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Proposed additions to college football on television

Decentralization
The year after the Supreme Court decision, nearly 200 games were televised, compared to the previous year’s 89. . College football’s television ratings slumped due to market saturation, and the price of a 30 second advertisement plunged from $57,000 in 1983 to $15,000 in 1984, while the combined take from network television fell more than 60 percent. Despite the monetary suffering of the universities, the additional coverage had a positive impact for fans of college football. “Everyone talks about money, but no one seems to care about the football fan. He is the one who benefited from deregulation. And he isn’t complaining,” said Chuck Neinas, the former commissioner of the Big Eight Conference.

Benefits of decentralization
Additionally, television exposure has been used as a selling point in recruiting high school athletes. “We’re recruiting all over the country, and it’s nice to be able to go in someone’s home and say, ‘You can turn on the TV and watch the Buckeyes six to eight times a year,’” said former Ohio State head coach John Cooper.

Television money and generous donors have allowed universities to provide modern facilities and luxurious amenities to college football teams. The Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas offers fans the opportunity to lease luxury suites for $88,000 a year. The suites include theater-style seats, televisions, kitchenettes and bars. The athletes ride to practice in chartered buses and dress beneath a three-dimensional 20-foot lighted longhorn in a locker room that includes a nutrition center, players’ lounge and state-of-the-art ventilation system.

Nationally televised games also brought new notoriety, revenue and growth for more obscure leagues that had rarely appeared on television. As the cable networks grew and expanded, they sought more games to fill time. Former Mid-Atlantic Conference Commissioner Rick Chryst attributes his league’s expansion to a deal that put several MAC games per year on ESPN.

Television added to the prestige of college football programs that never would have received exposure in the 1950s, a period when television was blamed for falling attendance. A 1948 study conducted by the Crossley Corporation at the NCAA’s request found that fans thought watching televised games was equal or superior to watching from the stands. In 1950, a study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago said that attendance at college football games would have been 40 percent higher if no games had been televised.

In 1949, 17.5 million spectators attended a college football game. In 2012, nearly 50 million people attended college football games.

The modern era
The pursuit of television money has provided financial independence to many big-time university athletic programs, since they can independently offer their product to the highest bidder. However, university presidents and faculty have limited authority over the athletic directors and coaches. In 2009, Florida State President J. Bernard Machen said that due to the presence of ESPN money, the university no longer had control of its athletics department. . Studies have also shown that success of big-time sports programs alters students’ academic behavior, reducing the amount of activity at the library and lowering men’s grade point averages with each victory.

Television and cable networks control the schedule of football games. ESPN broadcasts nationally televised college football games on Thursday nights each week, making it the college equivalent of the NFL’s Monday Night Football. The energy and excitement of such an atmosphere generally benefits the home teams, which have a winning record on Thursday nights. The midweek games are scheduled with no consideration of academics, rest and recovery for athletes, and university logistical issues such as competition for parking between faculty and students and fans. . For example, the logistical issues are such a problem for the University of Georgia that midweek home games are forbidden. However, most coaches are happy to tackle the logistical issues for the sake TV scheduling and money.