Merged - Big 12 Aftermath Thread

This has to be satire…or you were drunk when you typed it.

The entire athletic dept budget is less than 3% of the total net position of the University, and that’s not counting the hospital system at all. And on top of that, the AD and Uni are separate entities. Different budgets, different financial statements, different everything.

If you think the AD is supporting the university even a tiny little bit you’re fuckin nuts. Do some people go to school at Iowa because they like the Hawks? Sure.

But to even suggest losing sports would put a dent in the school’s viability is absolutely insane. For F’s sake, man, the hospital brought in over $2.1 billion in patient payments alone last year. That’s BILLION. With a B.

This has to be satire…or you were drunk when you typed it.

The entire athletic dept budget is less than 3% of the total net position of the University, and that’s not counting the hospital system at all. And on top of that, the AD and Uni are separate entities. Different budgets, different financial statements, different everything.

If you think the AD is supporting the university even a tiny little bit you’re fuckin nuts. Do some people go to school at Iowa because they like the Hawks? Sure.

But to even suggest losing sports would put a dent in the school’s viability is absolutely insane. For F’s sake, man, the hospital brought in over $2.1 billion in patient payments alone last year. That’s BILLION. With a B.
I realize that. But how many of those grants and research projects come because of AAU membership? How many because of CIC/whatever the name is now for the B1G research membership? Iowa is already on the bubble, academically. If there weren't shared faculty and library and purchase/licensing agreements provided by Big Ten membership, and advocacy by other members for Iowa in the AAU, what would happen?

These things are expensive clubs that are all about networking with other members. Losing membership to the Big Ten has academic and research consequences. It's a big deal. Do they share money? No. But a lot of the grant money does come because of the good old boys network membership in these academic associations provides.
 
Football, as it declines, is going to become more regionalized. Fans in the west have plenty of outdoor activities year-round. The south and the SE are going to be the last bastions. The 40 and younger crowd just isn't as interested. Brain injuries will continue to downward pressure.

Ah yes, the Minnesota fan's response to IOWA and Wisconsin having better attendance and fan bases. "There's nothing else to do there". Football is not just "something to do" because you're bored. College football fans are a just that...fanatics for their teams.

Attendance is sagging in the PAC (and some other places) but it's not because the weather is nice. The West coast has always been the West coast.
 
Ah yes, the Minnesota fan's response to IOWA and Wisconsin having better attendance and fan bases. "There's nothing else to do there". Football is not just "something to do" because you're bored. College football fans are a just that...fanatics for their teams.

Attendance is sagging in the PAC (and some other places) but it's not because the weather is nice. The West coast has always been the West coast.
I’ve been to Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin home games, and the atmosphere at Kinnick and Camp Randall—as much as I don’t like the Badgers—both make Minnesota games feel like a 2A high school matchups between two teams with losing records. And it ain’t because there’s nothing to do here (which might be true).
 
I’ve been to Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin home games, and the atmosphere at Kinnick and Camp Randall—as much as I don’t like the Badgers—both make Minnesota games feel like a 2A high school matchups between two teams with losing records. And it ain’t because there’s nothing to do here (which might be true).
MN high school games don't seem like HS games.
 
Attendance is sagging in the PAC (and some other places) but it's not because the weather is nice. The West coast has always been the West coast.

Have you been there much? Couldn't disagree more. Biking on the beach v watching FB? Hiking at Big Bear vs fooball? I like football, but not that much. Even Colorado. Biking in the Rockies (especially down from Vail Pass).... I'd do it as much as I could.
 
Have you been there much? Couldn't disagree more. Biking on the beach v watching FB? Hiking at Big Bear vs fooball? I like football, but not that much. Even Colorado. Biking in the Rockies (especially down from Vail Pass).... I'd do it as much as I could.

Iowa football is the only "appointment TV" in my life. And even that depends on who we are playing. My boy is 5 and I try to go to the mountains at least twice a month in every month other than from December to February. Usually in the fall we do it on Sundays because I don't watch NFL, but you gotta play it by ear based on the weather.

I don't even have the massive west coast mountains nearby, just the Smokey Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains and I love hitting the state parks nearby whenever feasible. Hiking, fishing and grilling while spending quality time with my boy is pretty fun. If I lived on the west coast or in the Rockies, I'd probably only see 4 Iowa games a year, maybe 6 if we started 6-0 and kept winning.

I bought a pass for the SC state parks for $75 last year (now $99) and they didn't put an expiration date on it so I can use it through 2023. It was the best $75 I have ever spent in my life. We are going to do a trip to see the Atlantic Ocean parks next year.

Nothing against Iowa or Wisconsin, they have some natural beauty, but those places suck ass compared to large swaths of the southeast or the west coast.
 
Iowa football is the only "appointment TV" in my life. And even that depends on who we are playing. My boy is 5 and I try to go to the mountains at least twice a month in every month other than from December to February. Usually in the fall we do it on Sundays because I don't watch NFL, but you gotta play it by ear based on the weather.

I don't even have the massive west coast mountains nearby, just the Smokey Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains and I love hitting the state parks nearby whenever feasible. Hiking, fishing and grilling while spending quality time with my boy is pretty fun. If I lived on the west coast or in the Rockies, I'd probably only see 4 Iowa games a year, maybe 6 if we started 6-0 and kept winning.

I bought a pass for the SC state parks for $75 last year (now $99) and they didn't put an expiration date on it so I can use it through 2023. It was the best $75 I have ever spent in my life. We are going to do a trip to see the Atlantic Ocean parks next year.

Nothing against Iowa or Wisconsin, they have some natural beauty, but those places suck ass compared to large swaths of the southeast or the west coast.
Guy in the office next to me is upper 50s and has never been outside of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota.
 
Guy in the office next to me is upper 50s and has never been outside of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota.
When the Hawks play IL it's embarrassing what some of the fans as you describe (except those on the Iowa East Coast do come to IL wear in stores and food joints. Nothing comparable. OSU fans are actually quite respectable. M is arrogant as well as Nebby. But Iowa.... no kidding.
 
Have you been there much? Couldn't disagree more. Biking on the beach v watching FB? Hiking at Big Bear vs fooball? I like football, but not that much. Even Colorado. Biking in the Rockies (especially down from Vail Pass).... I'd do it as much as I could.
Yeah, I've traveled plenty. Lots of beauty to enjoy. That's not the point.

If people are into college football, they go to the games...if they're not...they don't. It's not an "either/or". There are a number of things affecting college football attendance...but the weather on the West Coast or the Rockies has always been nice...it's nothing new.

One could just as easily flip your logic. It's beautiful year round in some of those places...they can enjoy the outdoors anytime. In IOWA, Wisconsin, Michigan it gets cold by November... so wouldn't people want to take advantage of those last nice weekends in September and October rather than pack into a football stadium?
 
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Yeah, I've traveled plenty. Lots of beauty to enjoy. That's not the point.

If people are into college football, they go to the games...if they're not...they don't. It's not an "either/or". There are a number of things affecting college football attendance...but the weather on the West Coast or the Rockies has always been nice...it's nothing new.

One could just as easily flip your logic. It's beautiful year round in some of those places...they can enjoy the outdoors anytime. In IOWA, Wisconsin, Michigan it gets cold by November... so wouldn't people want to take advantage of those last nice weekends in September and October rather than pack into a football stadium?
Football in general is on the decline.
 
All sports are on the decline, it's not just football.

Live sports are the only thing keeping network television alive. Once people stop caring about being in the moment when watching sports, that will signal the true end. The legalization of sports gambling in most states helps in delay of the inevitable which everyone seems to be rooting for. I am not rooting for it, but a lot of people seem to have the pom-poms out waiting for the demise.
 
Live sports are the only thing keeping network television alive. Once people stop caring about being in the moment when watching sports, that will signal the true end. The legalization of sports gambling in most states helps in delay of the inevitable which everyone seems to be rooting for. I am not rooting for it, but a lot of people seem to have the pom-poms out waiting for the demise.

I'm not rooting for the demise of sports, but I am rooting for the demise of "sports business." Not to sound like Karl Marx here, but the money flowing into sports has somewhat diminished them. NASCAR committed seppuku for money, abandoned their roots, moved the start times to appease hypothetical "West Coast fans" and tried to create "game 7 moments" consisting of entirely manufactured drama only to watch their fanbase get halved in a decade. College sports have done the same, as we now have Iowa playing on freaking Friday nights like some kind of MAC turd. The good thing is we got national broadcasts for college sports, the bad thing is TV dictates freaking everything. And then you look at what they've done with tickets. Ugh.

We saw it with boxing as well. Boxing puts everything behind a pay wall. This maximizes revenue in the short term, but in the long haul, you attract way fewer fans. The model works for 5 dudes and has made them insanely wealthy, but slams the door on a bunch of dudes coming up the ranks. Everything is on that track and with more content competing for eyeballs, sports will continue to diminish in popularity.
 
We saw it with boxing as well. Boxing puts everything behind a pay wall. This maximizes revenue in the short term, but in the long haul, you attract way fewer fans. The model works for 5 dudes and has made them insanely wealthy, but slams the door on a bunch of dudes coming up the ranks. Everything is on that track and with more content competing for eyeballs, sports will continue to diminish in popularity.
I don't disagree that money and the business models of boxing and ASSCAR led to their downfall, but it can't be argued that the product they put out nowadays is complete shit compared to what it used to be.

I grew up in the 80s and I can remember there was always some sort of awesome PPV fight on Showtime, my old man and his buddies would get together and watch most of em. And they were still like $40-50 bucks a piece 35 years ago which wasn't no chump change.

You had Holmes, Holyfield, Camacho, Tyson, Foreman, Hagler, Spinks, Cesar-Chavez, Hearns...and big personalities outside the ring like Cus D'Amato and Don King; Teddy Atlas putting a gun to Mike Tyson's head...It was a beautiful fucking era. In 2021 I couldn't tell you a single person who fights at any weight.

Same thing with ASSCAR. You used to have guys with personalities that you could pull for because they were normal looking and talking dudes who got out of their cars and lit up a lung dart, and the shit was dangerous because there were no HANS devices or full-face helmets. ASSCAR drivers had some skin in the game when they strapped in because there was a non-zero chance they were gonna die or lose an eye/leg/(insert injury here).

Now you have 19 year old guys with names like Brechen Woodstrom or some shit who post on their Instagram feed about their CrossFart workout and what moisturizer works best after eating their kale and arugula salad. They come from Portland, OR instead of South Carolina and learn to drive on a computer sim, not flying down dirt roads with dad in an Olds Super 88 with no seatbelts. There's 37 car pileups at 195 mph now where everyone just hops out and walks to the infield Starbucks kiosk and poses for Insta photos like nothing ever happened. There's literally no danger or risk. It used to be they had a medevac chopper at those races for a reason, and goddammit they used it a few times a year.

Who wants to watch any of this new shit?
 

lol...is that all you got? An event that happens once every 4 years??? Yes, the Olympics is still popular but I just read a report where prime time viewership was down 42% from 2016.

But I was talking about the major sports like the MLB, NBA, and the NHL. Those are all down, it's not just football.
 
Live sports are the only thing keeping network television alive. Once people stop caring about being in the moment when watching sports, that will signal the true end. The legalization of sports gambling in most states helps in delay of the inevitable which everyone seems to be rooting for. I am not rooting for it, but a lot of people seem to have the pom-poms out waiting for the demise.

No question gambling will keep live sports going. There is a reason why even Wrigley is building a sports book onsite.
 
Have you been there much? Couldn't disagree more. Biking on the beach v watching FB? Hiking at Big Bear vs fooball? I like football, but not that much. Even Colorado. Biking in the Rockies (especially down from Vail Pass).... I'd do it as much as I could.
How about up Vail Pass? Like to the summit?

Or Wolf Creek Pass? I learned a lesson last summer about driving over Wolf Creek Pass. Never do it with an unopened bag of Funyuns. The Funyuns will open themselves for you with a 3500 foot altitude change. And be all over your vehicle.
 

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