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24 team playoff brings NASCAR and boxing to mind.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 10:46 am
Posted on 10/16/26 at 10:46 am
Once upon a time, NASCAR and boxing were much more popular than they are now.
You remember the late 90s and early 2000s. The stands were filled at speedways across America. Sponsors galore, fat tv contracts, and star drivers. But it wasn't enough.
NASCAR created the Chase to much fanfare. This was going to take it to the next level. Fans would tune in every week as each of the last ten races became a shootout. Keep in mind, the networks rah-rah'ed this all the way just like they are now with the changes to college football. Oh, let's not forget the cookie cutter speedways.
Then came more changes: Stupid segments. Reduced horsepower. More changes to the Chase. Higher ticket prices.
The same tv execs who pushed NASCAR to change it all now grouse about weaker ratings and half empty speedways. They can't even sell out Bristol anymore.
Couldn't happen to college football right?
Remember boxing? Once upon a time, until the mid 90's, we all knew who the heavyweight champ was. Name him today. In the 70's, you could watch pretty good championship fights on network tv: Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Holmes, Foreman, Hit Man Hearns, Hagler, and others. ABC even had a night of champions on a Monday night: Sugar Ray, Larry Holmes, Tate-Weaver (WBA title fight heavyweight), and the light heavyweight title as well. All championship fights.
Then Mike Tyson came along. The suits cashed in on PPV. PPV expanded to other weight classes. Want to see championship fights? PPV or if you are lucky, showtime/HBO. They made a lot of money but....
it meant kids were no longer growing up watching championship boxing unless their old man got PPV. The result? two generations of kids with little exposure to boxing. Now boxing is paying the price. MMA fighting didn't help either as it went for those kids now adults who were ignored by boxing.
But of course it could never happen to college football. Make conference championships worthless. Make rivalries less meaningful. Keep going with no rules against tampering. Create endless playoff games as they do in the NBA (and keep in mind, the Big 10 commish pushing this stuff was an NBA man).
Oh, that's right. NBA's audience is down what? 53% in the last decade?
Nah, could never happen to college football.
You remember the late 90s and early 2000s. The stands were filled at speedways across America. Sponsors galore, fat tv contracts, and star drivers. But it wasn't enough.
NASCAR created the Chase to much fanfare. This was going to take it to the next level. Fans would tune in every week as each of the last ten races became a shootout. Keep in mind, the networks rah-rah'ed this all the way just like they are now with the changes to college football. Oh, let's not forget the cookie cutter speedways.
Then came more changes: Stupid segments. Reduced horsepower. More changes to the Chase. Higher ticket prices.
The same tv execs who pushed NASCAR to change it all now grouse about weaker ratings and half empty speedways. They can't even sell out Bristol anymore.
Couldn't happen to college football right?
Remember boxing? Once upon a time, until the mid 90's, we all knew who the heavyweight champ was. Name him today. In the 70's, you could watch pretty good championship fights on network tv: Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Holmes, Foreman, Hit Man Hearns, Hagler, and others. ABC even had a night of champions on a Monday night: Sugar Ray, Larry Holmes, Tate-Weaver (WBA title fight heavyweight), and the light heavyweight title as well. All championship fights.
Then Mike Tyson came along. The suits cashed in on PPV. PPV expanded to other weight classes. Want to see championship fights? PPV or if you are lucky, showtime/HBO. They made a lot of money but....
it meant kids were no longer growing up watching championship boxing unless their old man got PPV. The result? two generations of kids with little exposure to boxing. Now boxing is paying the price. MMA fighting didn't help either as it went for those kids now adults who were ignored by boxing.
But of course it could never happen to college football. Make conference championships worthless. Make rivalries less meaningful. Keep going with no rules against tampering. Create endless playoff games as they do in the NBA (and keep in mind, the Big 10 commish pushing this stuff was an NBA man).
Oh, that's right. NBA's audience is down what? 53% in the last decade?
Nah, could never happen to college football.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 10:51 am to prplhze2000
I mean, some of the crap you people come up with is truly amazing. And even more amazing is that you really really believe what you are saying.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 12:13 pm to Hold That Tiger 10
no sport is too big to commit suicide.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 12:16 pm to prplhze2000
March Madness is the most exciting thing about college basketball. You think ratings with drop for the college football tournament? Lol, what an idiot
Posted on 10/16/26 at 12:18 pm to Hold That Tiger 10
quote:Talladega and Bristol not selling out would have been a laughable take 30 years ago. Talladega itself used to have a capacity of 175k in the 90s, now they've cut it down all the way to a max of 80k and they struggle each year to fill 3/4 of that. The constant watering down of the product trying to get more cash involved killed it to where it is now - a joke.
I mean, some of the crap you people come up with is truly amazing. And even more amazing is that you really really believe what you are saying.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 12:18 pm to prplhze2000
Agree with what you’re saying. The goose that lays the golden eggs is being prepared for slaughter as we speak. People are going to start realizing that there are other enjoyable things to do on fall weekends.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 12:31 pm to prplhze2000
A lot of what you've brought up in your boxing, NBA, and NASCAR examples come down to two things.
1) A lack of superstars.
And I don't necessarily think its because the quality of driver, boxer, and basketball player has gone down all that much. If anything, competition is harder today because of the athleticism jump and amount of resources available to people as they ascend to the highest levels of a spot.
I think one issue is that leagues push too many guys. Lebron for example could have been a cultural pillar of basketball like MJ, Bird, Magic, etc were, but for a lot of reasons that didn't really happen. He was absolutely huge for sure, but the impact wasn't close to those other guys. And part of the reason that didn't happen is that the league would kind of try to get you to watch his game, Kobe's game, Chris Paul's game, Tim Duncan's game, etc instead of just REALLY trying to get you watch Lebron every time he stepped on the court because it was appointment television (or at least marketed that way).
2. It became harder to watch a specific thing, but much easier to watch something
NASCAR splits their season up to different channels. Boxing had PPV. The NBA was a huge cluster. With a sport like MLB you can pay for their app and you can't even watch your local team
But we have more access to content more generally that ever before, by far. There is way more competition for your eyeballs than there was back then.
This game is on one streaming service, that game is on another.
1) A lack of superstars.
And I don't necessarily think its because the quality of driver, boxer, and basketball player has gone down all that much. If anything, competition is harder today because of the athleticism jump and amount of resources available to people as they ascend to the highest levels of a spot.
I think one issue is that leagues push too many guys. Lebron for example could have been a cultural pillar of basketball like MJ, Bird, Magic, etc were, but for a lot of reasons that didn't really happen. He was absolutely huge for sure, but the impact wasn't close to those other guys. And part of the reason that didn't happen is that the league would kind of try to get you to watch his game, Kobe's game, Chris Paul's game, Tim Duncan's game, etc instead of just REALLY trying to get you watch Lebron every time he stepped on the court because it was appointment television (or at least marketed that way).
2. It became harder to watch a specific thing, but much easier to watch something
NASCAR splits their season up to different channels. Boxing had PPV. The NBA was a huge cluster. With a sport like MLB you can pay for their app and you can't even watch your local team
But we have more access to content more generally that ever before, by far. There is way more competition for your eyeballs than there was back then.
This game is on one streaming service, that game is on another.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 12:42 pm to prplhze2000
quote:There's a LOT of eggs (traditional rivalries, regular season attendance, passion, etc.) all in the made for TV playoff basket.
Nah, could never happen to college football.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 12:46 pm to prplhze2000
Yea but now Iowa vs Minnesota might mean more some years as they could be in a hoe down for the 24th seed from time to time!
Posted on 10/16/26 at 12:52 pm to prplhze2000
Its the private equity effect spilling into sports.
You've seen it with companies for a couple of decades now. Persuing short term financial gains while sacrificing the log term outlook for the company/product/brand. A lot of the people making these terrible decisions will make a ton of money and will be gone before it all falls apart.
You've seen it with companies for a couple of decades now. Persuing short term financial gains while sacrificing the log term outlook for the company/product/brand. A lot of the people making these terrible decisions will make a ton of money and will be gone before it all falls apart.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 1:22 pm to mikesliveisacheater
quote:
March Madness is the most exciting thing about college basketball. You think ratings with drop for the college football tournament? Lol, what an idiot
Not seeing the upsets in the early rounds like you used to, are you? Eventually that will affect the ratings.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 1:23 pm to prplhze2000
quote:that’s been a major complaint the past 2-3 years and was also a favorite thing about the tourney.
Not seeing the upsets in the early rounds like you used to, are you?
Posted on 10/16/26 at 1:26 pm to prplhze2000
Also football is a much different sport
The way basketball is able to be played you can have 2 games in a 3 day period per team and saturate tv with non stop games
Football will
Never be able to do that,
Plus March madness being single elimination makes it different from nba and all other pro sports sans the nfl, its unique
College is just becoming a less well played version of the nfl playoffs. It’ll never be the tournament that March madness would be.
The way basketball is able to be played you can have 2 games in a 3 day period per team and saturate tv with non stop games
Football will
Never be able to do that,
Plus March madness being single elimination makes it different from nba and all other pro sports sans the nfl, its unique
College is just becoming a less well played version of the nfl playoffs. It’ll never be the tournament that March madness would be.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 1:29 pm to tzimme4
quote:
March Madness is the most exciting thing about college basketball. You think ratings with drop for the college football tournament? Lol, what an idiot
That's the thing, the playoffs suck all the air out of the room. Nobody cares about the regular season, it's just teams gaming their schedule to make it into the tournament.
We're starting to see it in CFB as traditional OOC matchups die off
This post was edited on 10/16/26 at 1:30 pm
Posted on 10/16/26 at 2:05 pm to prplhze2000
NASCAR also screwed itself by limiting the tracks and allowing double races at places.
Daytona should be only place that gets 2 races
Not going to other tracks hurt the sport. You had tracks who pull from many states and are easy drives that got the middle finger from NASCAR.
Daytona should be only place that gets 2 races
Not going to other tracks hurt the sport. You had tracks who pull from many states and are easy drives that got the middle finger from NASCAR.
Posted on 10/16/26 at 2:11 pm to ShrimperDan
quote:
It became harder to watch a specific thing, but much easier to watch something
This is the most clear and concise description I've heard of what is really going on. Nailed it.
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