The World of College Football

[AkronAlumnus]

42 minutes ago, GP1 said:

I respectfully disagree. There are plenty of very competitive games on every week. Teams that used to stink can now get good. It's still the most unpredictable sport on TV other than Jai Alai, which the South Florida organized crime basically runs. 

 

What I find difficult are the 3.5+ hour games, long halftimes, endless replays and now ESPN Game Day. I'm a bit sick of the players themselves   I've seen enough celebration dances from guys catching three yard outs on their own 28. The Fox pregame show is actually interesting and doesn't have Pat McAfee doing his pro wrestling routine for three hours. I'm Pat McAfeed out. I'm tired of television, gambling apps and beer companies making all the decisions. 

 

What I'm starting to find interesting is the use of the noon start to highlight big games. It used to be the ghetto spot for the worst games. Now the games are compelling against high ranking teams. I wonder if they are experimenting with early starts because they a afraid of the NFL. What the NFL wants, it gets. They may want Saturday primetime. If they get it, it will crush prime time college football on Saturday. 

I heard someone say the average margin of victory through week four is 25 points, ChatGPT says 30.5.  The transfer portal makes it so hard to keep up with a team and the amount of $$ kind-of ruins the integrity of the college game.  Especially amongst the P4 and the disparity between them and everyone else.  Kinda feels like the NFL bc win or lose players still get paid regardless and will be on a different team next year.  Seems like the best interests of the players is long gone.  

 

I agree with everything you said in the second paragraph and ambivalent to the third

[GP1]

20 minutes ago, AkronAlumnus said:

I heard someone say the average margin of victory through week four is 25 points, ChatGPT says 30.5.  The transfer portal makes it so hard to keep up with a team and the amount of $$ kind-of ruins the integrity of the college game.  Especially amongst the P4 and the disparity between them and everyone else.  Kinda feels like the NFL bc win or lose players still get paid regardless and will be on a different team next year.  Seems like the best interests of the players is long gone.  

 

I agree with everything you said in the second paragraph and ambivalent to the third

Those stats are interesting, but if a fan tries hard enough, they can find two good games on. For example, the TX vs TN game was not good last weekend. There was another big game at the same time that wasn't good. The best noon game last week was Louisville and Wake Forest. It was probably one of the best games all weekend. Both teams played great. Fans just have to look for good games. 

[exit322]

The asinine commercial length and volume is the worst thing about college football.  But ratings are still OK so they're not gonna change it.

[kreed5120]

Louisiana regent recommends all 3 Louisiana SunBelt schools drop down to FCS to reduce mounting deficits.

 

https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2026/09/30/regents-say-louisiana-tech-and-university-of-louisiana-and-ulm-should-drop-to-fcs-football-division/92011705007/

[exit322]

1 minute ago, kreed5120 said:

Louisiana regent recommends all 3 Louisiana SunBelt schools drop down to FCS to reduce mounting deficits.

 

https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2026/09/30/regents-say-louisiana-tech-and-university-of-louisiana-and-ulm-should-drop-to-fcs-football-division/92011705007/

 

I know we've had the discussion ad nauseam on "is FCS or D2 better" for costs.  As NIL and related costs increase...is it becoming where FCS could present enough savings?  I'm still not sure (and in terms of local travel, D2 still has a ton more teams, though if half the MAC drops to FCS that mitigates a bit).

 

I just don't know.  138 is clearly too many teams for the "top level" of the sport, but is FCS too big a drop in revenues for what it brings otherwise?  We are losing some of the money game potential as the P4 are going to be playing fewer and fewer of these sorts of games...

[kreed5120]

1 hour ago, exit322 said:

 

I know we've had the discussion ad nauseam on "is FCS or D2 better" for costs.  As NIL and related costs increase...is it becoming where FCS could present enough savings?  I'm still not sure (and in terms of local travel, D2 still has a ton more teams, though if half the MAC drops to FCS that mitigates a bit).

 

I just don't know.  138 is clearly too many teams for the "top level" of the sport, but is FCS too big a drop in revenues for what it brings otherwise?  We are losing some of the money game potential as the P4 are going to be playing fewer and fewer of these sorts of games...

Louisiana schools are in a much more dire situation than Ohio schools. They have less than half the population of Ohio yet only 1 fewer public 4 year school. UL-Monroe has an enrollment of about 8500. For comparison Akron is around 13,500. At some point if enrollment shrinks too much the burden becomes too great.

Edited 4 hours ago by kreed5120