Getting Ugly: How College Football Will Lose Its Fans

I once had a pretty girlfriend, but she became progressively uglier with self-indulgence over time. I couldn’t take her self-adoration anymore, so I dumped her.

I fear my relationship with college football may have the same fate. 

Last week, Tony Barnhart of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote an article concluding that the forthcoming mega-conference expansion will not likely lead to a postseason playoff structure for major college football. The article can be found here.

Slightly dismayed, but not distraught, Barnhart details the “self-centered-ness” that university presidents operate from. He writes that the brands of Ohio State, Florida, USC, (insert your favorite team here) football were created over 100 years by the schools. The same holds true for the conferences that these schools belong to.

Therefore, any revenue generated by the schools or conferences during the regular season or postseason doesn’t need to be shared with a smaller competitor new to the game. 

In other words, having a Boise State or Utah playing in the national championship game is not in the best interest of the LSU or Notre Dame or SEC or Big Ten who’ve made college football so popular. 

Jim Delany, the Big Ten commissioner, was recently asked questions concerning the need for the NCAA to regulate the commercial aspects of collegiate sports and about wealth sharing—in terms of opportunity and financial gains—with smaller universities.

Delaney responded with “...we developed it. We built it, it’s our tradition, and to the extent that it’s successful, it’s successful for our institutions. So that’s essentially a home-rule approach.  I think it’s an honest approach.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with money, but life’s a lot easier when you have it than when you don’t.”

Damn, that’s selfish.

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Delany’s honest, at least, and straightforward (unlike Bill Hancock, who can’t plainly answer questions regarding the BCS’ selection process). Delany forgets, though, that this is collegiate football—not the pros—and ideally the focus should be on the students , not the schools or the conferences.

In a perfect world, college football’s leadership should do everything in their power to create the best, most fulfilling collegiate experience for their student-athletes. Whatever fringe benefits that occur (such as a financially prosperous program, a diehard fanbase, etc.) are bonuses. After all, how much money could you make from overachieving, unpaid employees?

I guess we should all take note of the lesson being taught here, which is that we are no longer watching our favorite schools compete for a championship every Saturday after all. Rather, we are watching the manipulation of stingy university presidents and crafty conference commissioners protecting their market share. No longer are the American values of competition and sportsmanship encouraged here.

I get it now, but that really sucks. The more self-adoring college football becomes, the uglier becomes the sport so deeply cherished by millions.

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I once had a girlfriend who was this self-centered as well. Although I loved her, I had to let her go—her self-indulgence became disgustingly ugly over time. It took a while, and it was rather difficult, but I finally rebounded from the breakup.

I shudder to think how I will rebound after dumping an ugly college football. 

Goldie.

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