Im currently 4 days into a trip to Rio and I’m amazed. it’s the most fun city in the world, incredibly cheap, endless activities to do, amazing locals, easy access to nature and beaches, culturally rich and vibrant. What are some other cities that come close to Rio in these terms? I was thinking Mexico City might give similar energy, I hear Barcelona does as well. what other cities would you guys recommend?
it’s increasingly looking like the protect college sports act will be passed and will essentially be freezing the P4 as is. FSU and Clemson fans are upset on the loss of potential revenue, but how should we feel about this?
My view is that our level of investment will remain competitive, and with spending caps on rosters included in the bill, we’ll easily be able to spend the maximum amount annually. Is there any reason to be concerned?
I’ve seen a lot of doomerism about the state of college football, and a lot of comparisons to NASCAR.
I'd like to make one thing clear, as a fan of NASCAR, that’s a weak, borderline terrible comparison. NASCAR was having its moment in the late 90s and early 2000s; CFB is a cultural monolith which is a borderline religion in the Deep South and Midwest. NASCAR, despite its immense popularity, never reached that level of cultural significance, not even close. The rule changes, the loss of charismatic talents, the freaking playoffs, all terrible events/ideas that tanked the league’s popularity. NASCAR’s popularity was new and not culturally ingrained, which is why it waned so quickly, and why so many of us fans acknowledge it as a “fad.”
As a soccer fan, there is a league that you can compare to CFB. Football is religion in Argentina; Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi are borderline messiahs. The AFA Liga Profesional (Primera Division) is one of the most attended leagues in global sports. Clubs like Boca Juniors and River Plate are on par with Alabama and Notre Dame for national mystique. Both leagues have seen massive upheaval over the past few years.
However, Argentina's football league is far more chaotic, poorly run, and corrupt than CFB and NASCAR combined. For a rundown: League rules change season to season, sometimes mid-season. For example, a trophy was presented mid-season to award Rosario Central, a club which the president of the Argentinan Football Association has significant ties to. This trophy had no announcement, no buildup, and Rosario Central’s opponents were demanded to salute them for winning the trophy.
Beyond that, literally no one but the most die-hard of die-hards can follow the league's rules anymore, if they can even follow. The league was initially split into two seasons, with the winner of each separate season challenging each other for the season title. After, they announced they were going to a single-season format, then back to a double-season format.
The league size was changed from 20 to 28 teams, then the league announced it’d drop down to 20 teams, then announced they actually would move to 30 teams in a 3-year span.
This is only scratching the surface: widespread corruption, massive amounts of debt, a draining talent pool, differing amounts of games season to season, retroactive trophies announced out of the blue, arbitrary rule changes to protect the top-tier clubs, mass talent drain to Brazil due to legitimacy and financial damages, away fans banned due to violence. Furthermore, the league’s broadcasting rights are a mess. Paywalled behind streaming services as the country is struggling, more and more fans are turning toward illegal streaming to watch.
So what has this done to the league? Its attendance is higher than ever for the big clubs, but dwindling for those not in the upper tier. Interest in the league domestically has appeared to hit a decline overall, with fans still loyal to their clubs, but following the Premier League in England more closely as no one can make sense of the domestic league anymore.
Essentially, the Primera División is far, far more unstable than CFB while remaining a cultural pillar of Argentinian life. It serves as a fascinating “worst-case scenario“ for CFB. Say the NCAA loses to House, playoff formats change based on the whims of the Big Two every TV contract cycle, conference realignment goes ballistic if the ACC collapses, mass corruption to favor the SEC/Big Ten props up.
The takeaway is that CFB could get a lot worse than what it currently is, and it would likely still retain a good amount of viewership, at least for the big conference teams. However, the next few years of the league are going to be telling for the future of the Primera División, and potentially, for CFB. While I don’t foresee CFB becoming as lawless as the Primera División has, the Primera División can serve as an example of what the absolute worst-case scenario would look like.