big time in most areas.

At worst, they could bankrupt, rebrand and abandon those contracts. Given the recent declines in college football ratings I predict a 2 conference monopoly will further drive viewers away and void these lucrative deals down the road. ** Edited by Maroon Unit at 7/14/2022, 6:37:06 AM

It's going to be the ruination of college sports. I'd love to see college football reeled in with major scholarship reductions to help bring it into alignment with other sports. Somehow D2 schools with zero obscene football television money seem to be able to fund scholarships and coaches' salaries. My son is a two sport athlete in a D2 school in a D2 super conference, and that little 2500 undergrad student school has a thriving athletics department and more sports than VT has. A small amount of money trickles down to Olympic sports, but in the end, the football television revenue fuels the recruiting arms race. I can tell you after spending the last four years watching college water polo in the Fall instead of football, I didn't miss football at all. I got to see four exciting games every weekend, didn't have to pay $85 for a ticket, didn't have to deal with drunks and parking, and enjoyed it more than any football game I've gone to in the last couple of decades.

College FB is out of control and out of line with the function of higher education. End the madness.

I hope that story gets covered on Real Sports.

Part of the decline of the NFL viewership is the fact they have decided to go massively political. That's a huge turnoff, especially when they disrespect this country, our flag, and the American people in general. Don't they know their primary audience is very pro-America? Sort of like the Dixie Chicks. You don't go overseas and slam our country if you are a country music act. Not if you want to continue selling records to your primary fanbase...country music fans. The NFL needs to drop all of the politics and get back to playing football. That may not save football in the long run, but it will extend football's dominance much longer...

The dixie chicks deal was 19 years ago! Probably time to move on. Kaepernick kneeling was 6 years ago! Again, probably time to move on.

They made a point of going political. I got free tickets to their show last weekend and my wife and I decided to go and hope they would just shut up and sing. When they started showing cartoons of the Supreme Court justices being blown up, we got up and left. We were not alone. Most of us want our music and our sports to be apolitical and, unfortunately, much of it is no longer that way.

it is taking a massively complex result (lower viewership) that is effecting almost every segment of viewership ( sports and otherwise) and attempting to shoehorn its reason into a very narrow bucket that aligns well with someone's strong political views. more than being political, it is frankly bs. for every isolated case of a far right guy who says he is forsaking NFL football truly for those reasons you can find the opposite isolated case in the other direction. if only for the sole reason that most Americans like self-gratification and can't even swear off ice cream for a week during Lent, I'm calling BS. ** Edited by Vippie1 at 7/14/2022, 10:59:11 AM

Vastly overrated. More viewers care about some semblance of competitive balance. That’s what we’re losing and will sink college football.

I stand by that statement.

and demographically associated with lower viewership in the young as noted in the article which details the more likely causes.

VT also just proved that getting good in basketball can be done much easier, cheaper, and faster compared to football. If the sport keeps pushing towards further focusing on the south east then it deserves to all crash and burn. Maybe ACC basketball will be the ultimate savior of the conference in the long term. But football absolutely has some big problems right now. Hard to believe with all the money flowing around. I guess we will see in ten years.

The Big Ten will make itself national this round to try to combat that, but football is becoming SEC. They will survive on it for as long as it lasts. The ACC will need to adjust to this, but as we've seen in some of the threads, we also can thrive with basketball. Position ourselves to keep in that position with not diminishing football. I don't think there is any doubt that football is on the decline. It is massive now, but in 2036 will it be? We'll see.

could have the monumental change you need to launch 🏀! 1) The 85% of the about a Billion Dollars goes to the P64 and not the NCAA. The other Divisions will have their tournament, they may make more if they run the tournament without the NCAA. 2) The latest laws from Congress have made the NCAA more inept with Revenue Sports and there could be more coming. Their constituents are fed up with the NCAA and as we all know their survival is based on getting votes. 3) The 🏀 break away by the P64, will likely bring a new network into the tournament that pays much more money. Live sports are the last bastion for advertisers. It’s hard to see how that changes, but we know USA companies are run on quarterly reports. So they need year round reach through sports. College Sports not only give you quantity, but it gives you high end spenders. Companies LOVE that!! 3) Moving the tournament from CBS, will no longer handcuff the basketball season dates. CBS insist the tournament be over before the Masters starts. This really penalizes the basketball season. Basketball games start in November, which is a huge month for College Football and somewhat with Pro Football. Basketball needs to be pushed back a month to December. Most of December is the Bowl games that don’t mean a lot. With top players not playing, it’s what neighborhood swim teams would call the exhibition lane. So it starts out hot and picks up interest. 4) Next, to save money and create a jammed packed atmosphere in the arena’s a new format could have the early rounds at the higher ranked seeds home. That immediately makes the “regular season matter” and you will stop seeing empty arenas in the early rounds. Better atmosphere (SEC Football) drives more money. 5) Tailgating! Move March Madness to April Madness with a new network. Whether it’s a home game for the highest ranked seed or a neutral site big game, tailgating in good weather is huge!! (SEC Football again)

system of regional, super-regional, and "world series" final 8 model, especially if the power conferences break off from NCAA. It would be more content, more games, and great home crowd matchups.

And as we discussed earlier the stock of Connecticut and Kansas go up when this happens. Interest in basketball is higher than football in some ways in the Northeast. Even someone like Temple would have their stock rise.

fanbase began to age out.

National that hurt it. Tracks were filling up everywhere and tickets were being scalped at a ridiculous price almost everywhere, if not everywhere. I guess you could put that on going national, but what I put it on, they forgot the hard working families that got them there. The prices for a ticket went through the roof, they made them buy $15 beers, they created more walls between the fan and the drivers. That wasn’t because they were in California (I went to both tracks there), it was amazing back in the early 2000’s, in California. It was because they got greedy and left the working families behind. Then when the economy slowed down, people said the heck with paying outrageous money on going to a race or just being at a race. The old saying goes, “serve the masses, eat with the classes!” NASCAR forgot that, and will sting you bad, when the economy drops!!

If the races still started at 12:30, I'd probably have them on more. But a pre race show from 1:00-3:00 every week and then a 3:30 start time? Eff that. I have zero interest in watching a 2 hour pre race show for one simple race every damn week. If they go back to 12:00-1:00 start times, I'll watch some again.

They got away from their roots, the roots where moonshine runners were the first race drivers. Also, Corporate NASCAR didn't like the good Ole Boy image.

For example, what's up with dividing races into multiple parts, the Chase, etc. Just race from beginning to the checkered flag. As for the Chase, every car that's out of it should pack their bags and go home. Let the 10 cars in the chase battle it out those last few races.

That said, will it be big enough at that point to keep the B1G and SEC flush with cash? Something tells me this might be the peak of college athletic departments TV revenue windfall. (Adjusted for inflation, of course) I feel that 20 years after this P2 is formed, we are more likely to start falling apart to more regionalized conferences. In that case, the ACC will be a good spot to be. ** Edited by hokieZ71 at 7/13/2022, 10:59:10 PM

This society we have today. I do not see toughness. I see more finesse. Heck 7 on 7 already taken over how game is played. SEC probably will be the gage. If they become super soft over years football will decline more. What they are doing these days also could cause future decline. Time will tell.