RE: Is Colorado/Colorado State the next rivalry to die?
I'm a diehard college sports fan. Everyone reading this probably is as well. The thing is, we're in the minority. What most people don't understand, but should, is that casual fans outweigh the diehard fans about 10-to-1, and when you kill off rivalries, you drive away the casual fans because, quite frankly, the non rivalry games aren't nearly as interesting.
Splitting up rivalries has not only killed attendance, it has killed TV ratings. Allow me to explain why I think that is. I'll use Colorado and Colorado State as an example. If the two were in the same conference (and I know they are not, but just suppose), whatever network had the TV deal would get the entire market twice. By that I mean if Colorado was playing at noon and Colorado State was playing at 4pm, fans of both teams would likely watch both games. The same goes for basketball. You split them up with teams in different conferences and different TV deals, they're suddenly competing against each other instead of with each other. Instead of getting the entire market twice, in most cases you're only getting half the market once.
It's not the only thing that's suffocating college athletics, but it is one of the biggest things. So many traditional and regional rivalries have been destroyed. Even those who continue to occasionally play, it's not the same anymore if it's not a conference game. We now have Rivalry Week on ESPN. They actually have to work with teams to schedule out of conference games just to fill out the week. It wasn't that long ago when we had Rivalry SEASON. When Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoman and Oklahoma State were all in the same conference, that's a whole lot of hate (and I mean that in a good way). The games were always filled, the games were always intense, and the atmosphere was incredible. Now, try telling a casual Missouri fan why playing Vanderbilt or Georgia is more exciting than playing Kansas, Nebraska Iowa State.
Yet, they wonder why attendance and TV ratings are down.
I'm not a huge fan of pro sports, but I will say this. If the NFL or NBA were in charge of scheduling and aligning the conferences, it'd be much different than what it currently is, and it would be different in a much better way. Instead, traditional rivals are insisting they having nothing to gain from playing each other. The energy is down, the interest is down, the attendance is down, the ratings are down, yet they have nothing to gain. If the Red Sox and Yankees were college programs, they'd split and join different leagues, and never play out of conference. They'd both insist they had nothing to gain.
This was all done because of TV money. What's ironic is that the ratings are falling, and so is attendance. Granted, many conferences signed lucrative TV deals, but they better enjoy it while it lasts. The ratings are lousy, and once these contracts expire, they'll never come close to getting nearly that much money again. They really need to realign it and do so with traditional and regional rivals in mind.
I put the following list together a few years ago and was going to write an article, but never got around to doing it. I realize the list is incomplete, and it's done more from a basketball perspective than a football perspective. I will say this, though, if this is what the conferences looked like with balances schedules and traditional rivalries preserved, college athletics would be a lot more popular, attendance would be higher, and ratings would be way higher.
1. Florida, Florida State, Miami FL, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Clemson, South Carolina, UCF, USF (9)
2. Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pitt, Maryland, UNC, Duke, Wake, NC State, Penn State (10)
3. UMass, UConn, Boston College, Providence, Rhode Island, Temple, Villanova, Syracuse, Georgetown (9)
4. Wazzu, Washington, Oregon State, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC, San Diego State, Gonzaga (10)
5. Louisville, Kentucky, Memphis, Vandy, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn, Alabama (9)
6. Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State (8)
7. Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Colorado State, Wyoming, Air Force (10)
8. Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, LSU, Arkansas, Tulsa (9)
9. Xavier, Dayton, Butler, Saint Louis, Marquette, DePaul, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Northwestern (9)
10. Ohio, Miami OH, Bowling Green, Toledo, Kent State, Akron, Wright State, Cleveland State, Youngstown State (9)
11. BYU, Utah, Utah State, New Mexico, New Mexico State, UNLV, Nevada, Arizona, Arizona State (9)
12. Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Detroit, Oakland, IPFW, IUPUI, Ball State, Northern Kentucky (9)
13. UTEP, TCU, SMU, Rice, Houston, UTSA, Arlington, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette (10)
14. VCU, Richmond, Old Dominion, Saint Joe's, La Salle, Drexel, Saint John's, Seton Hall, Rutgers, (9)
15. Vermont, Hartford, Quinnipiac, Boston U, Northeastern, Central Connecticut, Sacred Heart, New Hampshire (8)
16. Towson, Duquesne, Saint Bonaventure, George Mason, George Washington, UNC Wilmington, Hofstra, Delaware (8)
17. Boise State, Idaho, Denver, Northern Colorado, Montana, Montana State, North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota, South Dakota State (10)
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Is Colorado/Colorado State the next rivalry to die?
