Global EditionASIA 中文双语Français
World
Home / World / Americas

College sport now facing toughest opponent

By WILLIAM HENNELLY in New York | China Daily | Updated: 2020-08-15 14:26
Share
Share - WeChat
Students play football outside of the Ohio State university football facilities as the Big Ten postpones their 2020-21 fall sports season, citing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) concerns in Columbus, Ohio, US, August 11, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Two world wars and a global pandemic in 1918 could not stop college football in the United States from being played. Then the coronavirus came along.

Two of the sport's major conferences-the Midwest-centered Big Ten and the West Coast-bred Pac-12-decided on Tuesday to cancel their football seasons over health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic while keeping open the prospect of playing in the spring semester.

But the three other conferences that make up the Power 5-the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Big 12-are holding the line on playing this fall.

"Reasonable people can disagree on it, and the Pac-12 and the Big Ten are seeing much of the same information that we're seeing," Bob Bowlsby, the Big 12 commissioner, said on Wednesday. "But our board believes in our scientists and has come to a conclusion that's different, and so have the leadership of the SEC and the ACC."

College football is a hero when it comes to contributing to the US GDP. The major athletic conferences rake in massive sums from television contracts, while an economic stream flows from the gridirons through the college towns across the country that host games.

$2.7 billion a year

According to a 2019 article on forbes.com, the 25 most valuable college football programs in the US averaged $2.7 billion a year in annual revenue for what is ostensibly an amateur sport.

Fox, owned by News Corp, and Disney's ESPN have multiyear TV rights for Big Ten and Pac-12 football games, for which they paid a total of $5.6 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Last season, college football brought in nearly $1.7 billion in TV ad spending, according to research firm Kantar.

The fight to save the season naturally has played out on social media.

A group of prominent players, led by Clemson University quarterback Trevor Lawrence, started a viral hash tag last weekend on Twitter called #WeWantToPlay.

US President Donald Trump tweeted "Play College Football!" on Monday. At a news conference on Wednesday, Trump said that players' health would be better protected on a football field than in the outside world. He also spoke by phone with Lawrence and Louisiana State University coach Ed Orgeron, supporting their desire to play.

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US