I sometimes struggle to understand the viewpoints of college football fans, given my strong allegiance to the ISU Cyclones. But let's entertain the idea of a college football "super league."
I personally wouldn't tune into such a league. Because it doesn't relate to the Cyclones, what I am passionate about in college sports. It's similar to my relationship with professional leagues. I rarely watch the NFL and never watch the NBA because they don't hold the allure of college sports for me. My interest lies in the Cyclones and whomever they might eventually encounter. Really, during a particular season, I am watching the teams they might play IF I watch any game outside of ISUs.
If my goal was simply to watch the most elite athletes face off against each other, shouldn't I just watch the NFL? Or if I were in the mood for something slightly less polished, maybe the XFL or other emerging professional leagues? What's the appeal of watching "elite" college teams that have no relevance to my own? Why would a resident of Colorado be interested in a Clemson vs. Ohio State matchup? Why would that matter to them, or even to you? This isn't meant to be confrontational — I'm genuinely curious about the logic behind it.
To me, college sports are more than a showcase of top-tier talent. They bring together competition and rivalries, the school vs. school battles, the pride of state against state. With the inception of a super league, I believe that these passionate elements would fade. Such a league would likely limit its audience to the specific institutions it encompasses. My suspicion, and I'm open to being proven wrong, is that this would actually diminish their overall viewership. By failing to cater to a broader audience and focusing only on elite teams, they'd miss out on the diverse markets that college football currently thrives on. I don't believe that a large portion of the existing college football audience would opt for direct subscriptions to a super league.
I'm open to hearing anyone's counterargument. If there's a financial model or logic that suggests such a league would be more profitable than the current system, I'd genuinely like to understand it. As it stands, from my viewpoint as a dedicated team fan, the concept seems flawed.
Great post- definitely not taking you to be confrontational. I agree with you- College football is regional and its greatness is found in the rivalries and histories of the game. Unfortunately, some of that is being lost as the emphasis continues to trend towards big money being placed on big programs getting paid.
I put a huge asterisk on my entire post to say, I have no idea what’ll happen- and I think it’s fair to say that nobody else knows what will happen with college football either. I’m basing my guess on a couple of premises:
1. Greed is an insurmountable force. The Texass-es of the world will do anything if there’s a possibility of more money involved. They would sell Bevo and his horned progeny if they thought it would pay well. Money drives them with little consideration for much else.
2. Most of the teams I listed as a super conference are big. In my zeal, I left off Norte Dame somehow… Many have 100,000 plus stadiums (or close to it) and have the highest numbers of television viewership every Saturday.
3. The gap between the weak and the strong will continue to grow- there will be little interest in watching Ohio State pound BIG ‘powerhouses’ like Rutgers, Maryland, and Indiana every Saturday. This holds true for Alabama and Georgia- nobody wants to watch them whip Mizzou, Vandy, and South Carolina by 5 scores every Saturday.
4. Eventually, the big schools will realize that they can gain more of a national audience by playing each other every Saturday. Yes- I’m like you, if I watch only 1 game on Saturday, it’ll be an ISU game. However, if I’m going to watch a second or third game on a Saturday, I would probably watch a top matchup between two top teams before I’d tune in to a Wake Forest vs Syracuse matchup. I think because of that, the super conference would pickup more viewership for the big schools than they would have by pummeling weak members of their current conferences. Inspite of what we hear, eyeballs on games matter and schools like Iowa State, despite our loyal and frenetic fan-base, we simply don’t pack a national punch like the big schools do. That’s just the way it is.
There will always be a place for the current B12- it’s going to be a fun conference with lots of regional interest. However, the super conference will be national and will attempt to bring all of us other fans in for our other games that we watch during the weekend. I think that’s where the difference will be. Will an Alabama fan watch an Iowa State-Oklahoma State game if Bama isn’t playing- probably not. Will we come home after an 11:00 game at the Jack and watch a prime time match up between Bama and Ohio State- I think a lot of fans would.
Again, I don’t know what will happen, but I think the powers that be believe there’s still more money to be made off the top brands…it’s just a matter of time before Texas gets them all together to do it. In light of everything we’ve seen so far, I don’t know how this doesn’t happen eventually.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and counters.
