What leadership void? College football already has a commissioner, Kirk Herbstreit. He’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me.
Now it’s time to say good-bye to the Bruins and SC …
M-I-C …
K-E-Y …
Why? Because they can.
“This comes down to ratings and revenue, end of story,” analyst Brock Huard, a veteran of both FOX and ESPN, told me late last week. “’Ratings and revenue’ are what’s driving (this).”
Mickey Mouse runs this show. And have you met his assistant commissioner? A guy named Homer J. Simpson. Big fan of doughnuts. Doughnuts and Jim Harbaugh.
Disney and FOX are at the wheel of college football, wrestling for control, driving the money train until it hits something. The stuff that’s come to pass over the last 13 months — Texas and the Sooners to the SEC, which has a $300-million-per-year pact with ESPN; USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, whose network is 61% owned by FOX — could only spring from the mind of a cartoon character. Or a television executive.
All of which raises a few questions, if you happen to be a CSU Rams fan who’s wondering exactly how many chairs will be left once the music stops again.
First, if the Pac-12 presidents decide to gobble up San Diego State and Boise State, two schools that would happily make the jump, what becomes of the Rams and the Mountain West brethren left behind?
“That’s a fair question, what to do,” Huard countered. “What (league) do they dip into? Who in the Big 12 would they try to poach? It’s just dog-eat-dog.”
The more Rams play football like the runt of the litter, the more likely they are to starve.
“You need to win. You need to fill your stadium. You need to make revenue,” Huard continued. “You need to schedule well and build your roster up in ways to do what BYU did, and go 5-0 against the Pac-12 last year. (You have) to build that venue and brand and buzz.”
Since 2018, BYU’s posted a record of 35-16. The Cougars are 10-6 against the Power 5 + Notre Dame over the previous four seasons. Cincinnati, their new Big 12 brother? A record of 44-7 since ’18, 6-3 against the big-money club. Central Florida? A mark of 37-12 overall, 4-3 versus bluebloods.
CSU’s tally over its last four campaigns? A record of 11-29, 1-6 against the Power 5. That lone victory was a 34-27 home upset of an Arkansas team in 2018 that went on to finish 2-10 and cough up 65 points to Alabama along the way.
The Rams have been featured on ESPN, Mickey’s mothership, just once in the last four years. And that showcase, the 2019 Rocky Mountain Showdown, was a 52-31 drubbing at the hands of CU that left then-coach Mike Bobo snorting like Yosemite Sam after it was over.
“This university had a vision by building (Canvas Stadium), and I think our community is so vibrant and growing, that we could support a team that would move into the Big 12 or the Pac-12,” first-year CSU football coach Jay Norvell told me recently.
“I think that’s exciting. We’ve just got to put a consistent product on the field that wins consistently, so we can attract the type of players to move us up into that upper echelon, year after year. So that’s what our job is. And we’re really excited to get started.”
You want relevance? You want to wake up Homer? You want Mickey’s attention?
Don’t just take a fat check from Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines. Don’t just scare them on Sept. 3 at the Big House.
Beat ‘em. That simple.
Washington State, which hosts Norvell’s Rams on Sept. 17? Same deal.
Not easy, mind you. But it really is that simple. Television networks want brands that draw eyeballs. And for middleweights with heavyweight aspirations, nothing draws eyeballs like upsetting the biggest apple carts around.
“We profile like at least a third of the other schools in a (Power 5) conference right now, as it relates to the strength of our (academics) and the level of research that occurs on this campus,” CSU athletic director Joe Parker told The Post.
“Candidly, quite frankly, it’s just (that) we have not had a football program that’s been performing at a similar level. As we seek excellence in that space, we’ve got to do it. We have to make it happen. And we’ve provided resources to make that possible from an operating budget perspective …
“And we’ve got to figure out a way to motivate our fans to be here consistently. We’ve had, I think, four sellouts in five years. And that’s not enough.”
If you build it, they will come. But if you hand the keys to Steve Addazio, they might not come back.
“We’ve got to build the success of the program so that people are compelled to be here, to witness and experience games in person,” Parker continued. “And (with) the TV (networks) and across the country, we’ve got to do all the things that the programs that we’re talking about have been able to do consistently.”
Win, mostly. Because the execs drawing the map, crayons in hand, don’t care about geography. Or history.
“There is no commissioner of college football,” Huard stressed. “The commissioner of college football is ESPN and FOX. And their mandate, their directive, is ‘ratings and revenue.’”
It’s a cartoon world out there, kids. And when it comes to college football, the lines between the sports section and the Sunday funnies get blurrier by the day.
