Orlando Sentinel: Gators AD Scott Stricklin: Canceling football ‘would shake financial foundation of college athletics’

[billybud]

Good sense should prevail...we can be "normal" when it is safe to be normal.

 

[Redding Husky]

We are already down to 32. Hell, less than 32 who have a legitimate shot of winning. Yet, we still watch. Fans in states with no NFl team watch the NFL. Fans of schools with no shot of sniffing the playoffs watch now. That won't change on a large scale.

I believe you if you say you won't watch. You will not be in the majority on that one.

Ratings are already low outside the South. If they formalize a split to 32, fans of NC State (left out) won’t suddenly become fans of Clemson. And fans of Indiana (left out) won’t start wearing Ohio State jerseys.

32 would be a yawner.

 

[Waquoit]

A 32-team super league would make it difficult to maintain the fiction that it's still college sports, imo. It would be the XFL, no matter the name on the front of the jerseys. I wouldn't watch a second of it.

 

[Exit 4]

A 32-team super league would make it difficult to maintain the fiction that it's still college sports, imo. It would be the XFL, no matter the name on the front of the jerseys. I wouldn't watch a second of it.

Yeah, you might be right about what a 32 team super division for college football might feel like. I would still watch, but certainly with less passion. The fan bases would probably narrow to quite a bit, to something more like pro sports.

Thing is, because the NCAA doesn’t do anything to reset competitive balance, no matter what they do to narrow the college football pool the product will be terribly flawed on that their will be permanent losers and permanent winners. Right now that flawed is thinly veiled below the pool of 130 teams. Narrow that pool to 30,40, 50 or 60 and those bottom teams will be absolutely nailed to the floor.

 

[freescooter]

Yeah, you might be right about what a 32 team super division for college football might feel like. I would still watch, but certainly with less passion. The fan bases would probably narrow to quite a bit, to something more like pro sports.

Thing is, because the NCAA doesn’t do anything to reset competitive balance, no matter what they do to narrow the college football pool the product will be terribly flawed on that their will be permanent losers and permanent winners. Right now that flawed is thinly veiled below the pool of 130 teams. Narrow that pool to 30,40, 50 or 60 and those bottom teams will be absolutely nailed to the floor.

I think this is absolutely right but, and it is a big BUT, if 32 teams can be convinced that they will make more money than in the current system I have no doubt that they will do it.

The one experiment that I could see happening this fall is playing without fans. It is a silly idea but one we have been moving toward for a while now. No one outside the fans themselves cares much about them so it will be fascinating to see if games even make sense played in an empty arena. I talked to a guy who played hoops in for BU the year they played their tourney without fans because of a measles outbreak I think. He said it was really hard to keep focused. Felt like a scrimmage not a real game. But then BU lost. If they one he might have said it was great. Hard to imagine a whole season of football played as a true made for tv event though

 

[huskymedic]

Can college football be played without fans in the stands? Paul Finebaum shares his thoughts

>>“I think so but I will say this Ryan, after talking to a lot of people last week, ADs, commissioners and head football coaches, I think there is clearly a line drawn about football without fans and it just seems like it would make the sport look extraordinarily desperate and I think he could have a long term effect,” Finebaum said on the show. “Now you weigh that against no football and I understand the argument.

“Jimbo Fisher said the other day, listen I don’t want it, and I’m paraphrasing, you know sometimes you just have to do things that you don’t want to do. I just have a hard time believing that the five Power 5 commissioners, as you trickle down to college presidents, are going to do that. Because if you can’t put people in the stands, why is it safe to put people on the field and locker rooms? And I think another thing you have to consider if college campuses aren’t open, I don’t see any way that they’ll be football.<<

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

USAT: Major public college football programs could lose billions in revenue if no season is played.

 

[freescooter]

Seton Hall poll says 75% of people say they won’t attend sporting events unless there is a vaccine/cure. That has got to be considered too

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Yeah, you might be right about what a 32 team super division for college football might feel like. I would still watch, but certainly with less passion. The fan bases would probably narrow to quite a bit, to something more like pro sports.

Thing is, because the NCAA doesn’t do anything to reset competitive balance, no matter what they do to narrow the college football pool the product will be terribly flawed on that their will be permanent losers and permanent winners. Right now that flawed is thinly veiled below the pool of 130 teams. Narrow that pool to 30,40, 50 or 60 and those bottom teams will be absolutely nailed to the floor.

One has to start to question the current major college sports business model, especially for football. No other country has such a system in place. Plus, even in the US, the Ivy league and others walked away from football in partiular decades ago and have done all right. I just think the rules and regulations that being part of a University is going to become too burdensome to these big-time programs. Should these 32 big-tme programs split, I think in less than a decade, the will split from their respective universities, too. Such a split would have less of an impact on basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer as there are alternate and arguably better routes to a professional career in each respective sport that college. The NCAA will go back to what it was 50 years ago with some 'big' programs; but, it will be back to being focused on Amateur sports.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[CL82]

I'm not sure if they can/or will do this for football. I guess if their media partners require it, they will. I can see it for basketball. It would be weird, but better than cancelling the season.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

Imagine that...


>>I just have a couple of more lifestyle questions, then I’ll let you go. People are still holding out hope for some kind of abbreviated baseball season this summer, college football will start in late August. NFL right after that. Do you think those sports seasons are in jeopardy? Are we going to have college football this fall?

—>You know, to be honest with you, Peter, I don’t know. I really don’t. And it’s sort of along the same line as the question you asked about the schools. It’s really going to depend on what actually evolves over the next couple of months. You know, regarding sports, I believe, and I think this is going to be implemented by the initiation and the initiative of the people who own these clubs. If you could get on television, Major League Baseball, to start July 4. Let’s say, nobody comes to the stadium. You just, you do it. I mean people say, “Well you can’t play without spectators.” Well, I think you’d probably get enough buy-in from people who are dying to see a baseball game. Particularly me. I’m living in Washington. We have the World Champion Washington Nationals. You know, I want to see them play again. But there’s a way of doing that because there have been some proposals both at the level of the NFL, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, to get these people tested, and to put them in big hotels, you know, wherever you want to play. Keep them very well surveilled, namely a surveillance, but have them tested, like every week. By a gazillion tests. And make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family. And just let them play the season out. I mean, that’s a really artificial way to do it, but when you think about it, it might be better than nothing.<—

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

LA Mayor doubling down...

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Waquoit]

To do what, exactly?

 

[Redding Husky]

NC State fans and Purdue fans, the sane ones, don't think that they have any shot at the national championship.....just like Army, Wake, Duke, Rutgers, UConn, etc., etc.

You think that fans of an FCS program never turn on a FBS game?

The less skin you have in the game, the less interest you’ll have in the game.

I am beyond bored with Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State. I’d rather watch paint dry or grass grow. The Kardashians are better TV.

 

[billybud]

The less skin you have in the game, the less interest you’ll have in the game.

I am beyond bored with Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State. I’d rather watch paint dry or grass grow. The Kardashians are better TV.

Sooo...you may be one of the 605k that watched OK State-Tulsa last year....

But most aren't like you...that same week, 3.62 million watched Clemson-Syracuse, and 4.95 million watched Alabama-South Carolina.

Some figures from the 2018 year...

• The 366 regular season telecasts on ABC, beIN Sports, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, FOX, FS1 and NBC during the 2018 regular season averaged 1,802,000 viewers per game while reaching more than 163 million unique fans†
• 
  
• Seven teams played in three or more games ranked in the Top 25 for viewership: Ohio State (7), Alabama (5), LSU (4), Michigan (4), Auburn (3), Georgia (3), Oklahoma (3)

Folks don't watch Nebraska-NIU (201k) or Toledo-Colorado State (185k).

Whatever floats someone's boat is available....but the big numbers are generated by a double handful of teams.

 

[billybud]

I do believe there is a "multipier effect"....in some conferences, exemplified by the SEC, the fans of all teams will watch other teams of the conference play.

Also, nationally, fans like to watch marquis games that feature ranked teams...