ESPN SEC analyst Cole Cubelic has a theory about the transfer portal and how it’s changed how fans direct their anger.
And during a recent appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast, Cubelic explained how college football’s revolving door of players has shifted fan vitriol away from individual athletes and toward opposing fanbases and media members who cover rival teams.
“I still follow the NFL as closely as I can. It’s very difficult for me to follow it the way I want to,” Cubelic explained, “but I don’t ever see local reporters — or team-assigned reporters — catching hell like college football reporters do, specifically those that cover one team. Or if an Andy Staples or myself, or Josh Pate, says something about one team that’s a little bit inflammatory, [we] completely get bombarded from that fanbase. I don’t feel like that happens in MLB, NFL, or NBA.”
The portal has reshaped how fans engage with rivalries. Rosters flip so fast now that fans can barely keep track of their own players, let alone anyone on the other sideline. It’s a completely different world from when star players stuck around for four or five years.
“So the portal has turned that into, ‘Hey, we don’t even really know our own players, much less how to keep up with the other players. So let’s just hate that team and everybody associated with it,'” Cubelic said.
Still, college football hasn’t lost its villains entirely. Every now and then, a guy pops up who becomes public enemy No. 1 on every opposing message board. Johnny Manziel did it. Cam Newton did it. Brian Bosworth practically built a career off it. And right now, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia checks every box.
“We talk about popularity in college sports. The ones that transcend are the ones that, let’s be real, everybody loves to hate because they kind of wish they had them,” Cubelic continued. “And then they’re either a little bit more vocal — like Diego Pavia is kind of that guy right now. He says some ridiculous things, but by God, he backs it up every time when he goes on the field.”
“And you know good, and well, there are a lot of linebackers in that league trying to knock him out every time he steps on the field, and none of them have been able to do it, and he keeps scoring touchdowns,” Cubelic said of the Heisman hopeful. “So he would probably be the best example of that right now, where you do get those true villains every now and then in this league — in this sport — that everybody just kind of loves to hate.”
That resentment used to build over years. Darren McFadden torches your defense for 200 yards as a freshman, does it again as a sophomore, again as a junior. By his senior year, he’s the face of everything you hate about Arkansas. When he leaves for the NFL, the frustration gets redirected toward the Razorbacks’ logo, the coach, the fanbase, and anyone connected to the program.
Including, increasingly, the media.
Anyone covering SEC football has these stories. Pro sports reporters deal with angry fans, but college football is more tribal and personal. With the portal making it nearly impossible for fans to build multi-year grudges against specific players, media members have become convenient targets for all that rivalry hatred.
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About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.