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College Football Enters the Super Conference Era
Michael Beach
August 30, 2024
Five big questions re: college football on TV:
1) What is different about college football this year?
2) How will the playoff work?
3) How are the conferences set up?
4) Which teams draw the largest TV audiences?
5) What is driving conference realignment?
Big question #1: What is different about college football this year?
Key changes in college football for 2024:
1) The playoff will expand from 4 to 12 teams
2) Major conference realignment
Big question #2: How will the playoff work?
Key details for expanded college football playoff:
1) 12 teams
2) 5 highest-ranked conference champions get automatic bids
3) 7 at-large bids
4) Top 4 seeds get a first-round bye
5) First-round games are played on campus
Big question #3: How are the conferences set up?Key details on conference realignment:
1) The Big Ten expands to 18 teams (+ Oregon, USC, UCLA, and Washington)
2) The SEC grows to 16 teams (+ Oklahoma and Texas)
3) The Big 12 increases to 16 teams (+ Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah)(- Oklahoma and Texas)
4) The ACC expands to 17 teams (+ Cal, Stanford, and SMU)
5) The Pac-12 is reduced to just Oregon State and Washington State
Wow: Washington and Cal will each travel 8K+ miles during the regular season!
Big question #4: Which teams draw the largest TV audiences?
Most watched teams by average viewership during the 2023 season, according to Front Office Sports:
1) Alabama – 7.1M
2) Ohio State – 6.1M
3) Colorado – 6.0M
4) Georgia – 5.9M
5) Michigan – 5.6M
6) Tennessee – 4.6M
7) Oregon – 4.4M
8) Texas – 4.3M
9) Florida State – 4.2M
10) Notre Dame – 4.2M
Wow: 18 schools account for 50%+ of all college football viewership!
Bottom line #1: The Big Ten and SEC will account for ≈ 57% of all college football viewing time.
Big question #5: What is driving conference realignment?
Quick answer: Revenue from TV rights. Media rights account for 34%+ of revenue for Power 5 conference teams.
Bottom line: More viewers = More $$$
Increase in TV exposure from conference realignment according to Nielsen:
1) Big Ten – ↑ 26%
2) SEC – ↑ 15%
3) ACC – ↑ 13%
4) Big 12 – ↑ 1%
5) Pac 12 – ↓ 88%
Flashback #1: College Football Goes BIG with Media Rights
Conference revenue (YoY growth) according to Sportico:
1) Big Ten – $880M
2) SEC – $853M
Average viewers for College Football by network according to Nielsen:
1) CBS – 5.1M
2) Fox – 4.0M
3) ABC – 4.0M
4) NBC – 2.8M
5) ESPN – 2.0M
The post College Football Enters the Super Conference Era appeared first on Cross Screen Media.
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