College sports in the era of Covid

There’s something about sports in general that brings out the herd instinct in people. Not only do we enjoy our own team’s trials and triumphs, we get to do it in the company of those with like mind. Pro sports of late have gone a direction of public statement of disgust with the status quo, so they act in ways not appreciated by others. Veterans of foreign wars invested a certain amount of their lives defending a country and are turned away and off by those who don’t have any experience like that. Those who burn the US flag are championed by members of the broadcast teams. So “forget the NFL, I’m not watching anymore”, is a statement said and heard by many. Same for the NBA. They deserve it.

So, college sports get more attention because they are more about playing games against other schools, and don’t have the political and emotional baggage that “professional” sports teams do. Professional is in quotes, because its NOT professional behavior. Pros are supposed to be above the uproar, playing games for the salaries and the fun they get out of it all.

Anyway, Covid has cut down on the crowds in the stands, but it just means the broadcasts get the bigger audiences, and the advertisers pay more money for the audience. Its kind of a win-win for broadcasters in college games. The Southeastern Conference earns more of that revenue than any other college athletic group, and they have for years. There are more large population centers watching SEC games, so the schools put themselves in that group. In the SEC, the broadcast rights are sold to networks, which sell their time to advertisers. The revenue from ad sales is all collected at the SEC headquarters and spread out evenly among the schools. In other athletic conferences, the split was in other designs, some of which made schools move their allegiances to conferences which spread the money around more fairly. Its the reason Texas A & M is now an SEC school, same for Missouri.

Anyway, the Covid epidemic cut down so much on human interaction, to the point people were losing their minds with the quarantine culture. Maybe it has saved some lives, but humans need other humans to interact with, on a regular basis. College football has been a release valve for this. The schools made every effort to be safe and clean and to limit the crowds, but the fall season, abbreviated as it is, is bringing life back to normal, life as it was before masks and social distancing. It remains to be seen how basketball will fare, seems arenas are tighter spaced, with nowhere near the crowd sizes, or seats. College football teams perform better or worse based on a number of factors, but I for one am glad its back!