I agree. Attention spans are unbelievably short. I remember my first college football game as a kid. I was mesmerized by all the things going on on the sidelines between plays. Now people have to be bombarded with an overly caffeinated MC yelling on the mic in downtime. We're devolving. Outside of television quality, is anything improving? Geez, I'm not old enough to be thinking this stuff. Ha! As Jerry Seinfeld said, "To me, America used to be a place that made steel, and cars, and had giant department stores. Now, basically, we produce amateur talent and people who judge amateur talent."
Excellent assessment of life in 2021 vs 1971. Or for that matter, just about ten years ago when traditions and fragments of halcyon days where alumni deeply cared. Nowadays, everything is fast fashion, fast food, and vapid affinity. It been about 29 years since I got my MT degree and am saddened what happened to the Murfreesboro that I knew every time I drive anywhere---the MT I knew. The MT my dad worked for 23 years until his retirement. The MTSC my dad graduated from in 1954 and 1956 (he's 88 now)--all just fading memories. On the day I was born, Murfreesboro was listed as 26,370 and city did not reach I-24 at any point. Most everything was located on Broad Street or immediately around Public Square--maybe a little traffic on Memorial and Clark (e.g. Uhaul was Kroger). Oh yes, there was Mercury Plaza (now almost completely a ghost center) and College Heights as convenient neighborhood shopping districts. In 50 years, we've lost far more than we gained in my view. Even the steel water tower west of Campus on Bell Street, old Rutherford Hospital, and Murfreesboro Little Theatre--all gone. Even Pinnacle Bank's five story building (old Murfreesboro Federal/Calvary) has become a memory in the name of redevelopment.
The athletics part of this is the Texas/OU move to the $EC cascades into everything else. Loyalties out the window for future prospects of gigantic $$$. It WILL affect us. Whether TV revenue, conference mates, travel, or perhaps even a demotion to something like FCS and the Ohio Valley Conference or all the above...the fan engagement and quality will not be what it should. We will lose our visibility and cachet. I'm there to watch the game, being true to my alma mater as a fan, or socialize with people I know. As each passing year goes by, vision of pleasant memories gets fuzzier and dimmer (and I'm not talking about my physical condition...just yet). The idea of student athlete has passed into paid mercenaries subsidized by NIL monies. Eventually this will morph into some sort of recognized stipend or salary plan. The love of the game or sport will be a sideline when we look back in 2034 or 2050 as a quaint feeling one use to have. Maybe, and just maybe even the idea of going to college will look very different? Will we need campuses on 600 acre footprints by our 150th anniversary in 2061? I don't know, but what I do know new alignment will mean less exposure for us and most other G-5 schools simply because of the haves/have nots in recruiting and budgets. And, that effect trickles to alumni giving and bequeaths for endowments...money that we badly need and our leadership fails to produce. Schools like Alabama, Michigan, UTK, Vandy, Stanford, even Rice -- all okay because of their large fan base or large endowments acquired during the 20th century.
Visibility. It's the same principle why one sees Dollar Generals at nearly every major crossroad in Middle Tennessee vs. Mom and Pop General Store or Grocery that used to dot the countryside along US 41, Tennessee 96, or other state highways. Uniqueness and pageantry has melted away except for the very largest schools like Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, Southern California, etc. who has visibility. MT is analogous to the mom and pop grocer: we either have to adapt to a quik-mart or change merchandising to have a modicum of success to what we can afford. Or, we may find ourselves where we are looking like the old OVC in C-USA or even going back to the OVC and facing schools like Tenn. Tech and UT-Southern in a few years because the student fees no longer support FBS level sports or what's known as C-USA.
I'm afraid we had our chance at the big leagues, but we royally blew it during the 2010's. Oh, well it was very fun while it lasted. Unfortunate for the generation ahead and that's what I lament.
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