{"id":2007839,"date":"2023-08-22T08:22:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T12:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-the-ncaa-conference-switcheroo-blow-up-college-football\/"},"modified":"2023-08-22T08:30:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T12:30:50","slug":"will-the-ncaa-conference-switcheroo-blow-up-college-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-the-ncaa-conference-switcheroo-blow-up-college-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Could the NCAA conference switcheroo disrupt college football?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwill-the-ncaa-conference-switcheroo-blow-up-college-football%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2007839&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>College\u2062 football starts its season this\u2062 weekend, with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/schedule\/_\/week\/1\/year\/2023\/seasontype\/2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">partial slate of games ahead<\/a> of a full launch over the \u2063Labor Day\u2062 weekend. It\u2019s the start of a\u2064 season that will begin undoubtedly \u200dthe biggest transition in\u2062 the sport\u2019s history. <\/p>\n<p>When\u200c last on \u200dthe national stage\u2064 in January, the \u200bsport\u200c already <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/01\/09\/championship-game-takes-place-amid-sea-of-changes-in-college-football\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">faced major \u2063challenges<\/a>, from athletes getting paid for their name, image, and likeness, to players transferring from school to school, to \u200bthe expansion of a postseason playoff. \u2062And the past eight months have seen those challenges only shift into hyperdrive. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1974907516\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6d44b1d6c7e0a2e45e319ae55e2b144b fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6d44b1d6c7e0a2e45e319ae55e2b144b\"><\/div>\n<p>College football is \u200bin the midst of a series of evolutions \u2064so dramatic as to comprise a \u2064revolution, such that \u2063the \u200bsport that kicks off one \u2062year \u200cfrom now, in September \u20632024, will look\u200b dramatically different, particularly\u2062 off the\u200b field, from the setting of just a few years ago. But the larger forces that sparked these changes are themselves \u200bin flux, so much so that\u2064 the \u2064forces that \u201cblew\u200b up\u201d college football may not exist a few \u200dyears from now. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Historic Conference Realignment <\/h2>\n<p>In January, we already knew that four major powerhouses would switch conferences \u2062in the \u200bfall of 2024. Texas\u2064 and\u2062 Oklahoma had committed to switch from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference, while West Coast universities\u200b USC and UCLA had announced their move to the Big Ten, a conference\u200b traditionally \u2062based among the Great\u2062 Lakes\u2064 states (and \u2063which has had more than 10 \u200cmembers for three decades). <\/p>\n<p>But the past few\u2062 weeks have seen the implosion \u200bof the PAC-12, the Pacific Athletic Conference. Following\u200c the \u2064announced departure of USC and UCLA, fellow PAC-12\u2064 members Oregon \u200dand Washington also decided to depart for the Big Ten this summer. Colorado announced it would leave the conference to\u2064 join the Big 12,\u200c a\u2063 conference to which fellow PAC-12 schools Arizona, Arizona\u2064 State, \u2064and Utah also decamped in short\u2063 order. <\/p>\n<p>The \u200crapid-fire game of \u200cmusical chairs left the PAC-12, a century-old major conference of West Coast schools, withering on the vine with \u2062only four \u2062schools remaining. And\u200c it left institutions around the country in a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/sports\/football\/oregon-washington-big-ten-pac-12-college-sports-6312bc5b?mod=trending_now_news_5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">semipublic panic<\/a>,\u201d \u2062as they \u200dfeared being left without \u200ba proverbial dance partner. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d1f56207a42926a13567d20071ba8db4 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d1f56207a42926a13567d20071ba8db4\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Following the Money<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-the-ncaa-conference-switcheroo-blow-up-college-football\/\" title=\"Could the NCAA conference switcheroo disrupt college football?\">moves \u2062left traditionalists lamenting<\/a> the loss\u200d of geographic\u2062 rivalries in a sport that heretofore had its roots in regional conferences. It also had many critics noting\u2062 that football programs are determining the future of \u200dcollege athletics as a whole. <\/p>\n<p>The\u200c conference realignments won\u2019t \u2063just affect \u2063football teams, which generally only \u2062play 12 regular-season games, \u200bbut athletes in other sports as well. For \u2062instance, athletes at USC or UCLA who play sports like volleyball or baseball more than once a\u200d week may not appreciate\u2063 the inconvenience of having to travel to \u201cconference\u201d games in places\u200b like College Park, Maryland, or Piscataway, New Jersey, \u200binstead of \u2062in-state locales like\u200d Berkeley or Palo Alto.\u2063 And the added travel costs could put pressure on university athletic budgets such that institutions end up culling programs in less-popular sports. <\/p>\n<p>At its bottom, the\u200c conference realignment was sparked\u200d by a dash for television cash. Colleges\u2063 scrambled to \u2064get the biggest network rights offering they could receive from its conference affiliation, which is virtually always connected to the strength of a conference\u2019s \u2062<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/college-football-lincoln-riley-departs-oklahoma-for-usc-head-coaching-job-in-shocking-move\/\" title=\"COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Lincoln Riley Departs Oklahoma For USC Head Coaching Job In Shocking Move\">college football programs<\/a>, rather than its basketball or other sports\u200d offerings.  <\/p>\n<p>When the PAC-12 reportedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/2023\/08\/11\/pac-12-espn-media-rights-negotiations-50-million-ask-per-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">turned down<\/a> a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/youtube-debuts-4000-free-with-ads-tv-episodes-and-1500-movies\/\" title=\"YouTube Debuts 4,000 Free With Ads TV Episodes And 1,500 Movies\">television offer<\/a> from ESPN last year, \u200dand the offers \u200cthis year proved <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/sports\/football\/oregon-washington-big-ten-pac-12-college-sports-6312bc5b?mod=trending_now_news_5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">minimal\u2064 and desultory<\/a>, it had effectively sealed its own fate.\u2062 The schools that could get \u200cbetter offers\u200d elsewhere left, while those that couldn\u2019t were \u2062left high\u200c and dry. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2018bad9ac0405070f3f406dbdfc10c3 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2018bad9ac0405070f3f406dbdfc10c3\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Disappearing Cash \u2062As Cable TV Declines<\/h2>\n<p>School presidents have rationalized this\u200d game of \u201cMusical Conferences\u201d \u200bon the grounds that the additional\u2063 television money from a better\u200c conference affiliation\u200d will \u2064help \u200btheir schools and athletic programs. But those rationalizations could \u2064disappear in relatively short order,\u200c given\u2064 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/seedbed-of-fascism-left-blasts-plan-to-privatise-uk-public-broadcaster-channel-4\/\" title=\"'Seedbed of Fascism' -- Left Blasts Plan to Privatise UK Public Broadcaster Channel 4\">changing media landscape<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Consider the plight of Walt Disney affiliate ESPN,\u200c whose base of cable subscribers has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/disney-makes-a-mickey-mouse-mistake-attendance-business-media-woke-politics-florida-inflation-791a6ad1?mod=opinion_lead_pos5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shrunk<\/a> from \u2063100 million down to 70 million and is set to shrink further as more households \u201ccut\u200b the cord\u201d of the traditional cable bundle. ESPN has thus far\u200d sought to\u200b overcome subscriber losses by \u2063raising its \u200dcable rights fees, trying\u200b to squeeze\u200c more dollars out\u200d of a shrinking customer base. <\/p>\n<p>But at some point in the not-too-distant future, that strategy will collapse, and neither\u2062 Disney nor\u200c ESPN has figured out what to do when \u2064it does. To \u200csurvive as\u200c a standalone \u200bproduct, ESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/disney-makes-a-mickey-mouse-mistake-attendance-business-media-woke-politics-florida-inflation-791a6ad1?mod=opinion_lead_pos5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">may need to charge<\/a> streaming customers as much as $40-50 per month \u2014 far more than most streaming \u200cservices currently charge and perhaps more than\u2064 the market will bear. \u200cThe quandary has \u2062left Disney CEO Bob Iger to suggest <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/07\/19\/disney-ceo-bob-iger-in-damage-control-mode-over-possible-sale-of-abc-espn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">selling or spinning off ESPN<\/a> and ABC,\u200b because he, like other media \u200dexecutives, has\u200d yet to figure\u2063 out how to make a profit in a world \u200bof streaming \u200cvideo. <\/p>\n<p>Virtually all sports are hostage to the conundrums faced by a changing media landscape. Only the NFL, with\u2063 its massive fan base and more limited schedule (17 weekly \u2063games versus 162 for \u2064Major \u2064League Baseball), can air all its games on traditional over-the-air network television. Every other sports league is, to \u200ba \u2062greater or lesser degree, dependent upon cable television coverage and therefore hostage \u200dto the current \u2063tug-of-war between cable and mobile streaming.  <\/p>\n<p>In theory, streaming \u200cservices \u200cthat are part of\u2063 larger conglomerates \u2014 think Apple TV or Amazon Video \u2014 might face fewer cost pressures \u2064because\u200d the non-video portion of the business \u2064can \u200dsubsidize streaming sports content. But \u2063few\u200b executives will want one \u2064segment of their \u2062business \u200dto sustain\u200c billions of \u2064dollars in losses forever,\u2064 meaning that big streaming services may \u2062not \u2064give sports\u200c leagues the major rights fees that they have heretofore commanded from cable networks. <\/p>\n<p>Through the\u2064 latest bout of conference realignment,\u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/france-investigating-universities-over-radical-ideas-imported-from-the-united-states\/\" title=\"France Investigating Universities Over \u2018Radical\u2019 Ideas \u2018Imported From The United States\u2019\">university presidents<\/a> may have blown up not just college \u2064football, \u2064but university athletics in general. And they may have \u2064done \u200bso to chase a pot of \u2062gold that could prove ephemeral and fleeting.  <\/p>\n<p>Rather than speaking to the \u200drelative weakness \u200cof its \u200dfootball programs, the PAC-12\u2019s inability to find a lucrative television rights offer\u2064 may instead stand as a signal warning of what all conferences may face \u200da few years from now. In that case, college football faces an even more uncertain future than many fans think. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-872b98ff650e9a88fc1d2981aaaaa56e fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-872b98ff650e9a88fc1d2981aaaaa56e\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>College football kicks off this weekend, with a few games before the full launch on Labor Day. This season marks a significant turning point in the sport&#8217;s history. Back in January, it encountered substantial hurdles on the national stage, and now it braces for an even greater transformation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2007840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2007839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2007839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2007840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2007839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2007839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2007839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}