Today's lesson in college sports economics

[Scioto]

First of all, I thought it was a great game last night. Too bad Clemson couldn't pull it off. If anyone of us were given Clemson and 40 points, all of us, including the Bama and "SEC fans" would have bet our Powerball winnings from tomorrow night on the game for Clemson to win. Before getting into today's sports economics lesson, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice ....... what is it that George the W said "Won't get fooled again?" I think Bama's tight end is still scoring touchdowns today. Even Pete Townsend would have keyed on the tight end after the first big pass play to him. I'm also fairly certain Dabo is also going to pay attention to special teams play next year.

Did you see where the TV ratings were down 15% from last year. No New Years Eve to blame this one on. You just saw the last CFP championship game involving two teams from the south. You can take that to the bank. That's good news for Vermin. It will be arranged. Billions are at stake. You see, brand value really is relevant.

I also saw where tickets to the game could be had for $100 at game time. Looked to me like Clemson fans showed up. It could be because Alabama plays in a national championship every other year and Clemson hadn't been to one since the Iran Hostage Crisis or it just explains why Alabama never plays an out of conference game, or any game for that matter, outside of the south. Or it could be because Alabama grads are ranked #428 in pay scale (ooh, that is ugly) versus Clemson at #132 (pretty good). http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/bachelors (in fairness, Ohio State grads face an uphill battle to living in their parents' basement coming in at #318). Some others - Stanford #7, Notre Dame #42, Florida State #408 (ouch!). Florida #209 (ok), Ole Miss # 595 (laughable), UT #352 (could have gone to Ohio State), Vandy #52 (too good for the SEC).

SEC SEC SEC SEC SEC

 

[baddnole]

First of all, I thought it was a great game last night. Too bad Clemson couldn't pull it off. If anyone of us were given Clemson and 40 points, all of us, including the Bama and "SEC fans" would have bet our Powerball winnings from tomorrow night on the game for Clemson to win. Before getting into today's sports economics lesson, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice ....... what is it that George the W said "Won't get fooled again?" I think Bama's tight end is still scoring touchdowns today. Even Pete Townsend would have keyed on the tight end after the first big pass play to him. I'm also fairly certain Dabo is also going to pay attention to special teams play next year.

Did you see where the TV ratings were down 15% from last year. No New Years Eve to blame this one on. You just saw the last CFP championship game involving two teams from the south. You can take that to the bank. That's good news for Vermin. It will be arranged. Billions are at stake. You see, brand value really is relevant.

I also saw where tickets to the game could be had for $100 at game time. Looked to me like Clemson fans showed up. It could be because Alabama plays in a national championship every other year and Clemson hadn't been to one since the Iran Hostage Crisis or it just explains why Alabama never plays an out of conference game, or any game for that matter, outside of the south. Or it could be because Alabama grads are ranked #428 in pay scale (ooh, that is ugly) versus Clemson at #132 (pretty good). http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/bachelors (in fairness, Ohio State grads face an uphill battle to living in their parents' basement coming in at #318). Some others - Stanford #7, Notre Dame #42, Florida State #408 (ouch!). Florida #209 (ok), Ole Miss # 595 (laughable), UT #352 (could have gone to Ohio State), Vandy #52 (too good for the SEC}

SEC SEC SEC SEC SEC

I prefer to look at it like, There are 626 that are worse than FSU.Most schools with State after their name seem to be worse. :tu:

 

[baddnole]

Maybe this will help


Colleges, recruits bracing for new academic rules
Ryan S. Clark

Nothing is out of order in Jim Curry's office. Everything has its place. Papers are neatly filed inside binders that sit side-by-side within cabinets around his desk.

The miniature football helmets representing the different schools he's worked at are all perfectly aligned. He even has a place for personal mementos like a bottle of Moxie, the official soft drink of his native Maine.

A few pictures waiting to be hung are the only items resembling chaos, and even those are neatly piled together against a wall.



With new NCAA academic requirements coming this summer, coaches like FSU's Jimbo Fisher could have to make some tough decisions when it comes to recruiting.
Curry cannot afford to overlook details. His job as Florida State's assistant athletic director for compliance will not allow it.

Like many of his counterparts across the nation, Curry is getting FSU's coaches and prospective athletes ready for the new academic eligibility standards that go into effect in August.

"I feel like there has been an effort to have a lot of conversations about this," Curry said. "It has been on coaches' and administrators' minds since it has been adopted. I feel like there are more and more conversations about it every year. The thing you fear: Is that information getting to the students, high school coaches and guidance counselors?"

The new requirements were passed in 2012 by the NCAA, and the first of three changes demands student-athletes earn a minimum 2.3 grade-point average in high school core courses, up from the previous 2.0 threshold.

The second new rule -- also known as "10-and-7" -- states prospective student-athletes must complete 10 of their 16 core courses before the start of their senior year of high school. Of those 10 courses, seven must be English, math and science classes. And once those grades are locked in, they cannot be improved by retaking the classes during one's senior year.

With those changes comes the third alteration -- the creation of the academic redshirt. Student-athletes who meet the earlier requirements, but not the new ones, will be eligible to receive an athletic scholarship and will be able to practice with their teams but not compete in games. And they will only be eligible to practice during the second semester of their first year by passing nine semester hours or eight quarterly hours, according to the NCAA.

Curry said academic redshirts will work in much the same manner as traditional redshirts. So after sitting out one year, a student-athlete would still have four seasons of eligibility remaining.

"When they rolled out these changes, I was less concerned about the changes from the 2.0 to the 2.3," Curry said. "I thought the 10-and-7 requirement was actually going to be the most impactful piece of the legislation."

In years' past, students who struggled early with core classes could load up during their final year of high school and during the summer to become eligible. They could also take online classes to cram in extra courses.

"Summer school is still an option -- it has to be before the start of your senior year," Curry said, adding that FSU's staff has been reaching out to potential recruits to make sure they're aware of the changes. "There are certainly students that we advised to take summer school this past year in anticipation for the 10-and-7 requirement and initial eligibility requirements."

Since the reforms were passed more than three years ago, high school coaches and administrators have been trying to educate their students as well.

Roger Harriott, the head football coach of state power St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, said the rules create accountability for coaches, guidance counselors and students. He said it also creates a "step-by-step process" that prevents students from attaining eligibility by taking a slew of online courses as a last-ditch effort.

"By the time they get to college, they'll be more prepared to handle the workload at the college level," said Harriott, who was an assistant coach at Florida Atlantic University in 2014.

The new legislation certainly has teeth. Hallandale High coach Dameon Jones told Warchant that if the rules had been in place last year, two of his players would not have been eligible to compete as freshmen.

Jones, who has been at Hallandale for eight seasons, said he has stressed to his players to keep their grades up so they can avoid being a cautionary tale. While the new academic redshirt is in place to help students who fall just below the requirements, Jones believes colleges will use it sparingly and only for star athletes.

"If you are not a five-star guy, nobody is going to academically redshirt you," said Jones, who previously coached FSU freshman linebacker Sh'Mar Kilby-Lane. "They're just not. They're not going to waste a scholarship for you to sit a year. Why? Colleges are changing coaches, they don't have time for you to sit.

"Either play your freshman year or get redshirted, You're still with the team. You're still growing, but an academic redshirt, they are not taking a chance on that. If you are [not taking academics seriously] in high school, nine times out of 10, it is going to be an issue in college."

Because the new rules do not go into effect until this summer, they don't apply to student-athletes who graduated in December and are enrolling early. One high school administrator at a state football power told Warchant he believes some schools have used that as a loophole to get recruits "grandfathered in" under the old requirements.

But Curry said he has not seen the new rules having an effect on whether students choose to enroll early.

Seven of FSU's 2016 commitments enrolled in classes this week. That group includes four-star quarterback Malik Henry and four-star defensive end Janarius Robinson among others.

Complete breakdown of FSU's early enrollees
According to media reports, the University of Florida was expected to have 12 early enrollees start classes this week. Auburn and Minnesota each were expected to have seven, and Clemson six.

But Curry pointed out that the number of early enrollees has been trending upward for years.

"Really it comes back to a preparedness issue as it relates to academic development," Curry said. "Traditionally, early enrollment has been an option for those who were far along academically and could matriculate seamlessly.

"It really has evolved over the last few years to what we are seeing now. People see the opportunity to enroll mid-year and, as it relates to fall sports, you have an opportunity to practice outside of a competition season."

Jones said he doesn't believe the new rules have played a major role in influencing student-athletes to enroll early. He had two players at Hallandale do it last year and three this year, but he said they were the ones who took the initiative. He said there was no pressure from college coaches or administrators to beat the new requirements.

"It was all them," Jones said. "It wasn't [that] I went to them or a college came to them. They did it on their own. Half of the time, when the colleges came to them, they didn't know these were enroll-early kind of kids. It's all on the kids."

 

[Zulu]

Wow, my alma mater came in at #15! Can y'all keep an eye on my caviar and champagne while I take the Bentley for a spin? :smash:
It would have been more interesting if they have normalized the data by comparing similar degrees. I noticed that a lot of the top rated schools had a high percentage of STEM grads. I like the old adage: The engineering graduate says "How do I build that?" the business graduate says "How do I make money off that?" and the liberal arts graduate says "Do you want fries with that?" oke:

Lot's of comments on sports radio today about the drop in ratings. I think OHVATN's right in that the "regionalness" of this matchup hurt this one. No insult to Clemson since it's a great school, but just based on the name a majority of people in the North and West have no idea where it is (just that it's "somewhere down south"). Combine that with the timing and I'd be surprised if hardly anyone west of the Rockies watched it. Still, the latest I heard is that even though it was a big drop off from last year, the viewership was still higher than any of the BCS championship games.

 

[smalljawbasser]

not to be captain obvious, but they were playing 1600 miles away on a Monday night in the middle of January. the 2015 Sugar bowl was the most watched game ever on TV. that's pretty lofty to expect to repeat the performance. the first championship game EVER of the Playoff.

but if you want to believe it's because the two teams were from the south and one school has poor graduates that can't afford a TV or a ticket, knock yourself out. maybe you and DocPoco can make your own delusions a reality by posting about it enough.

 

[Scioto]

I would have been serving up fries with my #361 degree so went the business grad route to #29. Obviously, there's a lot of silly chain pulling in the OP. I find the economics of sports highly interesting.

Ultimately, in my view this is what results in the CFP being expanded to 6 or 8 teams. I'm not whining. The 4 most deserving teams were in the CFP. Alabama is a national program. Clemson is not. Most people in the north and west don't know where Clemson is located and its probably the second favorite team in SC with a student population of a MAC school. I know its located in SC, but not in what city/town. Michigan State is a regional program too. I think Oklahoma is a national program. Not sure about the term of ESPN's contract, but contracts can be renegotiated and I'm sure there are various covenants that won't be met after a few years of declining ratings. Per my post yesterday and today, brand value is relevant and Alabama, although a national program, is just sniffing the top dogs' behinds in this regard (and a few other SEC schools sniffing Bama's but they are at least in the line of butt sniffers). The CFP, ESPN, and all of those business grads who run the companies started by the STEM grads and advertise on ESPN (and the other business grads who run ESPN, the other tv networks, and the conferences) will demand something be done to ensure better ratings and revenue and that means you've got to have at least two if not three of Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas, Michigan, and/or other national programs in the mix like Stanford, Oklahoma, Penn State, etc. Problem is, Texas, Penn State, and until recently, Michigan have been awful. Multi-region representation in the championship game has to be an objective and that message will be sent to the "committee." I think this does not bode well for the ACC, although Florida State might be considered a national program and the argument could be made they aren't from the south although they are (Florida is such an is it or is it not state). Same for the Big 12 when two of the three best teams in that conference are TCU and Baylor. I wouldn't even consider those regional programs. Just have to understand that no one on the East coast cares about college football (NFL rules) and pretty much the same can be said about the West coast. Hardly anyone lives in Big 12 country except for Texas. Where people live and die college football, the South and Midwest, despite all the demographic changes the populations of the Midwestern states are much larger than the Southern states. Ohio has a population of 11 million with three major cities. Alabama has a population of 4 million with no major city. Advertisers care about those eyeballs and so will the CFP.

 

[Scioto]

not to be captain obvious, but they were playing 1600 miles away on a Monday night in the middle of January. the 2015 Sugar bowl was the most watched game ever on TV. that's pretty lofty to expect to repeat the performance. the first championship game EVER of the Playoff.

but if you want to believe it's because the two teams were from the south and one school has poor graduates that can't afford a TV or a ticket, knock yourself out. maybe you and DocPoco can make your own delusions a reality by posting about it enough.

It was the second championship game of the CFP era. Ohio State beat Oregon in last year's championship game. Thank you for opening the door for me to bring that up. Also, Columbus, Ohio, for example, is 1,000 miles from Dallas where last year's game was held and tickets weren't going for $100 at game time. In addition, the Fiesta Bowl was held in the same stadium as last nights game and Glendale, AZ is 1,918 miles from Columbus, OH and 1,864 miles from South Bend, IN and tickets weren't going for $100 at game time of the Fiesta Bowl.

Thanks also for proving my point and opening the door to the 2015 Sugar Bowl. I guess you don't recall that Ohio State beat Alabama in the 2015 Sugar Bowl.

 

[TeamMainStreet]

not to be captain obvious, but they were playing 1600 miles away on a Monday night in the middle of January. the 2015 Sugar bowl was the most watched game ever on TV. that's pretty lofty to expect to repeat the performance. the first championship game EVER of the Playoff.

but if you want to believe it's because the two teams were from the south and one school has poor graduates that can't afford a TV or a ticket, knock yourself out. maybe you and DocPoco can make your own delusions a reality by posting about it enough.

Most fans that werd willing to travel and spend the dough to watch them did so a few weeks ago in their playoff games also.


I did see a dude sitting down next to the field in one of the endzones wearing a Texas Longhorn shirt. :lol: