Make no mistake, college football is big business in America. The little brother of the NFL, it may be. Still, the power of university gridiron to garner fans, interest, and money is growing as its value becomes more commercialized.
According to ESPN, Michigan’s victory over Washington in the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship game enjoyed 25 million viewers, peaking at 28 million. The game ranked fourth in viewership among all non-NFL sportscasts for the last six years. That is some reach for an amateur sport, and the multiple moneyline bets on the outcome also indicate peak interest.
College football is often the feeder for the big NFL stars of tomorrow, but it is a cash cow, enjoying an immense flow of revenue across athletic programs. This comes from many sources, but the major broadcasters, such as ESPN, CBS, and Fox, offer huge contracts to the leading Conferences. Most of the billions of dollars broadcasters pay for televising goes to each Conference, with most of it going to the SEC and Big Ten.
Over the next decade, every Big Ten school will make over $70 million because of these deals. ESPN’s $7.8 billion contract to televise the College Football Playoff up until the 2031-32 season made all the headlines recently.
Ticket sales are also a factor for investment within the game, although this is bigger for the Power 4 schools, which will generate almost 20 percent of their revenue from this.
Multiple communities love to watch college football, especially across the Midwest and the South. Many venues, like Michigan Stadium, Beaver Stadium, Kyle Field, and Neyland Stadium, can fill over 100,000.
The recent inter-state match between Texas and Texas A & M was the most expensive game ever played in college football, with seats costing over $1,000. Many of these stadia are bigger than NFL venues. The money keeps rolling in and is used to improve the facilities.
There are also huge donations from alums and billionaire boosters. These contribute significantly to college and athletic investment. Terry Pegula, the owner of the Buffalo Bills and father of tennis star Jessica, was once lauded as the man who saved Penn State football.
Over the last few months, Kansas received a $300 million gift for its football stadium facility, one of the largest injections in collegiate sports history. Illinois also received £100 million for its athletic program from donor and businessman Larry Gies.
With such vast amounts of money swishing around the student departments, the operating profits of some universities are eye-watering. When Forbes monitored three-year cycles of the top 10 college football programs, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Alabama, and Georgia had revenues between $100 and $150 million. Gross profit margins were around 60 per cent.
College football is becoming more professionalized, and the profits and payments are attracting bigger fish like private equity companies and hedge funds. College football programs are an enormous situation; if they were ever to be put up for sale, it would be in the billions for the big boys.
In 2021, the NCAA approved payments to players for use of their names, images, and likenesses (NIL) which has brought students into the sphere of almost employee status. While the coaches of these public university football teams get millions, the noble tradition of student athletes having a value without recompense has become a thorny issue.
That has now been taken even further, as from this summer, universities can pay their players for their performance via a revenue-sharing model. That is another step up for the business model of college football. Some players can make a mint before they even graduate to the NFL.
The college football money-making machine has always funded other athletic endeavors within schools that don’t make as much money. Now that the rules are changing with more player power and the new playoff structure seeing ever more lucrative media rights deals, the days of amateur status are almost gone.
The change to the playoff structure is set in stone since its introduction in 2024. Now that this is pumping more money into the sport, and making more profit, the future of college football is up in the air regarding ownership, rewards, and that magical ingredient that has always connected people with their school past. Will the capitalist nature kill that spiriandst drive it to new levels? That remains to be seen.
What is certain is that college football is going places where even the NFL can’t reach.
