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It wasn't always a massive money making machine.

Read this book.

From Red Ink to Roses: The Turbulent Transformation of a Big Ten Program: Telander, Rick: 9780671748531: Amazon.com: Books

It wasn't until ESecPN and the other networks started ponying up big coin for TV rights that CFB started making the big bucks.

And ya know what? That can go away just as fast as it came.

money is here, it's not ever going away. 

You really think Wisconsin is going to turn down those fat ass check from the BTN, ABC/ESPN, and FOX/FS1? Lol. Fat chance.

It wasn't always a massive money making machine.

Read this book.

From Red Ink to Roses: The Turbulent Transformation of a Big Ten Program: Telander, Rick: 9780671748531: Amazon.com: Books

It wasn't until ESecPN and the other networks started ponying up big coin for TV rights that CFB started making the big bucks.

And ya know what? That can go away just as fast as it came.

Maybe, maybe. 

That's the challenge when your most "responsible" stakeholders lived life ready to leverage the product for immediate and long term profit. Lord knows, one of the stars of that book was excellent at it. 

Money goes away real quick when people stop watching the product...

But that doesn't seem to be an issue. Even crappy bowl games between G5 directional schools pull enough eyeballs to be worth broadcasting.

Add a curiosity, what would be the root cause of people not watching the product? I’m your mind, I mean.

I ask because there is this sort of interesting split between the smaller group of people with money who make a lot of the sports run, and the larger viewing public.

Well we know that actual stadium attendance has been declining for a couple of decades now.  There are a lot of reasons for it, pricing and competition with other forms of entertainment at the top of the list.  But the root of all of those problems, seems to be that college football just isn't engaging and retaining new fans at the same rate it's losing them.  Younger people just aren't as interested in the sport, as we all were, when we became fanatics.

TV viersership is something else.  There are more games than ever being broadcast, and although many cannibalize one another for individual ratings, the sum total of incremental viewership still seems to be increasing. There's even incremental viewership from the random Tuesday night MAACtion games that add to the total, compared to what was happening 20 years ago.  That makes it hard to determine if fan interest is up, or if they're just broadcasting into a previously underserved market.

Well we know that actual stadium attendance has been declining for a couple of decades now.  There are a lot of reasons for it, pricing and competition with other forms of entertainment at the top of the list.  But the root of all of those problems, seems to be that college football just isn't engaging and retaining new fans at the same rate it's losing them.  Younger people just aren't as interested in the sport, as we all were, when we became fanatics.

TV viersership is something else.  There are more games than ever being broadcast, and although many cannibalize one another for individual ratings, the sum total of incremental viewership still seems to be increasing. There's even incremental viewership from the random Tuesday night MAACtion games that add to the total, compared to what was happening 20 years ago.  That makes it hard to determine if fan interest is up, or if they're just broadcasting into a previously underserved market.

Attendance is declining because the cost of attending has went thru the roof. I can clearly remember when you couldn’t watch every game on tv, so it gave more reasons to actually go to the games. Myself I just don’t have the time, and football season falls right in between hunting season and the best fishing time of the year. 

Attendance is declining because the cost of attending has went thru the roof. I can clearly remember when you couldn’t watch every game on tv, so it gave more reasons to actually go to the games. Myself I just don’t have the time, and football season falls right in between hunting season and the best fishing time of the year.

I stopped going when it became a chore to go. Hotels, long drive, personal seat license, etc. It was a $25-30K/year habit, not including post-season stuff.

Attendance is declining because the cost of attending has went thru the roof. I can clearly remember when you couldn’t watch every game on tv, so it gave more reasons to actually go to the games. Myself I just don’t have the time, and football season falls right in between hunting season and the best fishing time of the year.

Yup.  Like I said, pricing, and competition with other forms of entertainment.

But youngsters will spend a fortune attending music concerts and festivals.  In Austin, tickets to a handful of good shows plus ACL Festival costs quite a bit more than buying season tickets to a UT game.  And they're willing to pay it.

They're choosing to do that, instead of football, because they're no longer engaging with their school and identifying with its sports teams.  They also don't find the game to be as entertaining as we did, not sure why, maybe it's too violent for their delicate sensibilities?  I'm half-joking there, but might be part of it.