My true hope is karma comes and people stop watching college football at some point. Yes I know it will never not be watched entirely. But I hope they start losing a few million viewers over the next several years just to toss it back in the faces of these power brokers that have turned this sport upside down.
Between that and the media providers thinking there’s an endless growing stream of ever-increasing funds coming from, you guess it, TV viewers.
The projections of higher media rights deals with super conferences are predicated on individual viewers - like us - shelling out more and more in streaming subscription fees. In the old days, broadcast rights were paid fully by advertising, and available over the air on ABC or CBS. Those funds have just about been maximized (witness the endless breaks in action on the field while the guy with the orange sleeve stands there). Next up, direct-from-the-consumer subscription fees.
We already pay extra to providers for them to pay ESPN, and a lesser amount for FS1 or CBS Sports Network. Plenty of other games are on ESPN+ (subscription fee required). Now this season games are on Peacock (subscription fee required). Many advocating for increased payouts to schools are expecting Amazon Prime (subscription fee required) or Apple (subscription fee required) to step up. Those millions of dollars the athletic departments see dancing before their eyes are coming right out of our wallets.
There’s definitely a point where what the providers expect to earn from subscriptions will outpace the willingness of viewers to pay. Are we nearing that point? I’m not sure - it kinda feels like it, but the appetite for sports is pretty large. But, if viewers are presented with the demand of “pay up if you want to watch the Big 36 play any of their games,” I think a lot of college football fans will pass, wanting to see games of their teams and the teams they compete against, not the ‘Mini NFL.’ Eventually we will get to the over leveraged subscription point, and the whole economic system of ever-growing billions in TV money flowing to athletic departments will falter.