Do We Care More About College Sports, or the Money? Just A Minute

The lack of leadership at the top of college football has made an impossible situation that's alienating core fans.

Jul 15, 2024; Dallas, TX, USA; SEC commissioner Greg Sankey speaking at Omni Dallas Hotel. / Brett Patzke/USA Today / USA TODAY NETWORK

I thought I was ready. I believed I was prepared. Nope, not even close.

I'm talking about the regular onslaught of questions and discussion points from family and friends about college football that I usually get during the holidays, and with Alabama being left out of the College Football Playoff, that seemed a logical focus this year.

Only it hasn't been. Granted, Crimson Tide fans feel they should in the bracket, even more so after the first-round playoff games were all duds, but they know Alabama didn't exactly earn it or deserve it. Instead, the non-stop talk for me was about NIL and the transfer portal and how messed up college athletics have become, especially football.

Theses are serious fans, mind you, and like most of the Crimson Tide faithful they're a pessimistic lot. However, there's a reason why they don't like the NFL, and pro football has never taken hold in the state, and they see their beloved college football going doing that path. For them, the separation of pro and college football had a stronger distinction than the line between and state, and now they're hearing about how former Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula got a $1.5M NIL package to head to Missouri, and former Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold landed something different with Auburn.

College athletics have always been the equivalent of an arms race, whether it be with coaching salaries, facilities or whatever, and yes, athletes deserve to be in on the action. But even the biggest professional leagues have limitations in place that prevent non-stop movement, promote competition and some sense of accountability. Instead of a balancing act that's desperately needed at the highest level we're seeing the opposite, leaeding to things like coaches getting burned out and leaving (see video), conferences consolidating in ridiculous ways, and fans feeling bilked.

Should they be concerned that college athletics is losing its soul? Absolutely. Can they adjust? Yes, but it'll depend on where we go from here because the more football becomes purely a pay-for-play sport the more it gets away from its core — and that's what they're so worried about.

With that in mind, consider two things:

1) The most valuable athletic programs

With the private equity world looking more and more to get involved and invest in collegiate athletics, CNBC recently teamed with AthleticDirectorU to comprise a list of the most valuable programs. Alabama was No. 5 overall, but one has to wonder how long it can maintain that status as it doesn't have near the same resources as say, Texas, or population base.

It found: "In aggregate, the SEC is worth roughly $13.3 billion, an average of about $832 million per school; followed by the Big Ten at about $13.2 billion, an average of roughly $734 million per school; the ACC at roughly $10 billion, or about $558 million per school; and the Big 12, at roughly $6.7 billion, or about $420 million per school."

CNBC 25 Most Valuable College Athletic Programs

1. Ohio State $1.32B valuation; $280M revenue
2. Texas $1.28B; $271M
3. Texas A&M $1.26B; $279M
4. Michigan $1.06B; $230M
5. Alabama $978M; $200M
6. Notre Dame $969M; $224M
7. Georgia $950M; $210M
8. Nebraska $943M; $205M
9. Tennessee $940M; $202M
10. Oklahoma $928M; $199M
11. Penn State $924M; $202M
12. Southern California $923M; $212M
13. Louisiana State $916M; $200M
14. Florida $865M; $189M
15. Wisconsin $838M; $198M
16. Clemson $800M; $196M
17. Oregon $780M; $151M
18. Arkansas $776M; $167M
19. Kentucky $775M; $174M
20. Auburn $772M; $195M
21. Iowa $747M; $167M
22. Michigan State $740M; $171M
23. Stanford $687M; $180M
24. Florida State $673M; $170M
25. Illinois $665M; $148M

For the near future at least, this is where one can start when putting together any preseason top 25 list, and with good reason.

2) TV ratings

After the conference championships were all played, Nielsen, which provides the most-cited TV ratings, released a top 10 list of average per-team viewership numbers for college football this season.

Top CFB teams by viewership (millions)

1. Georgia 8.6 average
2. Ohio State 6.8
3. Alabama 6.6
4. Texas 6.4
5. Tennessee 5.4
6. Michigan 5.2
7. Texas A&M 4.9
8. LSU 4.8
9. Kentucky 4.5
10. Florida 4.3

The first thing that should jump out at you with that is eight of the schools playin the SEC. The heart of college football remains in the South.

Now combine all of this with the SEC clearly having the best conference in college football this season (it's not debatable), and yet only got three teams into the initial 12-team playoff (with three of the first four teams out were from the SEC). It's easy to see how the league might be more than a little upset as not just Alabama, but Ole Miss and South Carolina had good arguments about why they should have been in the bracket.

It leads me to my only prediction for the upcoming offseason: Those who thought SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was throwing his weight around last year hasn't seen anything yet.