In Reply to: Neuheisel comments this morning posted by barrya on July 09, 2024 at 15:30:30
Rick is moving deck chairs on the Titanic.
The structure we see now will last only as long as the cable-tv carriage fee funded media rights deals last. So, maybe 5 years until streaming replaces cable and the $5B/year ESPN skims from the cable companies and gives to conferences vanishes.
The money picture in CFB will change a lot. No longer will programs be valued for their "tv market" as Ucla was, because the succeeding modality of streaming means geography will disappear as an economic variable. As it does, the conferences will reform in what today would seem random fashion.
One might see the top 40 teams---as measured by their ability to draw streaming audiences---forming NFL Jr. and the other 80 teams playing essentially amateur football in lower tiers on shoestring budgets. Watch Patriot League football for a preview. This era will come to be known as the Golden Age of college football, but only after it comes to a close around 2030.
Ucla is likely headed for the second, amateur tier as nothing about the way Morgan Center runs the football program inspires confidence that they can compete in a free market-style setting. Ucla will face an existential threat, and they might at last be forced to outsource football to competent managers to keep the program from disappearing altogether.