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College football players are used to getting hit. But for players and fans alike, 2011 has so far been the mother of all pile drivers.
College football programs and their loyal fans have suffered mightily this year, from a devastating tornado in Tuscaloosa, Ala., to damage and delays from Hurricane Irene and on to no-less-devastating scandals (Ohio State and Miami) and criminal mischief (the sad fate of Auburn’s “Toomer’s Corner” oak trees, poisoned by a psychotic ‘Bama fan).
Displacement has also been a common theme. Thanks to multiple conference realignments in the off-season, fans will need GPS systems to track down such teams as Colorado and Utah, which just joined the Pac-12; Nebraska, which left the Big 12 for the Big Ten; Boise State, now taking its blue act to the Mountain West; and BYU, still in Provo but now an independent.
In the latest realignment kerfuffle, Texas A&M University on Wednesday announced that it has formally notified the Big 12 that it will submit an application to join another athletic conference. If the application is accepted, A&M will end its membership in the Big 12, effective June 30, 2012. But hang on to your ten-gallon hat: According to multiple sources, the SEC, A&M’s likely target, said that it had not received an application from Texas A&M to join the league and would have no further comment.
Booming Ticket Prices and TV Deals
Despite such tackles for a loss, college football is fitter and hotter than ever. TV-rights deals such as the Pac-12’s landmark $2.7 billion broadcast agreement and the University of Texas’s joint venture with ESPN (called the Longhorn Network if you’re from Texas or ESPN Moo if you hail from say, Arkansas or Oklahoma), represent millions of dollars annually in newfound revenue.
Single-game ticket prices for college football’s hottest matchups have surged 30 percent in three years, to an average of $65, according to the Portland Oregonian. The “brisk rise, far outpacing inflation, illustrates the high demand for games despite the lingering effects of the recession,” the paper reports. The “highest-priced ticket still is Oklahoma at Oklahoma State, at $125, while a ticket to any South Florida or Louisville game can be had for 10 bucks.”
Notre Dame, among other schools, is adopting a pro sports variable-pricing tactic for marquee games. The Fighting Irish are now asking “$70 for the South Floridas of its schedule and $80 for the USCs.” reports the newspaper. And Stanford, behind Heisman Trophy favorite Andrew Luck, has similarly raised its big game prices (yes, even for Big Game) from $45 to $75 since 2008. New swaths of premium seating in college football stadiums are also creating fresh revenue streams for schools.
Between TV and tickets, collegiate athletic budgets on the whole have continued to climb. Of 52 schools that recently provided annual budget information to SportsBusiness Journal, 30 have increased spending by 10 percent or more in the last three years—and 17 have increased their athletic budgets by 15 percent or more.
College Football TV Ad Slots Selling Out
As the 2011 college football season kicks off this week, student athletes have reached yet another milestone when benchmarked against the pros.
College football broadcasters, according to Broadcasting & Cable, have been “confidently watching the advertising dollars mount on the scoreboard.” Nielsen data reveal that regular-season ad spending on college football was $508 million in 2010, up 6 percent from $477 million in 2009, and “this year could be even bigger.”
When the NFL season was in doubt during advertising’s spring upfront selling season, college football was a hot commodity. SEC broadcasts by CBS sold out “almost immediately,” as did coverage by NBC of Notre Dame. ESPN, home of college football’s popular “Game Day,” is also reportedly outpacing last year, and the college football expansion by Fox Sports to FX created new ad inventory for that cable network. The planned 14 FX games, according to a Fox executive, are “just about sold out in the third quarter and nearly 90 percent sold out in the fourth quarter, with some units held back until ratings start coming in.”
