College Football 2024 & Lots and Lots of Money

August 28, 2024- Wednesday 

Finally.  After a long winter, spring and summer, college football has returned and none too soon for me.  I have my favorites since I attended a college that did not have a football team.  It just so happens my two favorite teams are meeting each other this coming Saturday night.  The Notre Dame Fighting Irish face the Texas A&M Aggies in each team’s first game of the season. This will the first year in quite a few years when a college football team can lose its first game of the year and still have a legitimate chance at the national championship.  There is finally a playoff system. 

This will be the first year of a new 12 team playoff system.  It has been something many have talked about for a long time, but it is now becoming a reality.  It is still not a perfect system for all colleges to be treated equally but it is better than what we have had in the past.  For your average college football fan like me, it will be very fun to watch and will add excitement to the end of the season.   

The one thing that is not being talked about regarding the college football playoff system are the finances.  This whole process is going to add untold millions to the college coffers, coffers that are filling rapidly as it is. Television networks are falling all over themselves shoveling literally billions of dollars into the college bank accounts.  Large corporations are also shoveling millions of dollars into this new event because there has never been a more guaranteed return on the money invested than this new college football playoff system.   

College athletes are now being paid because of all the money pouring into the college sports scene.  I am not sure how much the top student in the chemistry department is getting paid but that is another story.  The other thing that we have noticed since these millions have been pouring into the colleges, is that it has not helped the colleges meet their budgets.  Colleges and universities continue to escalate their tuitions because they cannot make enough money.  There are schools who could pay for all their students to attend for free and it would not put a dent in the investments and endowments they have but that will not be happening. 

Sport is driving many of the universities and colleges these days in addition to growing tuition rates.  I think either Ohio State or Georgia will end up on top of the college football world this season.  Many, many other schools will win too when they look at their bottom lines after the first year of playoffs.