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Post by Mike84 on Dec 18, 2023 15:55:38 GMT -8
I've been avoiding all the discussions about the future of college football. It feels so useless to try to guess what the future holds, when we can hardly predict what will happen in the next month, let alone the next year or 5 years. And any thoughts of "tradition" keeping things like they had been, in any way, shape, or form, is long ago disproven.
But it struck me today, when two AM sports stations were talking about how to go about paying the salaries of college teams (in the proposal to have a 24- or whatever- team league of paid players), that this salaried league would not just SEEM like a new professional football league, it would BE a new professional football league. It would be the NFL minor league. How long before nobody even tracks (or wants to know) the athletes' progress toward a degree? How long until the athlete doesn't even necessarily need to be enrolled in the school that he supposedly plays for? Will these pro athletes even be seen as fellow students by the rest of the student body?
Then it struck me how, in this country, minor league sports are not the most popular things. People want to see the "best". If it's pro football, then the NFL will be the best and the new college-hosted minor league will be a step down. Will the general public really get into that?
On the other hand, what about the remaining college teams that may still have to deal with NIL and the transfer portal but still have the "student" in student-ahlete? Will these college teams be as popular as college football always has been in this country? What will be the new "best" teams that are still playing college football? Is it even possible that, somehow, some universities will have both a "minor league" team AND a "college team", just so they can still be part of the college football scene?
If this is where we are headed, then it's not just sour grapes that has me saying that I hope OSU gets to be a "college football" team and not a "minor league" team. I don't want to follow a pro team. I want to follow a college team. I want to follow MY college team. Somehow.
Go Beavs!
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Post by seastape on Dec 18, 2023 18:19:29 GMT -8
I've been avoiding all the discussions about the future of college football. It feels so useless to try to guess what the future holds, when we can hardly predict what will happen in the next month, let alone the next year or 5 years. And any thoughts of "tradition" keeping things like they had been, in any way, shape, or form, is long ago disproven. But it struck me today, when two AM sports stations were talking about how to go about paying the salaries of college teams (in the proposal to have a 24- or whatever- team league of paid players), that this salaried league would not just SEEM like a new professional football league, it would BE a new professional football league. It would be the NFL minor league. How long before nobody even tracks (or wants to know) the athletes' progress toward a degree? How long until the athlete doesn't even necessarily need to be enrolled in the school that he supposedly plays for? Will these pro athletes even be seen as fellow students by the rest of the student body? Then it struck me how, in this country, minor league sports are not the most popular things. People want to see the "best". If it's pro football, then the NFL will be the best and the new college-hosted minor league will be a step down. Will the general public really get into that? On the other hand, what about the remaining college teams that may still have to deal with NIL and the transfer portal but still have the "student" in student-ahlete? Will these college teams be as popular as college football always has been in this country? What will be the new "best" teams that are still playing college football? Is it even possible that, somehow, some universities will have both a "minor league" team AND a "college team", just so they can still be part of the college football scene? If this is where we are headed, then it's not just sour grapes that has me saying that I hope OSU gets to be a "college football" team and not a "minor league" team. I don't want to follow a pro team. I want to follow a college team. I want to follow MY college team. Somehow. Go Beavs! I think if the athletes are detached from the schools...i.e., not required to attend classes and truly a "minor league" sport, then the audience for the sports will crumble. Who would give a crud about Damien Martinez if he did not attend OSU? The 500 fans who showed up to watch AA football? |
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Post by speakthetruth on Dec 18, 2023 18:59:15 GMT -8
When all these top teams play only the top 25 or so and their usual record goes from 12-0, 11-1 to 8-3, 7-4 the fans of those teams are going to be pissed.
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Post by bigorangebeaver on Dec 18, 2023 21:13:11 GMT -8
When all these top teams play only the top 25 or so and their usual record goes from 12-0, 11-1 to 8-3, 7-4 the fans of those teams are going to be pissed. Well, then, the little darlings will just have to adjust, won't they? Useful advice for them: "There is no problem so great that can't be solved through simply lowering your standards."And perhaps they can console themselves with thoughts of all the $$$ their minor league team college team is bringing in. |
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Post by messi on Dec 19, 2023 7:34:10 GMT -8
When all these top teams play only the top 25 or so and their usual record goes from 12-0, 11-1 to 8-3, 7-4 the fans of those teams are going to be pissed. There is a solution to that, just create schedules where the top elite teams only face another top elite team no more than once. Now that divisions are a thing of the past, Penn State can now avoid Michigan, Ohio State, and Washington. Nitty Lions may lose to o, but the talking heads will tell us how great Penn State is for their victory over a USC team who goes 7-5 on the season. Because, you know, its USC. Name matters more than the record. |
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Post by Henry Skrimshander on Dec 19, 2023 8:50:19 GMT -8
No professional football league has experienced long-term, sustained success in this country since the AFL was formed in 1960 (and subsequently expanded), in a time when the pro football market was very underserved, without teams in many major American cities (Oakland, Denver, Buffalo, Boston, San Diego, Cincinnati, Dallas, then KC, Miami, Houston).
Turning college football into the football equivalent of AA or AAA baseball, with players who do not attend classes and who have no allegiance to their school, will be the end of it. People do cheer for the name on the front, not the back. There is absolutely no need for Oregon State to spend any money on minor-league football that does not involve actual students.
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Post by bennyskid on Dec 19, 2023 10:12:33 GMT -8
I wouldn't be so quick to write off the chances for the PCFL - "Professional College Football League", for one simple reason. It plays on Saturday. The NFL doesn't have enough "inventory" to take over Saturday, so the economics of the PCFL will come down to how well the PCFL competes with "real" college football.
We come to this board because we are fans of our college. There aren't many on this board that would tune in a PCFL game over a real college game. But casual fans DGAF about the colleges - they just follow the hype. They want to see the next Heismann winner and to hate on Nick Saban. They'll tune into any PCFL game over any real college game almost every time.
TV is what matters most but the live gate won't suffer. Years ago I read a survey that pointed out that the majority of fans at Autzen on game day had no direct connection to the college. Those fans are going to keep coming until the NFL puts a team in Eugene. And the alumni aren't going to all quit. Most will simply close their eyes and ears to the absurdity of it all and cheer for their team the way they always have.
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Post by wilkyisdashiznit on Dec 19, 2023 12:21:49 GMT -8
I wouldn't be so quick to write off the chances for the PCFL - "Professional College Football League", for one simple reason. It plays on Saturday. The NFL doesn't have enough "inventory" to take over Saturday, so the economics of the PCFL will come down to how well the PCFL competes with "real" college football. We come to this board because we are fans of our college. There aren't many on this board that would tune in a PCFL game over a real college game. But casual fans DGAF about the colleges - they just follow the hype. They want to see the next Heismann winner and to hate on Nick Saban. They'll tune into any PCFL game over any real college game almost every time. TV is what matters most but the live gate won't suffer. Years ago I read a survey that pointed out that the majority of fans at Autzen on game day had no direct connection to the college. Those fans are going to keep coming until the NFL puts a team in Eugene. And the alumni aren't going to all quit. Most will simply close their eyes and ears to the absurdity of it all and cheer for their team the way they always have. That assumes that the Heisman follows the PCFL. The key is to keep ahold of as much history as possible. One of the first dominoes that led to the breakup of the Pac-12 was to give away the Rose Bowl. Detaching the historical umbilical cord between the Pac-12 and Rose Bowl made the Pac-12 much weaker and much easier to poach. |
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sparty
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Post by sparty on Dec 19, 2023 12:44:52 GMT -8
I wouldn't be so quick to write off the chances for the PCFL - "Professional College Football League", for one simple reason. It plays on Saturday. The NFL doesn't have enough "inventory" to take over Saturday, so the economics of the PCFL will come down to how well the PCFL competes with "real" college football. We come to this board because we are fans of our college. There aren't many on this board that would tune in a PCFL game over a real college game. But casual fans DGAF about the colleges - they just follow the hype. They want to see the next Heismann winner and to hate on Nick Saban. They'll tune into any PCFL game over any real college game almost every time. TV is what matters most but the live gate won't suffer. Years ago I read a survey that pointed out that the majority of fans at Autzen on game day had no direct connection to the college. Those fans are going to keep coming until the NFL puts a team in Eugene. And the alumni aren't going to all quit. Most will simply close their eyes and ears to the absurdity of it all and cheer for their team the way they always have. That is silly to think a NFL team will be land in Eugene before Portland. There is not a NFL franchise in a town that size.
They can't even get a WNBA or baseball team in Portland. The PDX media classifies the ucks as the state team like it or not.
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Post by bigorangebeaver on Dec 19, 2023 13:53:22 GMT -8
I wouldn't be so quick to write off the chances for the PCFL - "Professional College Football League", for one simple reason. It plays on Saturday. The NFL doesn't have enough "inventory" to take over Saturday, so the economics of the PCFL will come down to how well the PCFL competes with "real" college football. We come to this board because we are fans of our college. There aren't many on this board that would tune in a PCFL game over a real college game. But casual fans DGAF about the colleges - they just follow the hype. They want to see the next Heismann winner and to hate on Nick Saban. They'll tune into any PCFL game over any real college game almost every time. TV is what matters most but the live gate won't suffer. Years ago I read a survey that pointed out that the majority of fans at Autzen on game day had no direct connection to the college. Those fans are going to keep coming until the NFL puts a team in Eugene. And the alumni aren't going to all quit. Most will simply close their eyes and ears to the absurdity of it all and cheer for their team the way they always have. That is silly to think a NFL team will be land in Eugene before Portland. There is not a NFL franchise in a town that size.
They can't even get a WNBA or baseball team in Portland. The PDX media classifies the ucks as the state team like it or not.
Green Bay (103 K 2020 census) is smaller than Eugene (175K 2020 census). But GB is clearly an outlier for historical reasons. But you correct, in my view, that Portland will not get an MLB team. Their role in the expansion/team relocation sweepstakes is solely as a distraction to drive up the cost of bringing a team to the eventual cities where they land. Monetize everything! |
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Post by bennyskid on Dec 19, 2023 15:50:04 GMT -8
Next time I'll just write "until hell freezes over". I did not imagine that anyone would think that I meant that as a actual possibility.
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Post by irimi on Dec 19, 2023 17:41:33 GMT -8
When all these top teams play only the top 25 or so and their usual record goes from 12-0, 11-1 to 8-3, 7-4 the fans of those teams are going to be pissed. They can join the MW. Their motto: We’ll take anyone. |
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Post by flyfishinbeav on Dec 19, 2023 21:25:19 GMT -8
Assuming the athletes are tied to a school.....the model doesn't work otherwise.
The difference with this scenario is the "minor league" football teams would have a huge fan base, and national brand. In contrast, minor league baseball teams are truly a farm system for the bigs, and the studs will get pulled up mid season. It's apples to oranges
In other words, I think the demand will be there for the minors......it will also be there for "college" football.....but, the college teams will literally be a farm system for the minors. The only difference will be kids won't be pulled up mid season.
In conclusion, I believe the minors will be more popular based on poaching the elite/developed talent from the likes of us.
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