In my ideal, it would be owned by UH. Really, I think 70k+ on campus for 10 Sundays a year would go a long way for University recruitment, and would serve as insurance against the disaster scenario where UH fails to make an expanded P2, in which interest in the sport (at the college level, at least) dwindles substantially. In light of that, I’m less concerned about whether it seems more like a college or NFL stadium.
The problem is viewers like college football. I haven’t watched an SEC or Big 10 game all year. Neither have my two neighbors that support two other Texas schools. People don’t want to be sentenced to watching SEC and Midwestern schools every Saturday. It would be like torture.
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I think it depends on what you consider “our lifetimes.” If they can’t figure out a way to turn around the declines in viewership and youth participation, the NFL could be in trouble within about 40 or 50 years. Keep in mind that it wasn’t that long ago that Baseball was the #1 sport in the country and that Boxing and Horse Racing were major sports. Changes in viewership habits come at you fast.
Declines in viewership?
Uhhhhh…again…no other sport in the USA comes close to matching professional football’s TV ratings at the professional level, nor I-FBS’ college football’s TV ratings or attendance at the non-professional/semi-professional level (is that the level I-FBS football is at now with NIL?).
As long as that’s the case…and I don’t see that changing during our lifetimes…don’t look for much to radically diverge.
You can get over 100K to a college football game on Saturday…and SUPER HIGH TV ratings for Monday night football in America.
Until some other sport in the USA can deliver the same viewership (and as far as I can tell, none come close)…football’s primacy will remain.
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A 48 school 2 Power Conference Power could be tied into a Relegation system…not sure the number but say, 2-4 in each conference jump down and 2-4 from the G below them move up.
Essentially
B1G Ten Conference
West Division (12)
East Division (12)
Feeder G Conference, below, of say 16 schools that fight for the chance to move up the next season.
SEC Conference
North Division (12)
East Division (12)
Feeder G Conference, below, of say 16 schools that fight for the chance to move up the next season.
Not sure how’d they do the playoff (winners of divisions + wild card spots) but the B1G Champion would face the SEC Champion for the National Championship.
they’ve been gradually moving more towards a NFL model so I’m thinking they may look at what the Premiere League does, for relegation.
What if no sport can deliver those ratings? What if Gens Z and Alpha just…aren’t into sports, and they’d rather watch some dude on Twitch streaming LoL or StarCraft than an NFL game? Sports, and the NFL in particular, are one of the last vestiges of monoculture that we’ve got left, and ratings and attendance for nearly every sport have been seeing year-over-year declines the past few years.
The history of major spectator sports isn’t that long, what if they’re just an artifact of our time and our generation, like Appointment TV?
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Not seeing it during our lifetimes.
This would be the death of college football.
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I think in the long-term that that’s on the table, and quite possibly inevitable.
Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen. All this talk of two mega-conferences seems I’ll-advised. The SEC commissioner said he’s not looking to expand. That could change down the road, but even if it does there’s every chance they won’t expand beyond 18. And it’s tough to see who the Big 10 would take to get to 24 without diluting the per school payout.
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Not happening during our lifetimes.
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50, or even 25 years ago, would you have said that within our lifetimes newspapers and magazines would be entirely unprofitable? That movie theaters would be struggling to stay afloat? That shopping malls, and in-person shopping more broadly, would play a greatly reduced role in our lives? That generations after Gen X wouldn’t watch the nightly news?
Media consumption patterns have changed dramatically over the last quarter century, and they’ll change just as dramatically over the next. There’s absolutely no reason to believe that sports, and Football specifically, will be immune from that.
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https://twitter.com/TJAltimore/status/1707035373178609749
Wow.
NOW we know why OSU and Wazzu were left out, and Oregon and Washington weren’t.
Query: can ESPN pressure Yormark into throwing them a life buoy?
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It comes down to money; if they want to pay for it, it could possibly happen. But Yormark isn’t doing anything that is not in the financial interest of the B12.
Y’all this 2 conf thing isn’t happening with a breakaway. All that will happen is they get more money and playoff spots then they are happy and it’s fair in a way.
College football isn’t the nfl. The city gets behind each pro team and even the whole state sometimes but college football loyalty is where you went etc and is divisive so if only UT and A&M played in Texas as part of that , they only get the viewers they have and the rest drop out so it’s not going to happen.
UCLA/USC literally blocked the entire PAC from expansion and then left a year later which directly contributed to the conference’s demise
UT/OU practically did the same thing when Big 12 expansion talks happened in 2015-2016, and then left a few years later which could’ve resulted in its demise had it not been for Yormark getting a TV deal faster than Kliavkoff
I think the entire past 2 years of realignment is proof that nobody can be trusted and everyone will look out for themselves.
The fact is that nobody knows where realignment is headed. All assumptions are just that, assumptions. That being said, teams are going to do what’s best for themselves to be in that special club. And right now, that special club is the B1G / SEC.
What happens in the 2030s is yet to be said, but you best believe it will favor the B1G and SEC, mutually inclusive or mutually exclusive, the teams in those conferences will be the winners while everyone else outside of those 2 are the losers.
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Not gonna happen
So they are going to kick vandy , miss st , northwestern out?
Not going to happen so stop worrying
All that will happen is more money gap and playoff spots and they are happy with it. The 12 playoff format makes all happy
Stop worrying
Who said anything about getting kicked out?
It won’t be teams getting kicked out. It will teams leaving to start a new conference. And as uhlaw puts it, the “tweener” schools won’t get invited.
Is there a potential anti-trust lawsuit in that scenario if TV deals / GOR’s are expired?
It’s not happening so forget it
What is happening is what law said clemson …