SBJ College: Ask Me Anything

I have tried to quit “The Walking Dead,” only to find my way back. After the first two episodes of the new season, I am definitely done. It’s just time for that show to end.

Here’s what's cooking on campus:

CHECKING THE PULSE OF THE FANS, REDDIT STYLE

SBJ staffers on Reddit today were (clockwise from left) David Broughton, Bret McCormick, Michael Smith and Austin Karp

• Four SBJ staffers staged an #AMA (Ask me anything) on Reddit this afternoon. Frankly, the questions were smarter and deeper than what I expected and many of them seemed to be rooted in concerns about the future of college football -- more specifically, their team. Are our facilities good enough? Are we making enough money? What if our attendance drops? With that in mind, some themes emerged.
  
  
  • Several questions right off the bat wondered whether Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was a soothsayer or if he was something the opposite of that. Whatever you might think of Scott, he unquestionably generates questions and hard opinions on the state of the Pac-12.
    
    
  • The topic of spending on facilities and coaches’ salaries was popular, especially after the recent firing of Rutgers coach Chris Ash. Rutgers will pay Ash the $8.5 million left on his contract as a reward for going 3-26 in the Big Ten. A reader asked why ADs continue to sign coaches to such big guarantees when most of them get fired anyway. That’s the cost of doing business these days.
    
    
  • Attendance has been on the decline in college football for several years and readers want to know what can be done about it. One thought: Stadium renovations often include standing areas that give fans the ability to move around and congregate like they do when they tailgate. Anything stadium renovations can do to enhance the sense of community Is moving in the right direction.
    
    
  • Conference realignment is the gift that keeps on giving. Even when there’s no chatter about schools moving from one conference to another, the subject always creates discussion and anxiety. With The American on the outside looking in, what would it take for the Power Five to offer a position to the AAC and expand to the Power Six, one reader asked. I responded that we’re a lot closer to having a Power Four than we are a Power Six.
    
    
  • As expected, we took some questions on name, image and likeness, but it wasn’t the dominant topic we thought it would be. The questions were more general in nature and made me wonder if NIL is a bigger issue among politicians and administrators than it is with fans.
    
    
  • Thanks to staff writer Bret McCormick for setting it up, and Austin Karp and David Broughton for participating.

IVY LEAGUE LEADER CAUTIONS AGAINST NIL

• The Ivy League’s exec director, Robin Harris, took a hard stance against any collegiate model that revolves around compensating student athletes or treating them like pros. In fact, she said it’s time to dial back the demands on their time -- practice less and play fewer games. It’s a way of life that has worked for the Ivy. 
  
  
• Harris gathered the eight ADs on a conference call to discuss name, image and likeness, and they agreed that the educational underpinnings of college athletics have been lost in the discussion. “What's happened is athletics at many schools (outside the Ivy League) have become almost a fulltime endeavor with classes fit in,” Harris said this afternoon. “We flip it. The educational experience is paramount, and athletics has to fit in. ... The more student athletes are treated differently, the more they feel differently, and then that raises all these issues.”
  
  
• Among her other observations: 

• The NIL debate should lead to other discussions about reducing the amount of time student athletes spend practicing, shutting down team activities in the offseason and reducing the length of the regular season, “Our job in college is not to be the training ground for the professional league,” Harris said. “Our job is to educate and provide athletics as a co-curricular experience."

• Despite the limitations placed on student athletes, the Ivy League is thriving competitively, finishing sixth nationally in the Learfield Directors Cup. “If we were focused on having a truly educational-based model, we wouldn’t be having these conversations about (compensation),” Harris said. “Our student athletes are not employees in any way, shape or form.”
  

OVG SEIZES OPPORTUNITY WITH PAC-12 EVENT

• The Pac-12’s new Coast-to-Coast Challenge provides Oak View Group with an innovative college basketball event that launches in December 2020. The deal accomplishes three primary goals for OVG’s college division spearheaded by former IMG and Fox exec Dan Shell: 
  
  
• OVG shares ownership of the Challenge with the Pac-12. Having ownership puts OVG in position to sell a presenting sponsorship to MGM Resorts, which it did with a four-year agreement. OVG also will share in revenue from ticket sales and arrange for TV rights to be sold to a network.
  
  
• OVG manages and books arenas all over the country and these annual tripleheaders provide high-end college content for its buildings. For example, when the Challenge goes to American Airlines Arena in Dallas in 2021, an OVG building, the event will benefit from friendly pricing because it is part of the OVG network of 26 arenas and stadiums.
  
  
• The deal puts OVG in business with a major conference as the firm attempts to put down roots in the college space. It already struck a major deal at Texas to develop its new basketball arena.
  
  

SPEED READS 

• Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pat Forde took Kansas to task for Snoop Dogg’s controversial performance at the traditional "Late Night at the Phog" event. Forde called KU a school that has “really, really tried to present itself as the victim of foul deeds.” Forde: “Then in its first real public appearance after getting hit with this [NCAA] notice of allegations, to have Snoop shooting the money cannon at the players on the court, maybe that doesn’t project the image you’ve been trying so hard to pull off. Maybe the stripper poles on the court were not the right tone.” Wetzel: “Someone really didn’t think this through. ... My phone lit up with college basketball coaches texting, ‘What the hell are they doing?'”
  
  
• When Tom Douple took over as commissioner of the Mid-Continent Conference in 2005, the league “consisted of teams in nine states and three time zones,” effectively serving as an “orphanage” of NCAA D-I schools. The Grand Forks Herald’s Jeff Kolpack unpacks how Douple has provided stability for what is now the Summit League through membership transformation and the development of a unique name recognition.
  
  
• John Beilein sent waves across college hoops when he left for the Cavaliers this summer after 12 years in Ann Arbor. He shed light on some factors that led to the decision on Adrian Wojnarowski's podcast: “I did not come to the Cavaliers to escape from college basketball. But after I got my first call from the Cavaliers in early May, one of my assistant coaches says, ‘Hey coach, don’t forget we have to load about 50 names into your phone because June 15th is coming up and you can text sophomores.' And I just looked at him and said, ‘Thanks for that great news. I get to text 16-year-olds.’” 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays for insights into all the latest news around the world of sports media. Also check out SBJ Football from Ben Fischer on Friday afternoons.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessdaily.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).