Interesting anti-BCS stance on effect on other sports (Cal Baseball)
On Rivals.com (free article - not paywall)... idea of schools losing out on 100's of millions by ignoring playoff system... causing budget cuts of lesser sports.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:08 PM ^
Experts estimate FBS schools would have a a gross revenue of $750 million in a true playoff system.
How is that possible without playing more games? I mean bowls are usually sold out and I'm nt sure more people would watch TV if the games were in a playoff format.
The only way is more games, but that's kind of like, duh, play more games...make more money. Awesome insight!
Also, the revenue is gross, not net of expenses, and when divided amongst all of the schools, the profit doesn't amount to much.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:29 PM ^
I was thinking the same thing. Sure, if you play 3-4 more games, then there will be more money to share, but if you restrict it to the 13-game season (or may even 14 for a couple of teams), you either have to raise ticket prices immensely, find some type of sponsorship fountain that nobody has discovered yet, or sign a great TV deal.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:50 PM ^
The BCS payout is what, 15 million per team? Double that to 30 million to account for both teams, and the actual number of games required is about 25. Basically, it ends up being somewhere between a 16 and 32 team playoff, although I'd guess the "Death to the BCS" book suggests a 16 team playoff and assumes increased revenue.
The problems here are endless, but the easiest one to point out is the shocking level of difficulty to fill up a 100,000 seat stadium in the round of 8 on one weeks notice during a non-holiday weekend. The $80 per ticket prices are included in those revenue projections, but the stadiums just won't fill without notice, just like the NCAA basketball tournament doesn't fill the early round games despite each ticket being for a package of games involving four schools in a much smaller arena.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:19 PM ^
Most of the time, effect is used as a noun.
Most of the time, affect is used as a verb.
If you follow this rule, you'll get it right 90% of the time.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:33 PM ^
USA Today reports that $828 million in student fees were used to support athletic programs during the 2008-09 academic year.
That's the part to be angry about. How much additional alumni goodwill (revenue) does Eastern Michigan get from its sports programs? Not enough to pay for the football team.
Also, the source for the part about the gobs of additional revenue generated by a playoff comes from a book called "Death to the BCS." My guess is they basically took the numbers from the NCAA tournament and added some more due to football's popularity.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:39 PM ^
I find it kind of sad that schools have to cut legit programs like baseball and gymnastics to save $4M, but find a way to still gouge visitors on ticket prices, concessions, parking, etc. I know lots of that revenue is put back into the money-making teams as well as to finance programs under Title IX (which is an issue I am neither condoning nor condemning), but I have a hard time believing that there wouldn't be a way to save these programs without adversely affecting the major programs and their ability to effectively compete with other programs.
September 30th, 2010 at 5:00 PM ^
If the playoff system would make more money, there would be a playoff system. But the bowl system is the one that makes the most money for the TV networks (which provide most of the money). You get to stagger the games, stack them up and provide a consistent block of games for about six weeks.
A playoff system would offer an ever-decreasing number of games. Plus, you wouldn't get to watch all of the games since they'd be on at the same time. Talk to the TV folks and they HATE the idea of a playoff.
The notion that the ratings would jump is just absurd. Football fans watch football. The ratings are pretty static. Even meaningless bowl games like the Ohio-Marshall game in Detroit got good ratings.