The future of college sports?

[vegashog]

I'll take that as a "no." I'm still waiting to find someone who can answer "yes." I thought for sure you'd be the first. I'm now more sure than ever that I am right.

your reading comprehension needs work. how can i say the last two years of football have sucked because of nil and not because we have someone who appears to be in way over his head. we sucked at football under bert, excelled at it with petrino, both didn't have any idea what nil even was.

again, if cal gets us to a final four will you still be on here saying that the sport is dying and people are not watching because of nil?

[Show-Me Hog]

Once again, it's not necessarily the NIL that is killing the appeal of college sports, although that's not helping, it's the unlimited transfer portal.

Simply reshuffling the deck and fielding a pickup ringer team every single year is not a way to build any kind of fan attachment to the program. ANY program. Even though 4-5 years was the previous limit, watching kids develop and getting excited about what he's going to do as a junior or senior was a thing. It's not a thing anymore. If a player is going to do something great as a junior or senior, he is going to do it somewhere else. Then some kid from Middle Tennessee State will come in and be a quote unquote "Razorback" for a year.

That is not sustainable. Far fewer people are going to follow sports built like that.

[Corn Pop]

your reading comprehension needs work. how can i say the last two years of football have sucked because of nil and not because we have someone who appears to be in way over his head. we sucked at football under bert, excelled at it with petrino, both didn't have any idea what nil even was.

again, if cal gets us to a final four will you still be on here saying that the sport is dying and people are not watching because of nil?

your reading comprehension needs work. how can i say the last two years of football have sucked because of nil and not because we have someone who appears to be in way over his head. we sucked at football under bert, excelled at it with petrino, both didn't have any idea what nil even was.

again, if cal gets us to a final four will you still be on here saying that the sport is dying and people are not watching because of nil?

All you had to do was say yes. You blew it. I was going to send you an Ed O'Bannon bobble-head doll for being the first person I've ever met who likes the product on the field better, post-NIL. Guess I'll keep looking.

[Trigger7672]

Can you say that you like the product on the field better, post-NIL?

How has the product changed at all in football, basketball, and baseball. I'm not talking about Arkansas specifically, I'm talking about overall. Seems like the exact same product to me. I think the quality of play in college basketball has come down over the last 30 or so years but that has nothing to do with NIL.

Saying you've never seen so many empty seats in football and basketball just lets me know you don't go to games.

[DirkPiggler]

All you had to do was say yes. You blew it. I was going to send you an Ed O'Bannon bobble-head doll for being the first person I've ever met who likes the product on the field better, post-NIL. Guess I'll keep looking.

From your last few posts on this it seems like you're blaming the decreased attendance and interest in football, specifically Arkansas football, on NIL nearly exclusively.  That's one factor of many, and to me not close to the most important one. 

First, as others have said more eloquently than I could, our apathy towards Arkansas football is primarily due to a lack of leadership.  We have proven time and again that when we have a high quality head coach we support the team with our dollars and with asses in the seats.  We haven't had that kind of leadership in a long time, really since we fired our current offensive coordinator over some relatively trivial HR bullshit.  If we had hired Mike Norvell in 2017 instead of the worst coach in major college football history, or Lane Kiffin in 2019 over a career position coach, our attendance and contributions would be through the roof right now. 

The availability of every single game on TV, streaming, or both has more to do with attendance being down across the board than any other single factor.  It's hard for most people to justify spending upwards of $2,000 in contributions and tickets to drive three hours or more to watch a game that they could just as easily watch from their favorite chair at home with their choice of food and drink at normal prices.  People will still show up for big games if they feel the team has a chance of winning.  But they aren't spending the time or money to watch us hopefully take care of Kent State or Western Carolina.

As for NIL's effect, we feel it here because we never truly played the game with the serious football programs.  The only thing that has changed with respect to player payroll at Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M, etc. is that it's all out in the open (and the players are getting 1099s).  As @Show-Me Hog said, it's not the kids getting money that's harming the quality of the game.  It's the fact that if they don't get their money they can transfer one state over, get the money they want and not lose a snap's worth of eligibility. 

Guys like Saban are getting out not because of the mess NIL has made.  They're doing so because a major competitive advantage is gone.  They can no longer stockpile four and five star players three-deep, because quite a few of their backups are deciding to take a similar payday from Ole Miss, Arkansas, etc. and get playing time versus having to hope the guy in front of them either sucks ass or gets hurt to ever see meaningful snaps. Nick longs for the good ol' days, when he only had to compete with probably a dozen schools who could afford the kind of player payroll he had, and the NCAA and SEC had major barriers in place to prevent roster defections. 

[Pig Benis]

i have no idea where the baseball team ranks in nil, but you can bet some of those guys are getting theirs and it damn sure hasn't kept the fans away.

when it keeps the razorbacks from being competitive, and not the lazy or incompetent coaching, i'll start getting worried.

Speaking of, I hope John Tyson is a baseball fan because there will be a line around the block waiting to pay Gaeckle this offseason.

[Spiderham]

https://www.si.com/college/arkansas/football/ticket-sec-razorbacks-alabama-georgia-texas-aggies-missouri-mississippi

Some interesting data on ticket sales and fan support in the SEC.  NIL may be down at Arkansas but overall revenue is not.  Hog fans support the athletic programs at Arkansas better than most of the "big boys of the SEC"

in 2007, the Razorbacks led the conference with $28.8 million in ticket sales. Mississippi State had $6.8 million and Ole Miss had $10.4 million. Half the SEC didn't break $20 million, including Kentucky, Georgia and Florida.

Arkansas consistently leads or is in the top of the SEC in revenue by ticket sales due to the their overall athletic program.  They consistently outpace Alabama, Georgia and LSU even though each school has much larger football stadiums and a much higher level of football success.  Football attendance drives revenue but basketball and baseball due to many more home games more than make up for the difference.  

Here's how the Hogs have finished in ticket revenue versus the entire SEC. It reads as if recapping college baseball finishes rather than what one might expect from a financial report as far as the Razorbacks are concerned. The top-ranked team is in parenthesis if it isn't Arkansas.
2005: No. 2 (Tennessee)
2006: No. 3 (*Texas A&M)
2007: No. 1 
2008: No. 3 (*Texas A&M)
2009: No. 2 (LSU)
2010: No. 2 (Tennessee)
2011: No. 1
2012: No. 1
2013: No. 1
2014: No. 4 (LSU)
2015: No. 4 (Texas A&M)
2016: No. 4 (Texas A&M)
2017: No. 3 (Texas A&M)
2018: No. 3 (Texas A&M)
2019: No. 3 (Texas A&M)
2020: No. 7 (Texas A&M)
2021: No. 1
2022: No. 2 (Texas A&M)
2023: No. 2 (Texas A&M)
* Not yet in the SEC