Fox Sports: The $3b betrayal that may tear college football apart and create a Super League

[TopFrog]

Fox Sports: The $3b betrayal that may tear college football apart and create a Super League

Max Laughton from Fox Sports
@maxlaughton

The second-biggest sport in America is fractured, and that’s the beauty of it.

While the NFL is a runaway juggernaut, the second-most watched sport in the USA is college football. Its three playoff games were watched by between 18 and 19 million Americans this past season, while the Bucks-Suns NBA Finals drew a maximum of 12.5 million viewers for the deciding game six.

The combination of being American football, which the nation has grown to love more than anything else, and passionate, localised rivalries driven by the 130 schools competing at the top level (Football Bowl Subdivision or FBS), has created massive revenues.

Read more at https://www.foxsports.com.au/nfl/co...s/news-story/b330e32417afc02ca28df11a3eba71bb

 

[froglash88]

How much longer before most of us don’t care about college football anymore?

Doesn’t the TV value come from the people that love the sport and watch several games every weekend? If you kill those fans interest completely, how can that value still be there?

 

[FinanceFrog]

How much longer before most of us don’t care about college football anymore?

Doesn’t the TV value come from the people that love the sport and watch several games every weekend? If you kill those fans interest completely, how can that value still be there?

I think the majority of fans would watch a super league. it’s a Saturday in early September in the super league and the worst game on is OU vs FSU - you aren’t watching those matchups?

every weekend in the super league would be great. There would be no more FBS (or whatever you call it) blowouts to where the starters rest after halftime.

sign me up the for the super league - I think it’s a great idea.

I think the remaining 100 teams not in the super league could also be a success and fun to watch.

 

[Moose Stuff]

How much longer before most of us don’t care about college football anymore?

Doesn’t the TV value come from the people that love the sport and watch several games every weekend? If you kill those fans interest completely, how can that value still be there?

My interest level is already drastically diminished. I don’t see myself watching a game that doesn’t involve TCU.

 

[Paul in uhh]

I think the majority of fans would watch a super league. it’s a Saturday in early September in the super league and the worst game on is OU vs FSU - you aren’t watching those matchups?

every weekend in the super league would be great. There would be no more FBS (or whatever you call it) blowouts to where the starters rest after halftime.

sign me up the for the super league - I think it’s a great idea.

I think the remaining 100 teams not in the super league could also be a success and fun to watch.

I probably would check it out but OU/FSU in a super league scenario where they’re hogging recruits with no scholarship limits and paying them all a lot of cash is much less interesting to me. I’d rather watch the NFL.

 

[Pharm Frog]

Simple….I wouldn’t watch. I barely watch college football that doesn’t involve TCU (or have implications for TCU) as it is. So no…wouldn’t watch OU v FSU or whatever the scenario was. Might catch some postgame highlights if they got in the way of my eyes.

 

[jake102]

I think the majority of fans would watch a super league. it’s a Saturday in early September in the super league and the worst game on is OU vs FSU - you aren’t watching those matchups?

every weekend in the super league would be great. There would be no more FBS (or whatever you call it) blowouts to where the starters rest after halftime.

sign me up the for the super league - I think it’s a great idea.

I think the remaining 100 teams not in the super league could also be a success and fun to watch.

I wouldn’t watch anywhere close to what I do today. That’s minor league football, and I haven’t watched a lot of that either. If my team has literally zero chance of winning something meaningful, I have no incentive to pay attention. I would never go see another TCU game and the school should probably cut ties with football because they will be getting like $3mm/year in revenues and won’t be able to cover scholarships

 

[GenXFrog]

I think the majority of fans would watch a super league. it’s a Saturday in early September in the super league and the worst game on is OU vs FSU - you aren’t watching those matchups?

every weekend in the super league would be great. There would be no more FBS (or whatever you call it) blowouts to where the starters rest after halftime.

sign me up the for the super league - I think it’s a great idea.

I think the remaining 100 teams not in the super league could also be a success and fun to watch.

I think you are mistaken. The majority of fans could not care less. They buy the t-shirt and watch the team they have a tribalstic connection to, and that's it. If those fans actually watch any other game at all, its because of the impact it has on 'their' team.

 

[tyler durden]

Add in relegation/promotion like Premier League and I’m more interested.

 

[BrewingFrog]

How much longer before most of us don’t care about college football anymore?

Doesn’t the TV value come from the people that love the sport and watch several games every weekend? If you kill those fans interest completely, how can that value still be there?

They did it to the NFL. They did it to MLB. They did it for the NBA. Now, they're coming for College Football.

Why these soulless [ Finebaum ]s somehow believe that tearing the heart out of something will make it thrive is beyond me. Especially so, considering the track record. That Hard Core of fans is what keeps a sport going. The Casual Fan is just that: He doesn't particularly care about the game, only about the hyped matchup and the spectacle of a "big game." It is the Hard Core that watches the PAC late-nite matchups, or the Wednesday Night MACtion showcase. Kill that fan's interest, and you've literally cast your product adrift on the fickle winds of the Casual Fan. Thus, every game has to be a Big Game. Otherwise, the Casual Fan has Dr. Pimple Popper to tune in to.

This is what happens when DISNEY/ESPN is run by a bunch of 20-something Twitter-fed morons. They are stupid children, loosed in a room full of delicate and lovely crystal. And they picked up bats on the way in...

 

[JugbandFrog]

They did it to the NFL. They did it to MLB. They did it for the NBA. Now, they're coming for College Football.

Why these soulless [ #2020 ]s somehow believe that tearing the heart out of something will make it thrive is beyond me. Especially so, considering the track record. That Hard Core of fans is what keeps a sport going. The Casual Fan is just that: He doesn't particularly care about the game, only about the hyped matchup and the spectacle of a "big game." It is the Hard Core that watches the PAC late-nite matchups, or the Wednesday Night MACtion showcase. Kill that fan's interest, and you've literally cast your product adrift on the fickle winds of the Casual Fan. Thus, every game has to be a Big Game. Otherwise, the Casual Fan has Dr. Pimple Popper to tune in to.

This is what happens when DISNEY/ESPN is run by a bunch of 20-something Twitter-fed morons. They are stupid children, loosed in a room full of delicate and lovely crystal. And they picked up bats on the way in...

Or the Gamblers! I’m gearing up for a new Saturday Pick ‘em

 

[froglash88]

Those teams (and more importantly fans) used to winning 8 to 13 games a year are going to hate winning 5 or 6.

This doesn’t even come down to the product a school can put on the field. That’s why this is such BS!!!

 

[Eight]

Add in relegation/promotion like Premier League and I’m more interested.

the idea of relegation and promotion will never happen in the us, too much money and ego at stake.

 

[StinnettFrog]

I’m already at the point I won’t watch an OU or Texas game unless they are playing TCU. I will cancel anything with ESPN if it gets where my team isn’t on that network. The streaming services give ability to really pick and pay for what you want and nothing else.

 

[Tshirt Fan]

I think you are mistaken. The majority of fans could not care less. They buy the t-shirt and watch the team they have a tribalstic connection to, and that's it. If those fans actually watch any other game at all, its because of the impact it has on 'their' team.

Well stated. It's all about the shirt. Wearing a lot of burnt orange these days. SEC is hard to beat. SEC!SEC!SEC! Big12 is dead man walking. Good job B12! I was at Chipotle yesterday and overheard a couple of conversations by movers and shakers. Baylor to B1G, Mark it.

 

[Putt4Purple]

I think the majority of fans would watch a super league. it’s a Saturday in early September in the super league and the worst game on is OU vs FSU - you aren’t watching those matchups?

every weekend in the super league would be great. There would be no more FBS (or whatever you call it) blowouts to where the starters rest after halftime.

sign me up the for the super league - I think it’s a great idea.

I think the remaining 100 teams not in the super league could also be a success and fun to watch.

No interest in OU or FSU. Why watch? The interest would not be there.
Go Frogs!

 

[general125]

My interest level is already drastically diminished. I don’t see myself watching a game that doesn’t involve TCU.

That's where I'm at too. I can't imagine watching much college football that doesn't include the Horned Frogs.

 

[watchoutforthelizard]

I think the majority of fans would watch a super league. it’s a Saturday in early September in the super league and the worst game on is OU vs FSU - you aren’t watching those matchups?

every weekend in the super league would be great. There would be no more FBS (or whatever you call it) blowouts to where the starters rest after halftime.

sign me up the for the super league - I think it’s a great idea.

I think the remaining 100 teams not in the super league could also be a success and fun to watch.

Yes, you are 100% correct people will watch a super conference. It is going to ruin college athletics but they will watch. You are high though if you think the 100 plus left behind have any future. Their revenue and prestige are up in smoke. They will become something mildly better than DIII. Anyone left on outside looking in is going to gut their athletics program purging sports and personal. I know first hand Baylor/TCU/Tech are terrified about fundraising drying up if relegated to minors. The rich will get a lot richer but those in minors are going suffer badly with loss of jobs, sports, fundraising and brand.

 

[flyfishingfrog]

Think that actually plays in their favor

most people only care about their team

so regardless of what league - you will follow your team

thus why not get all the teams with the most followers in one league from a tv deal perspective results in the most money for those teams

it stinks that that also equates to many of the top performing teams all being in one league if it happens

hopefully we end up in a place playing teams we either have or can create good rivalries with

 

[tcudoc]

The golden goose that is college football is about to be put on hospice and will, for most fans, die a slow death unless something is done to turn things around. Many schools will see some short term monetary benefits, but once the golden goose dies, there will be no more golden eggs.
What we are seeing is akin to the family fighting over the will before the goose is even dead.
Maybe my analogy got off base a bit, but that’s how it seems to me.