Ask anyone in this industry and they’ll tell you that college athletics are going through a period of great change.
Depending on what side of the fence they’ve built their encampment will determine what definition of “great” they intended, scope or quality, but the statement as a whole remains. We are in transition, with the blame, or credit if you prefer, resting solely on our faithful television audience.
The number of people watching college sports has never been higher than now. Funding has never been better than now. And most importantly, the number of young people, both men and women, participating has never been more than now.
And all those eyes, for better or worse, have made things a little more democratic. It’s not always fair and rarely ever comfortable, but it is a good thing.
There aren’t many industries I can think of that chase opportunity like this one. Building that next great team. Launching the next great campaign. Even finding your next great job. Never in the history of college sports have those opportunities been more abundant, and not since the civil rights movement have they been more impactful.
We talk about the future of college athletic like it’s some upcoming war, but the battles have long since been fought. TV was the revolution.
What we are doing now is building the new republic. It is on the same land and has the same inhabitants of the old one, but now the government is in your hands. College athletics are no longer a monolith unilaterally controlled by the well intentioned but oft disconnected. Now they must bend an ear because there are more voices to be heard.
So speak up.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.