Television and college football

For a while now I've believed Andy Staples is among the best at analyzing college football and all the forces that shape it.

Staples has produced a real gem in this piece, which does an excellent job of explaining the evolution of the relationship between television and college football.

The most interesting and telling part of the whole article comes near the end, when Staples points out that college football is still leaving TV money on the table as a result of its fragmentation among the five so-called "power" conferences:

Money and technology remain the wild cards. The NFL rakes in such huge sums because it is a single seller. It is the only entity selling elite professional football. There are five sellers (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) of elite college football. That holds prices down somewhat. Will those leagues someday merge and sell their media rights as a single entity for an even more astronomical sum? They did it as the BCS for postseason games, and they'll do it again with the playoff. If they ever chose to pool regular-season rights, they'd be the CFA all over again. The Pac-12's Scott sees significant barriers to that, but with college sports still undervalued relative to their earning potential, anything is possible. "It would be no small undertaking," Scott said. "But I've said for some time that I do see -- over time -- you'll see further consolidation of conferences or more consolidation for how rights are sold. As there is more sophistication in the college space, you realize that value for schools is left on the table because of fragmentation. I think markets tend to correct."

This is part of the reason a growing number of folks think we're irrevocably headed toward an era of so-called "superconferences" bailing on the NCAA, forming their own rules and maximizing their profit.

Money has driven this whole thing to this point, and it's hard to imagine anything changing from here.

A few Tuesday links:

-- Looks like Nick Saban wasn't in the best of moods at Alabama fan day, taking the occasion to ridicule the media for -- gasp! -- making a big deal out of big games.

"All these predictions that you all make — they hijack the game," Saban said, "because all anybody worries about in college football is the BCS. Who's going to be in the final game? We've got a lot of great games for our fans and for our players. The Michigan game is going to be a great game. The Arkansas game. The Tennessee game. LSU. Auburn.

"I could go through every game on our schedule and say how exciting a game it's going to be. And why do we play the games? To answer the questions. I don't even know for sure who our quarterback is going to be the sixth game of the year, and nobody here can predict that."

-- In Chapel Hill, Larry Fedora says he wants to improve the relationship between the athletics department and faculty. Though to be fair, as he points out, it's not as if the jocks-academic relationship isn't strained at most other campuses as well.

-- In Raleigh, pondering whether N.C. State has enough playmakers at receiver.

-- Guru Phil Steele rates the home-field advantages in college football, and Clemson is in an eight-way tie for 12th with Iowa, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Georgia and South Carolina.

And Florida State, fittingly and accurately, is way down the list at 41st. One of the most overrated home-field advantages in college football, in my humble opinion. Way too many bandwagon folks in that fan base.

-- Virginia Tech begins August camp today, and my man Norm Wood has a good breakdown of the questions facing the Hokies.

LW