In Reply to: College Football Super League Details posted by UCLAFirst on October 02, 2024 at 20:57:20
This is a first, rough draft of the NFL, Jr. I've been trying to get people here to prepare for. Hardly a pipe dream, this is coming at Ucla like a freight train. Timing is hard to get on these things, but sometime with 10 years, or about the time the existing B10 rights deals expire, we should see some definite moves toward some version of this structure.
It's all being driven by revenue concentration at the top, not by anything fans want. I would guess that this new structure will be streaming based, so the linear broadcasters like ESPN and Fox will fade (Disney is already prepping ESPN for sale). In the same manner that area codes are no longer important for cellphones, geography will no longer be important for video monetization, and Ucla will lose its geographical advantage of being located in a "large TV market".
That term will disappear and Morgan Center will be forced to say goodbye to large, free gifts of TV money. Ucla will have to earn its keep. They can't do that, and this is why we need to get out of Morgan Center and get some business talent to run the program.
It's also why I strongly objected to letting Chip walk. He seemed to have built a solid foundation here that could grow, despite some terrible losses. But rather than allow that growth to continue where it could one day support enough fan interest and streaming revenue to keep the program going, Morgan Center decided to burn it all down---again---and hand the salvation of the program to an inarticulate jock with zero executive management experience or accolades.
This rough draft is too generous. There won't be this many teams in the big money league. There won't be enough money, nor the incentive of the "haves" (i. e., tOSU) to share with the "have nots" (i. e., Ucla). I would expect maybe 40 - 50 only. This puts Ucla on the chopping block as a team with (by then) 40 years of futility, weak fan support, absent institutional support and minimal private fundraising power.
Morgan Center will have driven Ucla football to its grave, all the while doing it "the right way".