College Football’s Financial Woes (Bloomberg)

[huskymedic]

Two article so far:

The Unravelling of College Football Starts With All These Empty Stadiums

College Football’s Top Teams Are Built on Crippling Debt

 

[ktuck911]

Gimme a break... they created this monster.. Corporatocracy at its finest... you wanna keep reinventing the wheel to maximize profits there's your end result...

 

[J187Money]

It is great for UCONN that the BB center and the other facilities are being done through private money / donations. Borrowing only against pledges.

 

[whaler11]

The real issue is going to be when the TV contracts go down. And they will go down. Soon.

 

[noeynox]

The real issue is going to be when the TV contracts go down. And they will go down. Soon.

It should restore some sanity.

 

[freescooter]

I mentioned that on another thread. Many non-sports analysts say ESPN and Fox overpaid for college sports. Nobody cares about Rutgers-Indiana or BC-Wake Forest. Regional conferences with regional coverage makes sense.

As far as attendance goes, even name teams lose their drawing power over time and if the games are one sided. How many times are you going to watch Michigan pummel Rutgers? You might go once or twice to see Michigan but but the 5th time it loses its excitement.

 

[JMick]

It should restore some sanity.

Ideally it results in many smaller regional conferences. Or, the P5 merge at 64 teams and the networks buy the rights to this "new" NCAA league that gets modeled after the NFL. That's the worst case scenario for anyone on the outside looking in

 

[UConnJim]

I have thought at this this time, the most important thing for UConn to do was to continue to build the fanbase in all sports because in the future, you will be compensated by how much value you bring to the table. Right now, UConn could generate more media revenues than they get today if they had more control of their media rights.

IF, as some of you hypothesize, TV contracts will be cut back, the valuable schools in the P5 will not want to share equally with the low value players in the P5. Do you think schools like Florida State and Clemson will take a pay cut to support Wake Forest and Boston College?

 

[UCFBfan]

I mentioned that on another thread. Many non-sports analysts say ESPN and Fox overpaid for college sports. Nobody cares about Rutgers-Indiana or BC-Wake Forest. Regional conferences with regional coverage makes sense.

This is it right here. They need to go back to regional conferences. The average fan and even more committed fan wants to watch their team play rivals they know and teams they know. They wanna be able to go to away games without needing to fly half way across the country. They want to recognize the school they are playing. The P5 ruined this and will pay in the long run through what they did with CR.

 

[freescooter]

Ideally it results in many smaller regional conferences. Or, the P5 merge at 64 teams and the networks buy the rights to this "new" NCAA league that gets modeled after the NFL. That's the worst case scenario for anyone on the outside looking in

I could imagine a national conference for football only at some point. On the order of 20-30 teams made up of the name brands. Under that scenario it would be interesting to see what happens to teams like Oregon and Virginia tech that have meh histories but are good at a particular point in time.

 

[BlueDogs]

The P5 want to drive all other programs into a hole and havebthem eventually capitulate. The networks would like the same because they can up payments to a small group of elite schools. They will ruin college football in the process. There is one school I will go out of my way to watch; UConn. The rest I could take or leave. What the clowns fail to understand is I care a lot more about other games when my team is impacted. They are drying up secondary viewer interest as well. Greed kills all things. The network and P5 pigs will eventually devour each other too.

 

[Kevin Caliendo]

what conference realignment did was completely kill college sports in the northeast. Including the NYC market.

 

[mike012]

For me personally I watched some of the Rose bowl because I was home and had nothing else to do. If it wasn't close I would have turned it off. I will watch the Title game if it is close. I am a big football fan too but after a while who gives a about BC and Maryland or Boise St and Baylor. Nothing against those teams as I am sure they think the same if it was Uconn vs Maryland or Uconn vs Baylor. College football will eventually crash and burn. I just don't see how you can have 20 regional teams run a whole sport in college and expect it to last.

 

[CL82]

From the outside looking in the idea of moving back to smaller regional conferences makes a lot of sense, but from the inside of a P5 conference not so much.

I am very concerned that we are out of luck regarding conference affiliation. Without a mega contract to finance UConn addition to a P5, change won't happen.

It's depressing.

 

[BlueDogs]

From the outside looking in the idea of moving back to smaller regional conferences makes a lot of sense, but from the inside of a P5 conference not so much.

I am very concerned that we are out of luck regarding conference affiliation. Without a mega contract to finance UConn addition to a P5, change won't happen.

It's depressing.

The best shot any on the outside have looking in is trying to take apart the P5 through public pressure and complaints about collusion and anticompetitive control over bowls and restraint of trade in the deals being cut with networks. The P5 teases with the prospect of expansion so the G5s behave themselves lest they are blackballed. Most of the p5s are influential schools and have support and protection from state and federal politicians as well, so there is no appetite to upset the apple cart around anticompetitive issues. I do see a super conference of G5s that could amass enough power to challenge the system. If BYU, Boise, Rice, CSU, SDSU, New Mexico and few others joined to create a Western division, then there may be enough voices to demand equal access to bowls and also demand an 8 team playoff based on independent rankings. The minute that starts to happen, the P5 conferences will move to suck up the remaining nominal power 5 teams to quell the threat.

 

[storrsroars]

Two article so far:

The Unravelling of College Football Starts With All These Empty Stadiums

College Football’s Top Teams Are Built on Crippling Debt

Didn't see the other three posted, so here they are:

Why TV riches aren't enough anymore.

Football is money losing drug schools can't quit.

Football teams are risky and expensive, but schools want them.

 

[whaler11]

I eould say taking your games off TV is suicide. I get what he is trying because he thinks it's not much money - but it's going to hurt attendance not help it.

 

[whaler11]

The true revolt will be when the students finally turn on the subsidy. I can't believe they haven't already.

It's insane that they are borrowing money guaranteed by the feds to enrich coaches and athletic directors. Insane.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

The true revolt will be when the students finally turn on the subsidy. I can't believe they haven't already.

It's insane that they are borrowing money guaranteed by the feds to enrich coaches and athletic directors. Insane.

That is because many students do not pay attention to their tuition costs. Many parents don't either.

 

[noeynox]

I eould say taking your games off TV is suicide. I get what he is trying because he thinks it's not much money - but it's going to hurt attendance not help it.

I would say more and more people are getting comfortable from getting their content from non cable/satellite options. Why do you think attendance will be hurt based on the platform a conference or school chooses to broadcast their games?

 

[Redding Husky]

Ideally it results in many smaller regional conferences. Or, the P5 merge at 64 teams and the networks buy the rights to this "new" NCAA league that gets modeled after the NFL. That's the worst case scenario for anyone on the outside looking in

That is where we're headed. A junior NFL. And it will be so boring.

 

[whaler11]

I would say more and more people are getting comfortable from getting their content from non cable/satellite options. Why do you think attendance will be hurt based on the platform a conference or school chooses to broadcast their games?

Out of sight out of mind.

 

[noeynox]

Out of sight out of mind.

Maybe, but we're almost there already with games on espn news and CBS sportsnet.

Ideally the conference splits it's games across multiple platforms and makes the most money it can.

The article about Randy's salary was very sobering. We are in a tremendous financial bind right now. I know it's P5 or bust, but in the mean time the AD needs to survive.

If the next "TV" deal raised the payout by 50 percent from 2 to 3 million, that really does nothing. They have to explore the idea of added revenue via streaming their content.

 

[pnow15]

Football took off in the 60's replacing baseball as the No.1 sports. Maybe, just maybe, after watching a hundred million snaps from center, people are just a little bored with it.
Just maybe.

 

[huskysupporter]

This is it right here. They need to go back to regional conferences. The average fan and even more committed fan wants to watch their team play rivals they know and teams they know. They wanna be able to go to away games without needing to fly half way across the country. They want to recognize the school they are playing. The P5 ruined this and will pay in the long run through what they did with CR.

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