I told you that Stanford Cardinal fans are the worst in all of college football. Stanford has been to the Rose Bowl 16 times, that’s the fifth most of any school. Yet the Cardinal fanbase is notoriously apathetic. And as a small, elite private school that fan base is tiny to begin with. Stanford couldn’t even sell out a Pac 12 championship game that they hosted. All around the Rose Bowl game, Pasadena and Southern California, green and white absolutely dominated.
Given the stature of their program, Stanford fans really are a joke. The following is cribbed from an ESPN self-congratulatory press release on their ratings. I also translated it from PR corporatespeak into actual readable English.
The 2014 Rose Bowl Game is the most-viewed program on cable television outside of ESPN’s NFL games since the 2013 BCS National Championship. ESPN’s telecast of No. 4 Michigan State over No. 5 Stanford Cardinal averaged 18.6 million viewers.
Detroit, the top-rated market, averaged the highest-rated bowl game ever on ESPN in the market. Columbus was the second highest-rated market followed by Birmingham, Dayton, New Orleans, Portland, Kansas City, Austin, Greenville and Seattle.
Okay so where’s California?
Frisco? Frisco?
From Oakland and back down??
Sacramento? Sacramento where you at?
Quoting Dr. Dre and 2pac in “California Love” there, but seriously no northern CA markets made the top ten. Even San Jose, which is very close to Palo Alto failed to make the cut. In fact, ZERO California markets made the list. Good job, good effort Stanford Cardinal “fans.”
Again, this is why I never write about Stanford. Because NO ONE CARES.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bulls and Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan