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Another "big money" reality and why there will be college football in some way, shape, or form this season...

Quote:As more and more college athletic departments cut sports programs, the financial wreckage due to the coronavirus pandemic is becoming devastatingly clear -- and that's without factoring in a $4 billion loss if the 2020 football season is canceled, a development that would forever alter college-level sports.

University systems have suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses thus far, which could grow significantly as decisions are made about whether to return students to campuses this fall.

For Power 5 schools, the possibility of a lost college football season looms even more significantly.

"If there's no football season, or if football season is interrupted or shortened, there will be a massive fallout," TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati said. "There would have to be massive cutbacks. Could the department go on? Sure. It would probably look smaller. There would potentially be fewer sports and much less programming."

Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis, believes the upcoming football season will be played -- even if it's during the spring -- because of "astronomical financial implications" for athletic departments if it is canceled.

Quite simply, college athletics might not have a financial choice.

Rishe estimates that the 65 Power 5 schools would collectively lose more than $4 billion in football revenues, with at least $1.2 billion of that due to lost ticket revenue. Each Power 5 school would see at least an average loss of $62 million in football revenue, including at least $18.6 million in football ticket sales, he said.

"Anywhere from 75 up to almost 85% of all revenues to our departments are derived directly or indirectly from football," Oregon State athletics director Scott Barnes said. "Indirectly, I mean sponsorship dollars, multimedia rights, and then you've got your gate, your donations and whatnot. The impact of not playing a season is devastating. It would rock the foundation of intercollegiate athletics the way we know it. Frankly, I'm not trying to solve for that because it would be such a devastating circumstance that we'd almost have to get a whiteboard out and start over."

No Football = Financial Disaster