College sports future

[hilltopwildcat]

I'm posting this here although it could go on any of the topics.

Friend whom I believe is very in touch with the administrative side of college sports told me this morning that as many as 68 NCAA D3 schools are applying for membership in the NAIA. Just a year or two ago, they had NAIA's grave dug. He said D2 will go bankrupt and there's no word on what will happen there. For a period of time, the more successful NAIA teams were bailing for D2.

He said this all hinges on the fact that on a recent Saturday, total viewership of NCAA men's D1 basketball games was under 1 million viewers. He didn't go deeper than that so I'm not sure as to where the numbers came from. NCAA mostly operates on the money from the men's D1 tournament. I believe CBS paid $1 billion over a several year period for the rights to the games. Not sure how much is involved from the Mickey Mouse network for regular season coverage. Those monies run the NCAA, all divisions. To play D2 ball, Pitt State, Washburn, et al, have a hefty expense. I know Missouri incurred many expensive updates to play in the $EC.

He had also heard that by the 2022 season, NCAA will be totally out of college football. This leaves me with that age-old queston............what is K-State's future?

[tmcats]

if we see a full stadium this fall, all will be fine here at k-state.

the athletics program has financially been solid since john currie took over. k-state sports program numbers are at the ncaa minimum. long term debt is down $4 million to $59 million.

we plan to renew our season tickets for both football and mbb. we live in mhk.

[stlcatfan]

Hello hilltopwildcat. Good to hear from you again. I haven't seen you post lately.

Thanks for sharing this post. Yeah, it will be really interesting to see what happens with college sports over the next decade. I think most of the current P5 schools will be fine, unless ESPN and the other powers that be decide to form an "elite" division of what they consider to be the top 30-40 schools in the country. I don't foresee that happening, but you never know.

As you said, it will be the smaller colleges (maybe even many of the current G5 schools) who are going to struggle financially to stay afloat. It has really become a "haves" vs. the "have nots" in college sports. The disparity between what P5 and G5 schools make off of TV contracts is astounding.

[Hypeman]

Many schools, even P5, schools struggle financially and as university budgets get tighter there will less desire to support a athletics.

DII schools have a hearty expense too and many NAIA schools that went DII are going back because the NCAA puts restrictions how many sports coaches can coach etc. that drive up expenses. Travel has a big impact on what leagues schools choose too.

DIII is interesting because there are no scholarships and athletics is an enrollment booster. That’s why DIII schools usually have JV teams. More spots for kids to enroll, pay tuition, and pretend they are a legit college athlete.

Don’t be surprised if you see JV teams come back at all levels. I know an AD in northern michigan who did just that and it has been wildly successful. You can now pay to pretend you are a DI athlete.

[hilltopwildcat]

if we see a full stadium this fall, all will be fine here at k-state.

the athletics program has financially been solid since john currie took over. k-state sports program numbers are at the ncaa minimum. long term debt is down $4 million to $59 million.

we plan to renew our season tickets for both football and mbb. we live in mhk.

Do you expect a full stadium? J/A.

[tmcats]

i expect strong season ticket participation as most of us rolled over last year's. i also sense a lot of enthusiasm for attending the stanford game at jerry's world.

[SCKSCat]

In general I think college football is being hurt by the dominance of the SEC and Clemson winning the National championship. There seems to be a big disparity between conferences. Not so sure a national championship game is working anymore. It would be groovy keen to have an all sports national champion - best combined football, basketball, baseball, track and field and a sport of the institution's choosing - swimming, gymnastics, hockey, rasslin, badminton, skeet,

[katlander]

For me its just another year of who cares regarding the top 4 teams and the National Champion. Its messed up and leaves me almost totally disinterested. Other then K-State and a few other B12 games I couldn't give a rat's.

[JOKKO]

I agree interest has waned recently and the dominance of Clemson and Bama (along with the reputation that if you win the SEC, you must be great...scratch that, if you're in the SEC, you must be great) has turned people off across the country.

Nothing will change until they start making teams earn their way in (win their conference). It is still a popularity contest that has been built upon the last 100 years.

I am fine with the committee picking a couple at large (leagues need to be limited for participation in the playoffs though to develop some parity), but to just have some JAGS picking the teams they see based on the "eye-test" is a joke.

Another thing, which is way more obvious in basketball, is that college sports need the fans in attendance. College sports just seem stale without the fans.

The last thing is that Covid just makes everything worse. Stuck in minor traffic-worse, printer won't work-worse, tv streaming-worse, temperature below zero...I guess it's worse, but I've never seen it this cold for this long.

[ToledoCat#3]

Global warming is tough to take ;)