Football Counter-Programming 2024 . . . wait . . . 2025: CFPlayoff Edition

 Is this a betrayal?

(for context . . . this is a pre-game photo from me within Ohio Stadium as the Ohio State Buckeyes hosted the University of Tennessee on December 21, 2024)

. . . It is, therefore . . . perhaps . . . antithetical to the spirit of the Football Counter-Programming project. But, perhaps the American saying "Only Nixon could go to China" is appropriate here. Only by entering the belly of the beast can I authoritatively counsel you on  how to effectively counter-program and fight against the college football monolith.

And how hard it is to do so when the College Football Playoffs surround us! 

When the weather in many places is cold (as it was so VERY cold on the night I was in attendance) and so your alternative options are limited to the indoors. 

And the siren call of the TV light is strong. 

And the hype of the playoffs is loud. (As loud as Buckeye fans witnessing the first half beat-down administered on the UT Volunteers.)

How hard is it to resist when your local team is advancing in dramatic and dominant ways? When the endorphins flow and your pleasure centers are flooded drive after drive with another score?

But don't give up! Because if you can find a way to resist one week at a time, the grind of games reduces the number of teams day after day. And your own personal connection (if any!) to the competing teams becomes less relevant as eliminations occur.

Maybe this has already happened for you?

Welcome brothers and sisters from Idaho, from Oregon, from Arizona! From elsewhere! Join the counter-programmed masses who have no rooting interest! Remember that whether you rooted or not had no demonstratable effect on the team's performance. (This can be proven by examining data on the Ohio State's team's performance from the Michigan game to the Tennessee game to the Oregon game. No fan involvement could generate or explain what happened there.)

For those still within the football rooting vortex . . . what should you do? How can you resist?

I suggest that you lean into the recent holidays and the chronology of now. If you got new books as Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwaanza gifts then embrace reading! There are fewer more effective things to fight sports than reading fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Always a good use of time. But if reading is not your thing, then make a 2025 New Year's Resolution to fill that football time with something else. Something new that occupies your hands, your mind, or your entire soul. 

Exercise!

Craft! 

Write!

Fight!

Do what you must to define yourself against the creep of football!

And remember . . . you will receive no prizes. No cash. Nothing of tangible value if your alma mater wins the College Football Playoff. Don't let it define you!

***

(thank you to my long-time friend Aaron, who kindly invited me to join him at the UT Playoff game; I find that smiling for the camera generated heat during the frigid temperatures of late December in Ohio; it should in no way suggest that I had a wonderful and unique experience with a great guy.)