Money In, Quality Out

[Sobriquet]

I just finished watching the DVD sold by the UIL of the West Orange-Stark vs. Sweetwater Class 4A Division II State Championship football game. I watched the entire thing from beginning to end so as to be completely informed before I commented on it. 

Here is my impression. I concluded that this product is an impressive tribute to the power of money. It’s not just that the DVD is overpriced and that the exorbitant shipping and handling costs kick the price up even higher. I think we who live in this modern world are accustomed to that by now. It’s rather that the abysmal lack of quality in the editing and production does more than merely highlight the old adage that “you get what you pay for.” It forcefully demonstrates that you can save a lot of money by not hiring professionals who know what they’re doing. It’s so much cheaper to turn the job over to amateurs who absolutely pale in comparison to, let’s say the competence of a mom and pop operation that stores e-mail servers in a bathroom closet. 

So what was wrong? To start at the beginning, the first section opened with an extended view of the football field as seen from high up in the stands from the corner of one of the end zones. No close up shots of fans in the stands, or of preliminary activities on the field, which appeared as nothing more than blue and red smears on the screen. At the top of the screen two sides of the large stadium monitor could be seen. Only it provided any kind of close up action. 

And during this interval the audio consisted of private conversations by some members of the broadcasting staff, clearly not intended for consumption by the public. We really don’t need to be told that if “I’d have dropped my phone we’d have been screwed.” 

After several minutes of this drivel the original Fox Sports pregame telecast was presented, although there tended to be intervals of blank screens to edit out commercials. Or sometimes instead of blankness the shot reverted back to the stadium view from high up in the corner of the end zone. This pattern prevailed during the coverage of the actual game which again was simply a copy of the live broadcast. 

Then came halftime and the amateurish incompetency realty hit its stride. The viewers were treated to that same old view of the football field. We could tell by the blue smear that the WOS band was on the field. We could even see a sliver of individual members in that glimpse of the stadium monitor at the top of the shot. After their performance the Sweetwater band took the field. We could tell by the red smear. That was the video of halftime. For the audio we didn’t hear a single note played by either band. Instead we were again regaled by private conversations, this time from technicians who were struggling to get their, to use their own words, their sh*tty microphones working. Apparently they were finally successful because one of them finished with a cheerful but stupid joke about whether his pants were zipped up. 

Well, I guess you get the idea. So why would UIL put out a product like this? Oh, why ask? As we all know Money Is King.

[Uncle Pig]

Shoulda just done like me and DVR'd it. Shoot I DVR'd all of the state title games, and if there's noting on tv, I'm probably watching one of them.

[WOSgrad]

4 hours ago, Uncle Pig said:

Shoulda just done like me and DVR'd it. Shoot I DVR'd all of the state title games, and if there's noting on tv, I'm probably watching one of them.

I did the same,  But it is when I realized that the live broadcast of the game nor the weekend was much better.  Particularly, I had a real problem with the color guy for the game (Colt McCoy's dad) and the constant mistakes he made not only as to WO-S players, but Sweetwter as well.  For the game, Jack Dallas, maybe all of 5'10" (and that is generous) miraculously grew to NFL tight end size, prompting McCoy to call him "Dallas Clark" through the entirety of the game.  When, we wanted to give credit to the WO-S line, I didn't hear names like "Ryan Ragsdale", "Paul Ivory" and the like.  No, he went on to call out the name of the Sweetwater linemen.  But perhaps his biggest guffaw, which he ultimately had to acknowledge after what appeared to be a torrent of texts to his phone, was incorrectly stating the name of the Sweetwater coach who lead them to the SC in 1985.

Of course, the bigger travesty of the weekend was the Highland Park/Temple SC game.  Look, I love Jerry Jones.  He is the owner of my favorite NFL team.  However, that does not mean that I want to see a shot of him in the stands every 5 seconds.  Heck, he doesn't get that much air time when his team plays.  It is a good thing that John Steven Jones played quarterback for the Scots or he might have risked being the first player in high school football championship history to get less air time than his grandfather.  In this game as well as the resulting medal ceremony, the UIL and Fox Sports Southwest made donkeys of themselves.

And then finally to my ALLTIME, FAVORITE Fox Sports Southwest personality, Ric "If It Ain't in DFDub, I Really Don't Care About It" Renner.  Mr. Renner, who for some god foresaken reason, has been deemed appropriate to anchor the pregame, halftime and postgames of these games, did his dead level best to let the viewing public (presumably from all parts of the state) how many SC's the "DFDub" has accumulated.  Yeah, I know Ric, it is 3, you said it enough to where anyone who devoted any portion of time to the weekend knows that.

I may just seem like a guy from Southeast Texas bitching and moaning, but to me it appears that the UIL and Fox Sports Southwest have morphed the UIL State Football Championships into the "DFW Invitational" where only a select few from outside the area are graced with the opportunity to participate.  It is truly disappointing and the even more disappointing part is that it will not get better, but indeed worse.

[Uncle Pig]

On 2/8/2017 at 0:46 PM, WOSgrad said:

I did the same,  But it is when I realized that the live broadcast of the game nor the weekend was much better.  Particularly, I had a real problem with the color guy for the game (Colt McCoy's dad) and the constant mistakes he made not only as to WO-S players, but Sweetwter as well.  For the game, Jack Dallas, maybe all of 5'10" (and that is generous) miraculously grew to NFL tight end size, prompting McCoy to call him "Dallas Clark" through the entirety of the game.  When, we wanted to give credit to the WO-S line, I didn't hear names like "Ryan Ragsdale", "Paul Ivory" and the like.  No, he went on to call out the name of the Sweetwater linemen.  But perhaps his biggest guffaw, which he ultimately had to acknowledge after what appeared to be a torrent of texts to his phone, was incorrectly stating the name of the Sweetwater coach who lead them to the SC in 1985.

Of course, the bigger travesty of the weekend was the Highland Park/Temple SC game.  Look, I love Jerry Jones.  He is the owner of my favorite NFL team.  However, that does not mean that I want to see a shot of him in the stands every 5 seconds.  Heck, he doesn't get that much air time when his team plays.  It is a good thing that John Steven Jones played quarterback for the Scots or he might have risked being the first player in high school football championship history to get less air time than his grandfather.  In this game as well as the resulting medal ceremony, the UIL and Fox Sports Southwest made donkeys of themselves.

And then finally to my ALLTIME, FAVORITE Fox Sports Southwest personality, Ric "If It Ain't in DFDub, I Really Don't Care About It" Renner.  Mr. Renner, who for some god foresaken reason, has been deemed appropriate to anchor the pregame, halftime and postgames of these games, did his dead level best to let the viewing public (presumably from all parts of the state) how many SC's the "DFDub" has accumulated.  Yeah, I know Ric, it is 3, you said it enough to where anyone who devoted any portion of time to the weekend knows that.

I may just seem like a guy from Southeast Texas bitching and moaning, but to me it appears that the UIL and Fox Sports Southwest have morphed the UIL State Football Championships into the "DFW Invitational" where only a select few from outside the area are graced with the opportunity to participate.  It is truly disappointing and the even more disappointing part is that it will not get better, but indeed worse.

Agreed! Coach McCoy was a TERRIBLE commentator!

[Hagar]

Agree with virtually all of the above about Fox Sports SW, but I have to say, I'm sure glad they televised them. Enjoyed watching, especially WOS.  

[oldschool2]

We (consumers) are 100% in control of the product that's given.  I say to people I know all of the time.. "Don't like the National Championship Game being on a Monday?  Don't watch it. Don't like the Super Bowl being the day before a work day?  Don't watch it."  As long as people are providing ratings, there is no reason to change it.

Don't like the quality of something you paid for?  Don't buy it again.

We ,the consumer, have more power than people think.

[PlayActionPass]

14 minutes ago, oldschool2 said:

We (consumers) are 100% in control of the product that's given.  I say to people I know all of the time.. "Don't like the National Championship Game being on a Monday?  Don't watch it. Don't like the Super Bowl being the day before a work day?  Don't watch it."  As long as people are providing ratings, there is no reason to change it.

Don't like the quality of something you paid for?  Don't buy it again.

We ,the consumer, have more power than people think.

You are dead on, but most people would rather bi*@# and complain than to make a sacrifice and have a chance to get something changed.

[oldschool2]

9 minutes ago, PlayActionPass said:

You are dead on, but most people would rather bi*@# and complain than to make a sacrifice and have a chance to get something changed.

 

True.  The only difference with me is that I normally don't gripe about it because I know that that's the reason they won't change it.  But every year I participate anyway.  Like a dumb sheep.  But I doubt that my little group of friends will make much difference by boycotting it one year.  If it were ever to happen on a mass scale I'd be all in tho.  I personally think it's stupid to have the most televised sporting events on a day before most of the country has to wake up for work.  But like I said...we all watch anyway.