Is College Football Selling Out Its Future?
In Pursuit of Billions, the Game Is Endangering Its Relationship With Fans on Campus and Beyond
Is college football selling its soul and its future, by pursuing profits in ways that could irreversibly change its cultural meaning on campus and beyond?
I admit that such a question might take on greater urgency for someone like me who has been reveling in college football as a live, participatory spectacle for many an autumn at this point. I also concede that, on the surface, it may seem a bit daft to worry about where the sport is headed when more than 25 million people watched this year’s NCAA championship game and staggering television payouts have helped to boost gross revenues for the 25 most lucrative college football programs to $2.7 billion last year.
But these intoxicating financial benefits should not blind us to another, more sobering set of figures indicating that the sport is not quite the picture of health its overall earnings statements might suggest. According to a recent report, attendance fell by 7.6 percent between 2014 and 2018 at games involving the 130 big-time programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and the average turnout in 2018 was the lowest since 1996. Not only do major powers like Alabama and Clemson struggle to sell out their home games, but a 2018 Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that, on average, only 71 percent of those holding tickets for FBS games in 2017 ever made it through the turnstiles.
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Link: Is College Football Selling Out Its Future?
Seems pretty obvious that this context is needed. The author doesn't seem to think so.
The author equates exploding TV revenue with said decline in attendance. I'm not so sure the two are related.
The watering down of schedules is the main reason for me. It's rare when you can have a nice slate of games on a Saturday anymore.
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I especially liked the section in which the author described how nowdays losing two games and not making the four-team playoff ruins the rest of the regular season for some teams and their zealous fans. In the case of Notre Dame, it's one-game and we're out. The fanatics on that other board are a good example of such overwrought expectations.
Schools such as Notre Dame whose games provide a high level of comforting ritual and cultural affirmation will lose the least but suffer nonetheless.
It is a pleasure to read something on the Internet related to sports that is well-written, including rich vocabulary, coherent paragraphs, complete sentences and proper punctuation.
Enrollment, beginning in 2011, has fallen eight consecutive years. While the cost of college has exploded, the worth of a degree hasn't not. How do I know? Because of the increasing number of student loans defaults. That tells you all you need to know of the depreciation of a diploma.
But nothing seems to stop the construction boondoggles on campuses. Someone is making billions on all that junk, and it's not the students. Unfortunately, football has been used as scam to get idiots to believe a premier team somehow equates to a great college. Quite a number of imbecilic teenagers believe that to be the case...
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That per the WSJ. The myth that students are taking gender studies, and can't find jobs, is bullshit.
What has happened is a lowering of academic rigor that allows unqualified students to enroll...
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Student loans have almost no consumer protection. If you default, the penalties and interest explode, causing you to not have a life. Plus, you cannot claim bankruptcy, making it the only consumer debt that allow that option. You can't buy a house, you can't get certain professions. It's one of the greatest scams ever.
And speaking of responsibility, why aren't the unis held accountable for inducing teenagers to take on loans? Who would be stupid enough to lend tens of thousands of dollars to anyone without a job, savings, credit history, of any experience with debt payments? Since taxpayers underwrite this bullahit, the unis will give anyone a loan, or enroll, because those institutions aren't held responsible...
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Everyone should understand that 1) you don't borrow any more than you can reasonably expect to pay back, and 2) student loans must be paid back (no discharging through bankruptcy). The second part was clearly spelled out in the agreement.
If you can't pay back your student loans, then there are plenty of options that can buy you some time, such as getting a hardship deferment, consolidating them to pay over a 25 year period of time, seeking employment in underprivileged areas to get some loan forgiveness, etc.
If you won't even try to pay back your student loans or at least make some sort of arrangement, then you're a deadbeat, and deserve whatever negatives come your way.
For ND graduates, if you can't find a decent paying job using their excellent career placement services, then there's something wrong with you...
That if they make stupid loans, they'll get hit. If anyone ifacilitates loans to people who have no credit history, no savings, no career, no assets, then you're a god damn ahole and you deserve whatever comes your way.
Unis have deliberately allowied unqualified people to enroll, and have done so because they've pushed off their irresponsibility to taxpayers. If a uni has increasing number of defaults, forebearance, or delinquencies with student loans, they should be shut down. FFS, over 40% of loans aren't being paid. That means tat business is run by incompetent, corrupt admins. They have to get punished, it shouldn't fall entirely on students and taxpayers..,
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The gravy train won't last forever. And you're right. They're a government-subsidized scam.
is the greatest sport by a mile. Pro football has greater talent, but it's a business. It has no soul. On the other hand, college football is so filled with great traditions and spirit. Marching bands, cheerleaders, mascots, great rivalries, state, regional, ethnic, and religious attachments, legendary players and teams, Hollywood movies, Army vs. Navy, the Heisman trophy, All-Americans--no other sport even comes close.
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until we begin again in seven months.
short years, we've seen college football become a business. It's no longer a virgin which drastically changes things going forward.
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than good.
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