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Ohio State won the national championship of college football last night. I'm pleased, but they won it a dozen years ago and have been in the championship game a few times since then. They definitely win more than their share. College football never exactly was about fairness, and teams are actually more competitive than they were back in the 1980s. Witness an erratic Virginia Tech team beating Ohio State early this season.
I say I'm pleased, but I can't forget that athletics are becoming a bigger and bigger drain on universities' resources while tuition and fees keep going up. Ohio State with one of the largest football budgets in the country felt the need to beg the NCAA for help getting parents of players to the championship game. The NCAA saw the need and helped both schools. Every team that goes to a post season game has thousands of game tickets they have to pay for. They can legally either sell them at face value or give them to charities in the area where the bowl game is being held. But they are responsible for the price of the tickets. Once upon a time the charities took kids to the bowl games. Now, because of the ticket values, it makes far more sense for them to sell the tickets at a discount to ticket brokers. The ticket brokers in turn sell the tickets for whatever they can get in the open market. Wise buyers know for most bowl games (39 of them now) there will not be a sell-out and by waiting till near the game date, they can save hundreds of dollars on a few tickets. That makes it that much harder for the schools to sell their ticket allotments.
The national championship games normally sell-out. But this year, ticket sales for the Championship Game were slow enough that the asking price for the average ticket dropped in one week to two thirds of what it was right after the semifinals. This year the average final asking price for championship game tickets, despite inflation was the lowest in ages, about a third of what it was around a decade ago. Times have not been good in that period, but what else has dropped that much in price?
The TV network ESPN that carries most of the bowl games is fat and happy. Its reporters talk glibly about paying college players. But I think as far as the colleges (outside their athletic departments) are concerned, they have reached the point of diminishing returns where pouring more money in just leads to more need for money to keep the system going. As I said earlier in the season, paying players on top of all the perks they already get may cause the whole system to collapse with alarming suddenness.
The University of Alabama-Birmingham dropped their football program and a couple minor sports at the end of this past football season. As could be expected there was outrage among the school's fans, who demanded an audit to backup the university president's claim it was just costing too much. I doubt it will help restore UAB football and I doubt it will be the last program to fold if current conditions continue or worsen.
I say I'm pleased, but I can't forget that athletics are becoming a bigger and bigger drain on universities' resources while tuition and fees keep going up. Ohio State with one of the largest football budgets in the country felt the need to beg the NCAA for help getting parents of players to the championship game. The NCAA saw the need and helped both schools. Every team that goes to a post season game has thousands of game tickets they have to pay for. They can legally either sell them at face value or give them to charities in the area where the bowl game is being held. But they are responsible for the price of the tickets. Once upon a time the charities took kids to the bowl games. Now, because of the ticket values, it makes far more sense for them to sell the tickets at a discount to ticket brokers. The ticket brokers in turn sell the tickets for whatever they can get in the open market. Wise buyers know for most bowl games (39 of them now) there will not be a sell-out and by waiting till near the game date, they can save hundreds of dollars on a few tickets. That makes it that much harder for the schools to sell their ticket allotments.
The national championship games normally sell-out. But this year, ticket sales for the Championship Game were slow enough that the asking price for the average ticket dropped in one week to two thirds of what it was right after the semifinals. This year the average final asking price for championship game tickets, despite inflation was the lowest in ages, about a third of what it was around a decade ago. Times have not been good in that period, but what else has dropped that much in price?
The TV network ESPN that carries most of the bowl games is fat and happy. Its reporters talk glibly about paying college players. But I think as far as the colleges (outside their athletic departments) are concerned, they have reached the point of diminishing returns where pouring more money in just leads to more need for money to keep the system going. As I said earlier in the season, paying players on top of all the perks they already get may cause the whole system to collapse with alarming suddenness.
The University of Alabama-Birmingham dropped their football program and a couple minor sports at the end of this past football season. As could be expected there was outrage among the school's fans, who demanded an audit to backup the university president's claim it was just costing too much. I doubt it will help restore UAB football and I doubt it will be the last program to fold if current conditions continue or worsen.