CBS: If Big Ten, SEC programs want to keep fans engaged, they should move to 10-game conference schedules

[BleedGopher]

Per Tom:

There have been a lot of changes in college football in recent seasons, and few of them have been good for fans. We've seen conferences torn apart, and while the transfer portal and NIL have been great for players (and long overdue), they have frayed the threads of the relationship between players and fans. We're also seeing programs go away from spring games, which have often been one of the best options for fans to see their favorite teams in person and interact with players.

A change in nonconference scheduling would be another blow for fans. If you're a Nebraska fan right now, and you're spending money on season tickets, how excited are you to see that home game against Tennessee replaced with Bowling Green? I doubt you're excited, and you aren't getting a refund on those tickets. In fact, you'll probably end up paying more.

Remember thinking schools would shift funds from building ridiculous facilities, and maybe we'd see coaches salaries decrease so they could use that money to pay players instead? How naive we were! If you're going to follow the NFL model, that means nobody has to take paycuts! Not when fans can pay for it!

So why not throw the fans a bone? An expensive, condescending bone.

With conferences routinely featuring between 16 and 18 teams, it makes sense to expand conference schedules for a lot of reasons. If leagues went to 10 games per season, you'd see conference opponents more often. It would also allow leagues to keep more traditional rivalry games on the schedule every season. It'd also provide more attractive matchups, which is good for television partners and fans.

There have been whispers of the Big Ten and SEC talking about playing annual nonconference games against one another, which is great in theory -- particularly if it's like college basketball, where the matchups are based on the prior season's finish. The problem here is that while TV partners would love to be guaranteed a game between the reigning SEC and Big Ten champions, if you're a Mississippi State fan, how excited are you about Northwestern coming to town? Are Wisconsin fans getting fired up to host Kentucky? If you polled the fans of these schools, they're more likely to prefer playing an extra conference game. Familiarity breeds contempt, after all, and not every school will compete for playoff bids. Contempt is all so many fans have.

While that 10th game might cost you an Ohio State vs. Texas every fall, it will also increase the odds you get Georgia vs. Alabama, or Oregon vs. Michigan. Those are games that will generate ratings and have stakes in conference and playoff races. (It will also increase the odds your best teams finish in the top four spots to get those auto bids ... if you're into that kinda thing.)

It would also help ensure there are more intriguing matchups each weekend. Now that there are so many different networks with rights to games, that matters. These schools love the money they're getting in their new deals, but if they want to keep it coming, they need to keep those companies cutting the checks happy.

If they don't, and those networks move onto something else, the fans you've been taking for granted all this time might not be so willing to help anymore.

If Big Ten, SEC programs want to keep fans engaged, they should move to 10-game conference schedules

Marquee nonconference games and spring games are in danger, so keep fans interested with annual contempt

www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[IceBoxGopher]

Can't say I particularly agree. I like the non-conference slate. It's good getting some experience against something different regularly. The Big Ten has protected rivalries and marquee match-ups happen every year regardless.

Plus I think it's beneficial having the easier slate to start off the year before the conference schedule begins. I think the notion in the article about "familiarity breeding contempt" is also sort of absurd at this point considering all of the changes that have made the Big Ten almost unrecognizable.

 

[upnorthkid]

lol what makes you think they'd give a shit? The goal of the conference is to try put teams in the playoff and make their "brand" look good. attendance in the stadium is a distant afterthought. Even if you're at Michigan and put 100k butts in the seats your revenue is maybe 2-3mil in ticket sales. If you make that 50k say for BG (which is low given the season tickets), it's still just a drop in the bucket. Would you maybe increase ST sales some? Perhaps. But by that logic, they would've scheduled big OOC games for forever to compensate which most schools don't.

Maybe we should just have schools only play their conference schedules and make it a 12 game schedule.

In reality, it's important for the health of the sport. The smaller schools rely on these non-con games for budget balancing. The bigger schools like them to rack up wins to make bowl games and the postseason. Playing an extra conf game for "fan viewership" isn't going to move the needle.

 

[MNVCGUY]

SEC should 100% go to 9 conference games. Big Ten should 100% not go to 10 conference games. No preseason, and conference schedules are tough enough already.

 

[Unregistered User]

Remember thinking schools would shift funds from building ridiculous facilities, and maybe we'd see coaches salaries decrease so they could use that money to pay players instead?

The writer does not understand how NIL works.

 

[PMWinSTP]

SEC should 100% go to 9 conference games. Big Ten should 100% not go to 10 conference games. No preseason, and conference schedules are tough enough already.

There is no preseason

 

[PMWinSTP]

Yes go to 10 games

 

[EG#9]

I can see both sides to this. One extra conference game means one additional loss for half the conference teams. The author makes a good point about Nebraska fans preferring to see Tennessee than Bowling Green, but what happens later in the season when teams are 4-3 instead of 5-2 and essentially eliminated from any shot at the playoff or a 2nd tier bowl game? Not sure which I'd prefer as a fan. I know last year, for example, losing that week 1 game against UNC and knowing we had much tougher B1G opponents coming up was a downer. Feeling kind of "out of it" in August sucks.