Alabama Football, TV and Big Money in College Sports

As one of the top brands in college football, revenue pours into the University through Alabama football from SEC revenue and other sources.

Alabama football is arguably the ‘King’ of college football. Driven by TV ratings and massive broadcast contracts, college football is swimming in money. Nothing lasts forever. Has college football become a ‘bubble’ market?

This week the SEC, the football conference, not the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced annual payouts to its member schools. On average the schools received $40.9 million each. The number varies because it includes bowl expense money allocated to specific schools. The average total payout increased from $40.4 million last year.

College football and basketball compete with professional sports and other entertainment options for viewers. The television and digital media contract dollars flow from eyeballs. Alabama football was in two of the five highest viewed regular season games. The Iron Bowl was the top one at 13.6 million viewers.

Based on a report from the Wall Street Journal and reported by Si.com, college football viewing was down slightly last season. CBS and ABC took the biggest hits in reduced viewing. Some of the reason is platform shifts in viewing patterns based on the latest TV deals. No one is suggesting the college football market is at a saturation point.

Back to the theme of nothing lasts forever, NASCAR, after a long run of huge success did reach a saturation point. Some media experts wonder if the NFL could do the same. It happened with MLB and the NHL. Among the major professional team sports, only the NBA is up.

Parents have concerns about their children and football

Based on an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll,

"48% of Americans don’t want their children playing football. Four years ago, when the question was asked, it was at 40%."

Concussion fears and the long-term effects from brain trauma concern parents. Will reduced participation by children in football slowly diminish interest in the game? Stadium attendance was also down in the NFL. Will it continue to fall as children and families choose ‘safer’ sports?

College football stadium attendance was down in 2016 for the sixth straight season. The NCAA has not released the 2017 numbers yet but the ACC recently published a 3.9 percent decline last season.

What does all this mean for Alabama football? In the Nick Saban era, it means little or nothing. Alabama football fans are unwilling to think past the Saban era. We will close with two tweets. Don’t discount the first one without reading the second.

Next: 50 Best Alabama Football Players of All-Time

Chris is correct about the value Nick Saban has brought to the University of Alabama. The second tweet about Bret Bielema’s pay ‘not to coach’ reinforces Lowe’s statement about the loss of reality in big-time college sports.