Fans disguised as empty seats

ANYTHING-FOR-TV-MONEY weeknight college football has its price.

Wednesday, as seen on ESPN, two winning Div. I teams, Western Michigan at Northern Illinois, played in a cold, empty 30,000-seat stadium. The few spectators bunched in midfield looked like a meeting of the North-Midwest Order of the Raccoon Lodge.

Friday night’s UNLV at New Mexico on ESPN2 was played in an empty 40,000-seat stadium.

And these college basketball “tournaments” and titled “Classics” that took student-athletes far away the week before Thanksgiving, were played less to a crowd than a few eyewitnesses.

Friday’s Hofstra-Clem- son “Charlotte Classic” on ESPNU, was played in a half-empty arena that seats 5,100.

Even a game that made some regional rooting-interest sense, such as Friday night’s Villanova-Lafayette on FS2 in an 8,500-seat arena in Allentown, echoed off rows and rows of empty seats.

TV continues to make a wildly misleading statistical mess out of football.

Sunday’s Chiefs-Giants on CBS was loaded with points-per-game team averages, all credited to the offense; all points-per-game allowed assigned to teams’ defenses — even if no such game has ever been played.

That the Giants took a 6-0 lead following a KC turnover deep in their own zone, made no difference. TV will credit those points to the offense.

The state of sports and TV, continued:

Saturday, as heard but not seen on the Big Ten Network — with plenty of time to show the starting lineups before the game, BTN got busy showing them after the game began — Rutgers was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct — on the opening kickoff !

Next, RU had to punt from its own 15. Indiana, 1-6 in the 14-school Big Ten, took over at its own 40, and soon led, 7-0, a game that concluded 41-0.