Playoff, the sport crowned a champion in a unique—and often frustrating—way.

Top-level college football teams are based all around the country. There’s no way every team can play all the others during the regular season. So the sport long ago turned to opinion polls. Instead of settling the score on the field, coaches or sports reporters voted to determine the best team. Whoever received the most votes was named national champion.

Of course, this system could never last, right? In fact it did, for many decades. One reason for this was bowl games. These iconic postseason games, such as the Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl, have long histories of their own. Teams with winning records are invited to participate. Some bowl games have a great deal of prestige and tradition. For example, winning the Big Ten Conference and earning a berth in the Rose Bowl was—and still is—a big deal. Bowl games also brought in a lot of money to the schools.

However, this bowl system meant there