Hopefully, this is the proper place.
Just published today. Since we were discussing college football and the spirit and camaraderie it can bring to a college campus, Forbes just released their “College Football’s Most Valuable Teams” ranking:
Some time in the future we will look back and be ashamed that we considered it entertaining and made money off watching young men knowingly turn their brains to jelly.
I’m aware we’re not there yet and this suggestion will be as popular as the proverbial turd in the punch bowl, so flame away. But this is the truth no matter how much you like to watch football and sooner or later I won’t be alone in stating something we know to be the truth.
I knew somebody was going to post about CTE. There are lots of concussions in other sports too, like soccer, baseball, basketball, etc. Injuries galore in gymnastics. We should definitely stop playing sports. And no more military either. 8-|
Anyway, there have been so many rule enhancements (targeting, fair catch up anywhere inside the 25 yard line) in recent years, players are just about hugging each other out there now anyway.
When we get to the point where we compare the service performed by our military to a recreational game, then we have lost perspective and respect.
You - and millions of others - have grown up with a particular perspective that is unlikely to change; you can’t picture life without football. But hopefully, if enough people keep talking about CTE then at some point a generation will look at the facts and not their culturally held beliefs about recreation.
I’ll stop ruining the fun now and leave it to you to discuss this very important college issue…
<:-P <:-P <:-P
“Recreational game”? Player contracts at the professional level are multi-millions. In Steph Curry’s case, his contract is worth $200,000,000+. Kalil Mack of the Chicago Bears just received a contract extension of $141,000,000. That’s more than just “recreational game.” Sports are big-time entertainment.
Plus, college football and basketball money allow other college sports and programs to survive and flourish.
BTW, as an example, soldiers practice firing off artillery shells. Firing artillery causes CTE in soldiers. We should have the same CTE concern for our soldiers, no? Perspective? Puh-leeze. =;
As Americans, we can improve the technology of both football and our military at the same time. They’re not mutually exclusive events.
I agree that technology needs to improve football helmets’ protection against concussions & CTE (brain damage due to repetitive hits to one’s head).
I love college football, but I also know many who love tobacco products. Both football & tobacco are big money so neither is going to go away. Doesn’t make it right, just means that we need to require that big money to pay for the damages caused by these products & activities. One of the most efficient ways to pay for damages is prevention of harm/injuries in the first place. So the issue becomes can we continue with these type of activities without causing injuries ? Probably not. So we need to minimize the harm caused & compensate those injured for whom preventive majors failed.
Totally agree.
In fact, you can take it one step further down the rabbit hole and say that since the likelihood of humans developing disease increases with a poor diet (obesity) and sedentary habits (lack of exercise), that as a society, government should step in and regulate our daily lives (diet and exercise habits) in order to save lives. CTE is a drop in the bucket, in terms of health issues, when compared to other health maladies that can impair or kill us.
I can picture life without football, but as long as football is making this much money for colleges (and other entities), it is a college issue, unfortunately.
I would like to see a study regarding men’s ice hockey and how the dangers compare to football.
@sushiritto Interesting article. Too bad they don’t provide the details for how much of the total money is split between alum contributions, tickets sales, licensing, etc for all the schools, that would be interesting to see. Also notable that Notre Dame comes in at 7th, even though - as an independent team - they don’t receive the @$30-40 million in conference contributions that all the other teams on the list get.
Edit - to ask a question. I am admittedly a fairly recent college football fan and don’t have a wealth of knowledge. So asking what might be an obvious question or a wrong conclusion - but if you removed the conference contributions, which I assume are a given and not reflective of individual teams?? And look at just the elements that are reflective of alumni/fan/public interest, would Notre Dame then be on the top of the list?
“Plus, college football and basketball money allow other college sports and programs to survive and flourish” Agree 100%
Big time college football & basketball are referred to as “revenue sports”.
Football huge in Texas per that list! My alma mater of UC Riverside (and UCSB) both got rid of football in the 1970’s (budget cuts). Baseball big at UCR though with alum Troy Percival (Angels World Series winner) now the coach. Butch Johnson is another famous UCR alumnus that made “the infamous catch” to win the Super Bowl back in the day with the Dallas Cowboys for some trivia and a controversial youtube clip.
@Waitingmama I think you are looking at it wrong (or I am), but I think it is the opposite. ND keeps all the money it makes. Michigan has to pay some into the collective Big 10 pool. That takes away from them.
So if you are a mediocre team in a conference like the SEC or Big 10, yes you benefit. But if you are a top program you are subsidizing the less profitable programs.
S was recruited for a non revenue sport by a school high on this list. Wow. The funding for that athletic department lets them do pretty much everything that wasn’t prohibited by NCAA. Free laptops and tutoring, plus plenty of spending money. A very nice separate cafeteria and student Union for the athletes. Of course every expenses related to the sport covered.
@dadof4kids I honestly don’t know. I was going by this comment in the article …
“Texas A&M’s rise to the top isn’t just from alumni contributions, though. The team ranks third in ticket revenue, averaging some $41 million per year, and it’s sixth in money from royalties and licensing. And the 2012 move to the SEC certainly hasn’t hurt – the conference’s most recent revenue distribution was $41 million per member school while Big 12 programs each received just $34 million from their conference.”
Since it says the conference was making the “distribution” (not asking for a contribution) and says “per member school” (and “programs each received”), I assume that was incoming cash for all teams from their conferences. Is that wrong?
Or does not every conference give cash distributions and maybe the Big 10 is different from SEC and PAC12?
The main reason that as a Midwestern based team Notre Dame is such a huge moneymaker is that the densely populated Northeastern US is a very lucrative TV market populated in large part by Catholics.
If Notre Dame joined the Big 10–which is the first or second most lucrative conference–I wonder if ND’s revenues would rise or fall because the addition of ND to the Big 10 would increase interest in the Big 10 conference which would increase ad revenues which would result to larger payouts to the conference.
“There are lots of concussions in other sports too, like soccer, baseball, basketball, etc. Injuries galore in gymnastics. We should definitely stop playing sports. And no more military either.”
Baseball? CTE is found mainly in football, and some soccer, the issue though is youth football and CTE. That’s why youth, high school football have been declining the past few years.
“But hopefully, if enough people keep talking about CTE then at some point a generation will look at the facts and not their culturally held beliefs about recreation.”
That will take a while, it would have to start with some major college football programs, that don’t identify themselves as football schools, to drop it.
Geez… Now I have to go to more football games to move Michigan up that list :)>- thanks a lot) :
The money does come from the conference. But the conference makes that money through Revenue it generates from Sports, primarily football. If Texas or Michigan was keeping all of the revenue from televising their football games instead of having it be on the Big Ten Or Big 12 Network, that’s a lot of money that they would get to keep for themselves but right now goes into the pool to be shared by the conference. Most of that money comes from football and football related activities, and you’re selling a lot more jerseys and televising a lot more games for Michigan than Indiana.
So yes, while the conference is paying Texas A&M money, Texas A&M probably could generate more money if they were allowed to keep their own Revenue and not have it mixed in with money from other schools in the conference.
@Publisher I agree partially. That is prob true about the NE, but I don’t think it’s the whole story. I think the reason Notre Dame is such a huge moneymaker is because it’s a “national” team, which is one reason why they stay independent so they can continue to play teams from all over the country. Knute Rockne put a lot of effort into traveling the country with the team in the early 20th century, during a time of extreme anti-Catholic and anti-Irish bias, when some schools didn’t want to play the “Papists” or the “Dirty Irish”. So I don’t think that history and his effort should be discounted or underappreciated. ND is the only team playing schools in CA, FL NY, TN, Navy, etc. in a regular season. Also, ND is a national school academically in that it draws students from every region of the country, so the alumni base is firmly nationwide. This year the state that sent the most kids to ND was CA.
@dadof4kids Thank you. So if I understand correctly, some teams give more to the conference than they get back in distributions and vice-versa. And it seems like less popular (less successful?) schools reap the benefits of being in a conference to a greater degree. But in all cases, very profitable to the school.
Yes, baseball. Batters are beaned in the head by pitchers. Pitchers are hit in the head on balls hit back to them. Catchers have balls fouled off their masks constantly. Outfielders hitting walls in the fair and foul territory. I can name numerous CURRENT examples (Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Boster Posey, Joe Panik, Mac Williamson) just on the SF Giants alone, the team that I follow.
Soccer too. I have a relative that plays soccer in P5 conference and recently received one in practice no less. Basketball too.
Saves lives by regulating what humans eat and require them to exercise a minimum of one hour a day. That’ll save more lives than CTE. But we certainly should continue to make all sports safer.