Realignment is dangerous for different reasons to me. I produces more blockbuster matchups ( which the networks like), but combined with a large playoff, the idea of rooting for or against a conference is declining which will impact regular viewers (myself included). Without regional conferences and the prospect of winning your league and being left out, there is less reason to follow the sport nationwide. Right now, I look for the top ranked teams across the country to lose every week to help my team or other I am rooting for to make it. With 12 that won't matter nearly as much. Without regional conferences, I also may well root for a Midwestern team in another conference over a Big Ten team from another region. The combined stakes usually kept me from doing that in the past.

This is what the Dan Wetzels of the world wanted with all of their "college sports are the modern plantation" talk.

Fans aren't going to tune out. If anything I think they'll appreciate the honesty of NIL college sports more.

Some will tune out. Once the money becomes that blatant people will realize it is now just a worse version of the NFL. The play isn't as good, and only a certain few teams have any chance to get into the playoff instead of everyone having a chance. You never had players on the same team for 8 or 10 years like NFL, and now you'll be lucky to have the same players for more than 1-2 years.

I used to watch baseball, including every World Series (as a Cubs fan my team was never in it). When they had the baseball strike in the 90s I decided that if the game wasn't important enough for them to play, it wasn't important enough for me to watch. I haven't watched baseball since.

Doesn't take that much to lose fans (lots of other entertainment options), and it's difficult to get them back once you belatedly realize you've lost them.

(09-14-2023 09:18 AM)OdinFrigg Wrote:  It will be mixed results. Wealthy schools that invest heavily in athletics will embrace NIL further as it continues to evolve. For the rest, it poses challenges. Some will work hard to cope with it. Others, will make the decision to opt out or be highly measured in how deep/extensive into NIL they are willing to undertake.

What will come will be an organized structure to regulate NIL. It’ll take a few years to get any substantive regulations after growing dissatisfaction occurs over extreme applications of NIL at certain institutions, corporate meddling that rises beyond normalcy into sectors of abuse, and players becoming basically hired mercenaries. “NFLing and NBAing Lite” college football and basketball will happen. The bigger challenge is maintaining the identity with academic institutions that retain, at appreciable levels, fan support from students, alumni, the booster class, the immediate community, and the regional/state-wide followers.

No schools can't opt out of the NIL. But, the athletes at those schools will demand the same money that the athletes are getting at the other schools. It needs to be balance across the board, and it can't be just for the P2 schools alone.

(09-14-2023 04:02 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  Some will tune out. Once the money becomes that blatant people will realize it is now just a worse version of the NFL. The play isn't as good, and only a certain few teams have any chance to get into the playoff instead of everyone having a chance. You never had players on the same team for 8 or 10 years like NFL, and now you'll be lucky to have the same players for more than 1-2 years.

I used to watch baseball, including every World Series (as a Cubs fan my team was never in it). When they had the baseball strike in the 90s I decided that if the game wasn't important enough for them to play, it wasn't important enough for me to watch. I haven't watched baseball since.

Doesn't take that much to lose fans (lots of other entertainment options), and it's difficult to get them back once you belatedly realize you've lost them.

And yet, MLB is more profitable than it's ever been. So your anecdotal checking-out clearly wasn't widely shared. (Now, MLB certainly has an aging demographic issue, but that has nothing to do with a strike/lockout 30 years ago.)

The most watched regular season CFB Saturday ever last weekend.

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-footbal...22580.html

So many people in this thread didn't real the article.

The proper thing to do is slap a year long sit rule on the other side of the Portal. Only way to stop the madness.

(09-14-2023 03:42 PM)Mav Wrote:  This is what the Dan Wetzels of the world wanted with all of their "college sports are the modern plantation" talk.

Fans aren't going to tune out. If anything I think they'll appreciate the honesty of NIL college sports more.

Wrong.

The more college football resembles professional football, the more the general college football fan will tune it out.

If we loved professional football so much we would be NFL fanatics already, but we're not.

This is not going to end the way many of you think it will.

(09-26-2023 01:24 PM)Hokie4Skins Wrote:  The most watched regular season CFB Saturday ever last weekend.

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-footbal...22580.html

Yup. All of this hand-wringing about college sports from NIL to TV money to realignment… and more people are watching college football than ever. The only thing that surprises me is that people sincerely thought that it would be the opposite outcome. The most perplexing argument that I always see is that people supposedly claim that they don’t want college football to look like the NFL, yet the NFL is the most-watched TV program in the US and the most valuable set of sports teams in the world. The average sports fan actually finds college football way more compelling when it looks more like the NFL: a clear set of teams and games to follow, more parity and movement of players, a more robust playoff system, etc.

(09-26-2023 03:14 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(09-26-2023 01:24 PM)Hokie4Skins Wrote:  The most watched regular season CFB Saturday ever last weekend.

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-footbal...22580.html

Yup. All of this hand-wringing about college sports from NIL to TV money to realignment… and more people are watching college football than ever. The only thing that surprises me is that people sincerely thought that it would be the opposite outcome. The most perplexing argument that I always see is that people supposedly claim that they don’t want college football to look like the NFL, yet the NFL is the most-watched TV program in the US and the most valuable set of sports teams in the world. The average sports fan actually finds college football way more compelling when it looks more like the NFL: a clear set of teams and games to follow, more parity and movement of players, a more robust playoff system, etc.

People don't want the lack of emotion, a bunch of 8-4 teams playing for a title, so much parity that players don't stand out, the crowd limited to people paying huge amounts for tickets and the generally generic, sterile atmosphere.

(09-26-2023 03:14 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(09-26-2023 01:24 PM)Hokie4Skins Wrote:  The most watched regular season CFB Saturday ever last weekend.

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-footbal...22580.html

Yup. All of this hand-wringing about college sports from NIL to TV money to realignment… and more people are watching college football than ever. The only thing that surprises me is that people sincerely thought that it would be the opposite outcome. The most perplexing argument that I always see is that people supposedly claim that they don’t want college football to look like the NFL, yet the NFL is the most-watched TV program in the US and the most valuable set of sports teams in the world. The average sports fan actually finds college football way more compelling when it looks more like the NFL: a clear set of teams and games to follow, more parity and movement of players, a more robust playoff system, etc.

But also four weeks might just be too short of a time to judge something that will likely play out over the next five, ten or twenty years.

The only thing that will drive the average college sports fan away from the model isn’t NIL or controlled realignment. The future of the popularity of college football rests in the hands of the CFP committee. As long as there is “perceived” access for their chosen team, the average fan will tune in.

When that access goes away so will the fans.

You can’t arbitrarily point at one game and say “see the game is as popular as ever”. No the game is popular as ever for the fans of those programs.

If you’re under 50 you don’t remember how popular baseball used to be. Then free agency started and small market franchises couldn’t keep teams they had built together because George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees would simply buy the best players.

The 5 smallest markets and their last World Series

Milwaukee Brewers - 1982 last time in World Series
Kansas City Royals - 2015 World Series Championship
Cincinnati Reds - 1990 World Series Championship
Pittsburgh Pirates - 1979 World Series Championship
Tampa Bay Rays - 2008 last time in World Series

That’s why baseball is no longer America’s pastime.

NIL and the transfer portal are the first step toward a slippery slope. The next step will be eliminating the opportunity 70% of the fans have to see their team play for a “championship”.

The reality is there are only 6 to 8 teams who have a real shot at winning a championship every season. Most college football fans know that and accept it. It’s the season TCU had last year or Cincinnati had two years ago that keeps the casual fan interested.

(09-14-2023 10:59 AM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  I love how Wetzel spends most of the article poking fun at the establishment for fear mongering, then does a bit of his own with this nugget:

Actually, the biggest threat to the tradition of the sport is conference realignment. Athletic directors and commissioners — who secretly tamper with and then transfer entire athletic departments in pursuit of more money — can’t blame that on the players.

My prediction: realignment is no more of a threat to CFB than NIL or the transfer portal. In a very real sense, it's promotion/relegation in action, only with a whole lot more than a 1 year promotion or relegation at stake. It gives borderline schools an even greater incentive to get serious about athletics, thus injecting energy and enthusiasm into previously moribund programs. Does anybody think that WF, BC and Syracuse are just sitting back and counting their ACC dollars today? What about any former Pac schools? EVERYBODY knows what's going on now, it's a more-level playing field than perhaps ever before, and enthusiasm is at or near an all-time high. Even the crazy dominance of the SEC has helped the sport indirectly by pushing other schools in other Conferences to push even harder to overcome the giants from the SEC.

In my lifetime I have seen:
Split of Division 1
Death of the SWC and Big 8
Transformation of the Big 12
WAC morphing into MWC
Birth and death of Big East football
Death of the Independent “conference”
Birth and multiple phases of AAC, CUSA and Sun Belt
Death of the PAC-8/10/12
Expansion of ACC and Big 10 to the Pacific Ocean
SEC into Texas and Missouri

Don’t know how old Wetzel is but he probably remembers most or all of this. Yet here we are.

(09-27-2023 02:36 AM)CardinalJim Wrote:  The only thing that will drive the average college sports fan away from the model isn’t NIL or controlled realignment. The future of the popularity of college football rests in the hands of the CFP committee. As long as there is “perceived” access for their chosen team, the average fan will tune in.

When that access goes away so will the fans.

You can’t arbitrarily point at one game and say “see the game is as popular as ever”. No the game is popular as ever for the fans of those programs.

If you’re under 50 you don’t remember how popular baseball used to be. Then free agency started and small market franchises couldn’t keep teams they had built together because George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees would simply buy the best players.

The 5 smallest markets and their last World Series

Milwaukee Brewers - 1982 last time in World Series
Kansas City Royals - 2015 World Series Championship
Cincinnati Reds - 1990 World Series Championship
Pittsburgh Pirates - 1979 World Series Championship
Tampa Bay Rays - Never been to the World Series

That’s why baseball is no longer America’s pastime.

NIL and the transfer portal are the first step toward a slippery slope. The next step will be eliminating the opportunity 70% of the fans have to see their team play for a “championship”.

The reality is there are only 6 to 8 teams who have a real shot at winning a championship every season. Most college football fans know that and accept it. It’s the season TCU had last year or Cincinnati had two years ago that keeps the casual fan interested.

Tampa lost to the Phillies in the 2008 World Series.

I used to love watching baseball. Never missed a Braves game. Haven’t watched in years. Why? Interleague play, wild card, and expanded playoffs killed my interest.

(09-27-2023 03:53 AM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  Tampa lost to the Phillies in the 2008 World Series.

I used to love watching baseball. Never missed a Braves game. Haven’t watched in years. Why? Interleague play, wild card, and expanded playoffs killed my interest.

Thanks for the Tampa info. Only one I didn’t look up.

Baseball is every sports league’s example of what not to do when things are going well. The downfall of baseball is an American tragedy.

(09-27-2023 05:15 AM)CardinalJim Wrote:  

(09-27-2023 03:53 AM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  Tampa lost to the Phillies in the 2008 World Series.

I used to love watching baseball. Never missed a Braves game. Haven’t watched in years. Why? Interleague play, wild card, and expanded playoffs killed my interest.

Thanks for the Tampa info. Only one I didn’t look up.

Baseball is every sports league’s example of what not to do when things are going well. The downfall of baseball is an American tragedy.

Guess that's why you missed that the Rays last WS appearance was 2020. Lost to the Dodgers in 6.

It's easy to blame baseball, but the reality is that the cultural shifts in the United States meant that football was always going to pass baseball in popularity. And there's really nothing MLB has done or could have done that changes that.

(09-27-2023 02:36 AM)CardinalJim Wrote:  The only thing that will drive the average college sports fan away from the model isn’t NIL or controlled realignment. The future of the popularity of college football rests in the hands of the CFP committee. As long as there is “perceived” access for their chosen team, the average fan will tune in.

When that access goes away so will the fans.

You can’t arbitrarily point at one game and say “see the game is as popular as ever”. No the game is popular as ever for the fans of those programs.

If you’re under 50 you don’t remember how popular baseball used to be. Then free agency started and small market franchises couldn’t keep teams they had built together because George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees would simply buy the best players.

The 5 smallest markets and their last World Series

Milwaukee Brewers - 1982 last time in World Series
Kansas City Royals - 2015 World Series Championship
Cincinnati Reds - 1990 World Series Championship
Pittsburgh Pirates - 1979 World Series Championship
Tampa Bay Rays - 2008 last time in World Series

That’s why baseball is no longer America’s pastime.

NIL and the transfer portal are the first step toward a slippery slope. The next step will be eliminating the opportunity 70% of the fans have to see their team play for a “championship”.

The reality is there are only 6 to 8 teams who have a real shot at winning a championship every season. Most college football fans know that and accept it. It’s the season TCU had last year or Cincinnati had two years ago that keeps the casual fan interested.

FBS should be more like March Madness. San Diego State and UConn made sure none of the schools from the P5 nor P2 made it. College football have been going down that road since 2000 when you did not see many blowout games between P5 against the G5 schools until the last 2 years. You have seen a lot of G5 and FCS wins against P5 schools. The problem is that the NIL is a disaster if you have one school gets the most NIL money for players than you have the others. Even the Pros are not setup like that. The NIL money needs to be spread out to all the NCAA, NAIA, NCCAA, etc evenly. Lets say Kellen Moore of Boise State could have have a great NIL deal to sell products on tv Nationally. Same with Colt Brennan, etc.
That is why the thinking of the P2 breaking away, and realignment will fixed this is not going to work. It just makes things worst.

(09-26-2023 02:55 PM)CAJUNNATION Wrote:  

(09-14-2023 03:42 PM)Mav Wrote:  This is what the Dan Wetzels of the world wanted with all of their "college sports are the modern plantation" talk.

Fans aren't going to tune out. If anything I think they'll appreciate the honesty of NIL college sports more.

Wrong.

The more college football resembles professional football, the more the general college football fan will tune it out.

If we loved professional football so much we would be NFL fanatics already, but we're not.

This is not going to end the way many of you think it will.

Says you. Many cfb football fans are also NFL fans.

The NFL is by far more successful than any other professional sport in the US.

(09-27-2023 07:37 AM)PicksUp Wrote:  

(09-26-2023 02:55 PM)CAJUNNATION Wrote:  

(09-14-2023 03:42 PM)Mav Wrote:  This is what the Dan Wetzels of the world wanted with all of their "college sports are the modern plantation" talk.

Fans aren't going to tune out. If anything I think they'll appreciate the honesty of NIL college sports more.

Wrong.

The more college football resembles professional football, the more the general college football fan will tune it out.

If we loved professional football so much we would be NFL fanatics already, but we're not.

This is not going to end the way many of you think it will.

Says you. Many cfb football fans are also NFL fans.

The NFL is by far more successful than any other professional sport in the US.

Yeah - I think we get into a bit of a bubble on this board regarding the primacy of college sports.

The NFL is the most popular sport in America and it’s not even close.

The most common type of sports fan in America will be the person that watches both NFL and college football. Sure, we’ll get the anecdotes here about how people aren’t NFL fans, but the numbers are *overwhelmingly* in the other direction.

The single biggest source of potential growth for college football is getting NFL fans that don’t current watch college football to start watching. That’s the low hanging fruit for college football and their media partners.

There are simply 100,000 (or legitimately maybe even a million) Giants fans in New Jersey for every Oregon State fan anywhere and a network getting just a fraction of those Giants fans to tune into Michigan-Ohio State or another big brand game for an hour is more impactful to the bottom line than keeping 100% of the Oregon State fans watching every single week. It’s simple math.

That’s the market that college football *has* to go after in the face of demographic headwinds of an aging fan base. People act like “college football is acting like the NFL” is some type of criticism. Every sports property in the entire world (even the English Premier League) wishes with everything in all of their power that they could be like the NFL! It’s like “criticizing” a tech company that they’re too much like Apple: that’s exactly what every tech company wants to hear! The fact that college football has so much fan crossover with the NFL already gives it a massive advantage on that front (not to mention playing the same sport).