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College Football Business: Is This Where We’re Heading?

Squid Bumciorek said:
I think this is rat poison and we should encourage the P2 to do it. Why do pro football leagues like the XFL fail? It’s because fans don’t want to watch a professional league of players not good enough to play in the nfl.

College football works because a lot of us went to college and sat in class alongside players. We know they are amateurs- basically kids like we were. It isn’t a job so the expectations of performance aren’t the same as with nfl. You don’t often see nfl teams where someone complains about lack of discipline. In the nfl, if a Player acts dumb, he will be bagging groceries the next day. In college we know coaches are dealing with knuckleheads because we rode with them on the campus shuttle bus.

IMO, the non P2 schools need to break off and create a new association where the emphasis is still on the student part of “student athlete.” You can have some revenue sharing and nil with caps. But let the P2 try to survive as a half-*** NFL. It won’t last a decade because most casual college fans are going to say “I am not going to watch a ****ty version of the NFL.”

meanwhile the non P2 can market itself as actual “college football.” I think the mistake everyone keeps making is trying to figure out how to turn the ACC and big12 into competitors to the P2- which are essentially owned and operated by tv networks, with billionaires putting money into college programs like the billionaire owners of nfl teams. The short answer is they can’t. Maybe 4-8 teams get lucky and get invite to the P2, leaving 100 or so still out there not without a prayer of competing against programs getting 100+ million in tv money alone.

So stop trying to be something they aren’t and differentiate. I would rather watch the non P2 schools have real parity and competition for a title than one minute of a championship game with teams Iike Ohio state vs Georgia. Have 2 champs- the semi-pro regional title (for UGAs and Bamas) and the National college football title for everyone else.

The national college football association should be broadcast so anyone with a tv antenna can watch. No cable tv packages required. And can have games streamed for free as well. Just need internet, no subscriptions to streaming sites. P2 is locked behind paywalls and 100 dollar cable packages. The national college football league will be for regular people who don’t need to pay outrageous amounts to watch student athletes play college sports.
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Nice post.

Agree with almost all of it. I just disagree about people refusing to watch a ****** version of the NFL. I think more people would watch it then the XFL because guys in college are on their way up. Some of them will be NFL stars and future NFL HOFers. The XFL are guys who had their chance and are just scratching to get another shot in an NFL training camp. The odds of success are much lower.

That being said, I think the P2 would not work in the long run because fans have teams they will root for and they won't budge from them. If the P2 break themselves off and Miami is not in it, will you want to watch a league your school doesn't participate in? Not me. Or God forbid, root for "Florida" because it's the Florida team in the P2? Definitely not me. I think you'd see that around the country as well.
 
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You already have boosters who are influential at a lot of schools. Who do you think ran off Jimbo Fisher at TAMU, or coach after coach at Texas? There have always been powerbrokers behind the scenes, and ownership stakes makes it official.

This is a natural extension of NIL and Revenue Sharing. We all know boosters were paying players under the table since college football became a sport.

The key to Miami’s future is getting into either the SEC or Big Ten. Those two conferences are going to write the college football playoff rules once the current college football playoff contracts expire. They already have the power to demand more spots for their teams. Public opinion is the only reason why SMU is in the playoffs over Alabama. I believe Alabama would’ve gotten the final scene had SMU and not made a comeback and lost the game to Clemson by two or three touchdowns.

Both conferences will need to expand a bit, and Miami needs to be included. Period.

Otherwise the Canes will be on the outside looking in with the rest of the ACC.
 
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SCarolina Ibis said:
The problem is that we might not end up with owners who are committed to winning. Some owners are fine with being cheap if it keeps them in the green.

Just staying local, look at the Marlins. Jeffrey Loria owned the team just to collect revenue sharing payments.

Alex Rodriguez is the name we better run from. God help us if he bought the team.

His deal for the Twolves was voided after Glen Taylor found out that ARod and his private equity backers planned to gut payroll enough so that they'd be receiving 6.5 million in tax distributions.
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Yup.

Nobody wants to be the Miami Marlins of CFB
 
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SCarolina Ibis said:
The problem is that we might not end up with owners who are committed to winning. Some owners are fine with being cheap if it keeps them in the green.

Just staying local, look at the Marlins. Jeffrey Loria owned the team just to collect revenue sharing payments.

Alex Rodriguez is the name we better run from. God help us if he bought the team.

His deal for the Twolves was voided after Glen Taylor found out that ARod and his private equity backers planned to gut payroll enough so that they'd be receiving 6.5 million in tax distributions.
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This. Unfortunately the Miami market is marquee with a lot of **** for brains ownership.
 
MikeCane18 said:
This. Unfortunately the Miami market is marquee with a lot of **** for brains ownership.
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It’s like private equity.

They buy it for the brand, invest just enough to keep it afloat and running, ruthlessly cuts costs everywhere, and leech all of the profits until it’s just about dead, then sell it off or take it public.
 
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LoungeLord said:
You all thought NIL was such a great idea. Reap what you sow.
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NIL is a great idea in that every person should be able to benefit from their Name, Image and Likeness. Every person in America always has except for college athletes. This is nothing more than free market principles.

BUT, without any guardrails it is and will continue to go awry. Just like Wall Street does every 20 years and then congress has to set guardrails.
 
Eliminate the portal completely...or incredibly strict rules (example: one transfer allowed per athlete period, no provisions or hardships)
Eliminate the CFP completely...go to divisions and records.
 
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drewm3i said:
CFB is almost dead.
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The numbers don't say that. And personally, this was the most competitive and surprising, and therefore most enjoyable college season of my life (excepting UM national championship seasons).

Attendance was up: 36,006,633 for 2024 season to date. 35,531,208 in 2023 including bowl games (I couldn't find 2023 attendance for regular season plus conference championship weekend. Only final numbers for the full season including bowl games.)

And TV viewership way up.

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PalyCane said:
The numbers don't say that. And personally, this was the most competitive and surprising, and therefore most enjoyable college season of my life (excepting UM national championship seasons).

Attendance was up: 36,006,633 for 2024 season to date. 35,531,208 in 2023 including bowl games (I couldn't find 2023 attendance for regular season plus conference championship weekend. Only final numbers for the full season including bowl games.)

And TV viewership way up.

View attachment 313319

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Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, Prime ...
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Sure viewership measured in mere numbers (and economic terms) may be up, but the quality of the experience has been greatly reduced. I went to three home games this year and all felt like a party crowd that couldn't care less if the Canes won or lost. For that matter, the crowd couldn't have cared less if ads and music were running on the video boards or the game was being played. It was jarring after not having been to a game since 2019.

It didn't used to be like this and you can't quantify the non-quantifiable, intangible qualities of something like an experience of a sport. Genuine, fanatic interest is not being facilitated any longer, but rather casual observation. Old fans are dying and new fans are not being made at the same rate/intensity.

These "gains" will be shortsighted blips in the grand scheme of the sport's decline which will span decades. Don't believe me? Look at professional hockey and the MLB. No one wants to watch "college" football when it fully becomes the NFL's minor league.
 
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PalyCane said:
The numbers don't say that. And personally, this was the most competitive and surprising, and therefore most enjoyable college season of my life (excepting UM national championship seasons).

Attendance was up: 36,006,633 for 2024 season to date. 35,531,208 in 2023 including bowl games (I couldn't find 2023 attendance for regular season plus conference championship weekend. Only final numbers for the full season including bowl games.)

And TV viewership way up.

View attachment 313319

www.sportsvideo.org

Ratings Roundup: College Football Sweeps Ratings Across All Networks

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, Prime ...
www.sportsvideo.org www.sportsvideo.org
Click to expand...

And thinking about the increased attendance a little further, it likely means greater attendance at schools that traditionally haven't sold out. The traditional powers always sell out. So that puts an attendance increase limitation on those schools.

If traditional powers aren't increasing attendance because they've always been at max capacity it would mean schools that traditionally haven't enjoyed great attendance saw more people come to games this year than years prior. Presumably that would because their schools have become more completive with portal talent becoming available and fans would therefore be more inclined to come to games. More likely attendance increases when a given school has a better chance of winning on a given Saturday.

Folks have been complaining that the portal would kill college football and upset the competitive balance.

I've been watching college football for over 50 years and I think this has been the most competitive (and fun) seasons ever. And the increased attendance and TV viewership further supports this.

All that plus the fact that the money is finally starting to flow to the people most deserving, which are the players who are the game and who we actually tune in to watch. Huge win all around imo
 
drewm3i said:
Sure viewership measured in mere numbers (and economic terms) may be up, but the quality of the experience has been greatly reduced. I went to three home games this year and all felt like a party crowd that couldn't care less if the Canes won or lost. For that matter, the crowd couldn't have cared less if ads and music were running on the video boards or the game was being played. It was jarring after not having been to a game since 2019.

It didn't used to be like this and you can't quantify the non-quantifiable, intangible qualities of something like an experience of a sport. Genuine, fanatic interest is not being facilitated any longer, but rather casual observation. Old fans are dying and new fans are not being made at the same rate/intensity.

These "gains" will be shortsighted blips in the grand scheme of the sport's decline which will span decades. Don't believe me? Look at professional hockey and the MLB. No one wants to watch "college" football when it fully becomes the NFL's minor league.
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Well, I still have all the macro stats in my favor and trending up. So I have to mostly disagree.

But I fly in for a couple games a year (live in LA) and agree that fans are less passionate than prior years to a degree. But I think that's our population in general. Too many add'l options of things to focus on. More choices. Means less fanaticism. That's my take though. I don't perceive NIL or portal is the cause. Not sure why it should be. Our portal QB was our team's biggest draw this year. And NIL made it happen.
 
PalyCane said:
The numbers don't say that. And personally, this was the most competitive and surprising, and therefore most enjoyable college season of my life (excepting UM national championship seasons).

Attendance was up: 36,006,633 for 2024 season to date. 35,531,208 in 2023 including bowl games (I couldn't find 2023 attendance for regular season plus conference championship weekend. Only final numbers for the full season including bowl games.)

And TV viewership way up.

View attachment 313319

www.sportsvideo.org

Ratings Roundup: College Football Sweeps Ratings Across All Networks

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, Prime ...
www.sportsvideo.org www.sportsvideo.org
Click to expand...
TV viewership is up on ESPN platforms anyway per the data you provided. And how much of that has to do with now being THE sole broadcaster of the SEC? I'd guess quite a bit. It also mentioned it was the most watched ESPN season since 2016, which makes me wonder, why was there less viewership from 2017 - 2023? Perhaps exhaustion with the 4 team playoff? Basically the same 8 - 10 teams competing for a title during that time period?

I wonder what CBS' TV numbers were this year now that they lost the best weekly games of the SEC and are now relying on the 3rd or 4th best B1G weekly games and the Mountain West on their cable channel.

I say, give it a couple of years. It's the first year of the playoff. The excitement of what the playoff would look like is fresh. If they make it into the SEC/B1G Invitational like it appears they will, I think you'll start to see another downturn.
 
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