College Bowl Season

[kungfoodude]

14 hours ago, jayboogieman said:

Yeah. And as FSU proved today, it's all about the money

College football and basketball are decades into it being about money. It has just rapidly increased since the 80's. 

Although the current era will eventually lead to the decline and inevitable collapse of the current model of revenue college athletics. 

Basketball will likely survive, as that model is on very solid ground. I would very much be surprised if college football hasn't experienced a MASSIVE decline inside 30 years.

[jayboogieman]

34 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

College football and basketball are decades into it being about money. It has just rapidly increased since the 80's. 

Although the current era will eventually lead to the decline and inevitable collapse of the current model of revenue college athletics. 

Basketball will likely survive, as that model is on very solid ground. I would very much be surprised if college football hasn't experienced a MASSIVE decline inside 30 years.

I think things got worse when ESPN, Fox, and CBS started offering those exclusive TV contracts for the conferences, taking the games away from the local/regional broadcasts. But it is what it is.

I can see things collapsing especially if NIL and the transfer portal keep being a thing. And I don't think NIL and the portal are going anywhere.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

Bowls have been irrelevant for almost 100% of their existence. The playoffs didn't change this at all.

It was the bloating of the bowl system more than anything else. Being bowl eligible used to mean something. It was confirmation that you had a good season. Then they killed the golden goose making a million bowl games to the point that you have to be completely terrible to not be blow eligible. There were 19 bowl games in 1990. There were 23 bowl games in 2000. There are 43 now. Being bowl eligible has become completely meaningless. 

[kungfoodude]

2 hours ago, jayboogieman said:

I think things got worse when ESPN, Fox, and CBS started offering those exclusive TV contracts for the conferences, taking the games away from the local/regional broadcasts. But it is what it is.

I can see things collapsing especially if NIL and the transfer portal keep being a thing. And I don't think NIL and the portal are going anywhere.

The portal and NIL are positive changes that will have extremely minimal impact.

The biggest issues are engagement in younger demographic and the entire model is built on TV revenue/TV ad revenue going up forever. It's essentially the housing market from the late 2000's. 

Plus college football keeps moving to make their product more exclusive and more expensive to get in a market where younger people just don't have standard TV. 

This is the same thing I have thrown at the NFL for several years now. There is a reckoning coming because they believe they can be the kings of the sports world forever. 

Well, talk to Major League Baseball about how that worked out decades ago......

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

It was the bloating of the bowl system more than anything else. Being bowl eligible used to mean something. It was confirmation that you had a good season. Then they killed the golden goose making a million bowl games to the point that you have to be completely terrible to not be blow eligible. There were 19 bowl games in 1990. There were 23 bowl games in 2000. There are 43 now. Being bowl eligible has become completely meaningless. 

Yes but the reality is that there were several iconic bowls that people watched at a time when viewing/sports options were limited and EVERYONE just watched those bowls. Some of those bowls still draw a general audience but overall the bowls have been in a place where only really the fanbases of the schools involved really care for at least three decades now.

The glut of bowls absolutely exacerbated the problem. It diluted the pool but the revenue from TV deals made it worthwhile to the ever more money hungry college football world.

[KatsAzz]

The fact that so many top players that will be high picks in the NFL Draft are deciding not to play causes me to lose a lot of interest in the bowl games.

[kungfoodude]

8 minutes ago, KatsAzz said:

The fact that so many top players that will be high picks in the NFL Draft are deciding not to play causes me to lose a lot of interest in the bowl games.

We are a quite a few years into that trend overall, though. It will be somewhat lessened by the NIL(players are already staying because the money is better in college) but it also doesn't make a lot of good financial sense(from a prospective NFL Draft pick) to play in essentially a glorified exhibition game. 

Unless you are in the playoffs, most of these games are meaningless.

Keep in mind the CFB playoffs is expanding, so some of these issues will be solved that way.

Edited December 23, 2023 by kungfoodude

[Growl]

all the worst fears of the portal and NIL have been realized

players certainly deserve to use their own likeness but the expected predictions that people hand waved away have absolutely come to fruition

mid tier schools have become feeder developmental programs for the big schools, desperately trying to reload with the rising cream of the bottom rung programs

its all entrenched everybody in place and between that and the super conferences it’s hard to envision any program ever truly developing itself into a blue blood unless changes are made 

you’ll see a school or two every season fluke it’s way into top contention and the people who benefit from the system or the people were begging for it and don’t want to admit they were wrong will latch onto that as a sign of success, but unless things change it’s going to be virtually impossible for lower and mid tier schools to climb the ladder

[Shocker]

6 hours ago, KatsAzz said:

The fact that so many top players that will be high picks in the NFL Draft are deciding not to play causes me to lose a lot of interest in the bowl games.

I agree but if I were in their shoes I wouldn’t play either.

[4Corners]

Getting mad at some 21 year olds for choosing to not play in a meaningless exhibition game and risk potentially millions of dollars is such a boomer mindset 

[kungfoodude]

11 hours ago, Growl said:

all the worst fears of the portal and NIL have been realized

players certainly deserve to use their own likeness but the expected predictions that people hand waved away have absolutely come to fruition

mid tier schools have become feeder developmental programs for the big schools, desperately trying to reload with the rising cream of the bottom rung programs

its all entrenched everybody in place and between that and the super conferences it’s hard to envision any program ever truly developing itself into a blue blood unless changes are made 

you’ll see a school or two every season fluke it’s way into top contention and the people who benefit from the system or the people were begging for it and don’t want to admit they were wrong will latch onto that as a sign of success, but unless things change it’s going to be virtually impossible for lower and mid tier schools to climb the ladder

Blue blood schools lose as many or more transfers as non-blue blood schools. The thing that changed is mainly that players can leave if things didn't work out. If you actually look at the transfers, you also see a lot of guys(more actually) making either lateral moves in tier or moves downward(which is the most common type of transfer).

Fans whine about the portal but the reality is that is has been a net positive for most of college football. There has never been a time where at just about every tier of college football you can get immediate help. Not some freshman that needs 1-3 years of seasoning, but actual experienced college football players. They don't always work out, but it's way less of a crap shoot than starting a freshman it sophomore.

Notice how if anything mid-tier and lower schools have put greater emphasis on filling needs with portal players, because it allows them to quickly fill roster holes without waiting for longer development times for lower ranked recruits.

[45catfan]

Only a .500 record required, 43 games, winter portal, players with NFL aspirations and only 4 schools really playing for anything. Is a wonder why these bowl games have like 10% of people in attendance?  Nobody wants to travel to see backups play while the stars are on the sidelines.  It's akin to preseason in the NFL.  Even when the playoffs expand to 12, that's a mere 8 more schools with something to play for.  The trend will continue at an accelerated pace, unfortunately.  Teams will end up having to start kids in these bowl games that have not played much or even a snap all season. 

[45catfan]

What also sucks, as a guy that likes the draft cycle, is in years past you would get to see these elite kids play in these bowl games that were at west coast schools or markets that didn't televise our area.  You still get to see them, but now they're eating sunflower seeds and spinning a towel on 3rd downs as honorary cheerleaders.

[Growl]

9 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

Not some freshman that needs 1-3 years of seasoning, but actual experienced college football players. They don't always work out, but it's way less of a crap shoot than starting a freshman it sophomore.

 

This is exactly the kind of player that every program that isn’t a big time college blue blood is getting 

privileged fans of privileged teams don’t see the problem because “wow we can just go out and get what we need, this is great!” 

like lol