James Madison University’s postseason waiver request was denied by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on Wednesday, as it is in the midst of transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) after previously competing in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Under the existing rules from the NCAA, teams that are taking place in this transition are ineligible for the postseason during the first two seasons of this transition. James Madison is undefeated on the year, sporting a 10-0 record, and is ranked No. 18 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
While he understood the rules, 97.3 The Game morning host Steve Czaban wanted to gain more clarity on the situation and tried to find a content source that gave him a wider scope of information. During his search process, he discovered himself struggling to come across a story that effectively explained the situation.
“It is stupid, although I had to dig for the ‘Why’ behind it because the major websites; like this once website – I don’t know if you’ve heard of it – called ESPN.com, they don’t even try to explain the why. I always thought journalism was the who, what, where, how [and] why.”
Many college football fans are perturbed at James Madison being left out of the College Football Playoff (CFP) because of the team’s stellar play on the field this season. The team has captured the interest of fans around the country, and its campus will host ESPN’s venerated program College GameDay on Saturday. As Czaban continued trying to scour the internet for an article he deemed sufficient, he came across The Athletic, a publication he signed up for a long time ago but feels he does not read enough.
“[The Athletic is] still doing the best, I think, true sports journalism out there,” Czaban said. “I don’t know if they’re making any money, [but] I know I subscribe. I think I got in at an absolutely abusive rate to them, something like a dollar a month or whatever.”
The New York Times Company purchased The Athletic in a cash transaction for $550 million and has since made it the primary sports content provider for its business. In a controversial decision over the summer, The New York Times shuttered the sports section of its newspaper and has been working to decrease adjusted operating losses at The Athletic, a figure it reduced by 38.1% year-over-year (YoY) to $7.8 million last quarter. For the company as a whole, average revenue per user (ARPU) on solely its digital platforms augmented by 1.2% YoY to $9.15, while overall revenues at The Athletic increased by 55.3% YoY to $30.4 million.
Although the outlet has varying types of articles, along with other content offerings such as podcasts, Czaban finds it difficult to consume because of his diminished attention span. According to a study by Dr. Gloria Frank, adults pay attention to one screen for an average of 47 seconds, which is down 75 seconds over the last 20 years. Moreover, the average human attention span is equivalent to 8.25 seconds, per a Microsoft study conducted in 2015.
“Maybe if it gets down to zero; maybe if my attention span gets whittled all the way down to one second…. then it’ll reset and I can go back 20 years to where I go, ‘Ooh, a long article about something in sports. I am in; hold my calls,’” Czaban said.
