The impact of conference realignment, media revenue, rule revisions and the costs of doing the business of college sports dominated the agenda at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum (IAF) presented by SportsBusiness Daily/Global/Journal last week in New York.
“College football owns Saturdays.” Those words opened the IAF and permeated the majority of the panels and discussions for the next two days. The ratings cannot be disputed — seven times this season, college football was the number one program in primetime on Saturday nights.
From conference realignments to the creation of the four-team seeded playoffs leading up to a national championship (to debut in 2014) to the impact of these developments on all other collegiate sports, one thing is clear — football drives the bus, and in one way or another, that bus stops at every aspect of university operations.
The IAF began with a one-on-one discussion between Abraham Madkour, executive editor of SportsBusiness Daily/Global/Journal, and NCAA President Dr. Mark Emmert. After some brief discussion about new expectations recently put in place around academic performance and some restructuring of committees, the conversation turned to a story that has been heavily in the news as of late — conference realignment.
Not long before the IAF, it was announced that the University of Maryland and Rutgers University would be leaving their respective conferences to join the Big 10.
“[The moves] are not being made because of some natural, inherent rivalry that exists that just hasn’t been recognized,” said Emmert. “This is the aggregation of media rights.”
Emmert noted that some of the changes likely erode the trust that existed between presidents of institutions, among athletic directors and among conference commissioners. As to the playoffs, Emmert said he thought they were a good idea, but it remains to be seen how it will play out over time.
