CFB might be dying... slowly
Dennis spent some time on his computer today putting together some data - namely avg. attendance by year and major conference, along with telecast power-rankings.
A few insights:
- the NFL dominates televised sports, taking up 82 of the 100 most-watched telecasts in 2022. CFB took up just 5!
- AVG. CFB attendance has been falling across the board YOY for the last decade, with a bump in 2022, likely due to COVID burnout/desire to attend live events.
- the PAC-12 died because despite the AVG. attendance bump in 2022, they still had the 2nd lowest attendance EVER.
- the SEC dominates college football, avg.ing ~10K more fans per game vs. the B1G (2nd largest avg. attendance.
Predictions:
- the CFB industry is lacking innovation, is old, and has a core of solid fans that is slightly dwindling YOY. The NFL will continue to eat up market share, and CFB will see continued attrition. (Anecdotally, I've already started spending more time following the NFL than I ever have in my life).
- the SEC will eventually overtake all the other conferences, share of championships (they already do), and Cinderella stories will fall even further out of possibility.
August 21st, 2023 at 5:41 PM ^
Dennis compiled some data. Dennis still has a lot to learn when it comes to analyzing said data. Dennis can also post thread topics from Bolivia. Dennis may be a witch.
August 21st, 2023 at 5:58 PM ^
I will not be spending any money on CFB this year. The B1G Peacock bullshit, and the swallowing up of half the PAC 12 were the last insults I will take. If a game comes over my antenna I will tune in. Otherwise I am done. I'm not interested to see where this is going.
August 21st, 2023 at 6:13 PM ^
Ironically, the sport itself isn't dying, but fan interest certainly is
August 23rd, 2023 at 12:14 PM ^
CFB dying has many parts to it. It’s more complicated than attendance.
Avg attendance is part of it, but that isn’t the driver. Cost of attendance has become so much more difficult for the avg family around the country.
Conference realignment, sec dominance along with espn wrecking every conference at every comment has fans turned off. NIL, NCAA, total lack of consistency across cf scheduling, rules application, conference tv deals.
Attendance, most fans are driving 30 minutes or longer to attend, park and enjoy the game. Tickets, gas, concessions and souvenirs aren’t cheap. And for thousands of fans that are more than an hour away the time to attend is becoming a factor as well. If you’re two hours or more it is an all day deal to attend. For some fans where there is nothing else going on, no big deal.