Reality for Guerrero's Consideration: College Football Outpacing College Basketball for Fans

they are only polling for a person’s favorite sport. Not a top 3 or top 5. I know that most of my friends who love college basketball consider it their 2nd or 3rd favorite sport (myself included). There are a ton of people who are crazy for Nascar and soccer, and would rank that as their #1 sport.

I think if this poll had been done using a 1-5 ranking with points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis, then college bball would rank significantly higher.

At the same time, the point of this post is still very valid. College football is definitely more highly regarded then college basketball.

I would be one of the 4% who consider soccer as their favorite sport…but I’m also very much interested in the NBA, college basketball, college football, and NFL (in that order).

Something about football, in college and the NFL, that I think lends itself to getting lots of fans—every game is crucial. The season is so short, so you can easily follow a team. Sometimes with sports with longer seasons you eventually tune out. I’m a big NBA fan, but even I start to glaze over in late February/early March, when you’re just waiting for the playoffs to start.

Football also seems to get year-round coverage (at least the NFL). ESPN and the rest of the media don’t cover college basketball at all in the summer, because there really isn’t much to talk about.

I understand that he would want to hide in the bushes after last FB season. But shouldn’t he be doing more PR for UCLA football? It’s like he is ashamed to talk about it. Where’s that passion bucket? How about a photo of Dan and Rick smiling together?

First, I am not surprised about soccer. With the changing demographics of this country and the more exposure to European leagues, the popularity of soccer is only going to grow. Also, people (like myself) who grew up playing soccer are only going to grow the sport more. I played in California in the 70s. I think it took another generation in other parts of the country for kids to be playing while growing up, which the the TV watching demographic right now.

WRT to NASCAR, there is a huge populace in the south and Atlantic states that are hugely loyal and always will be.

WRT to NCAA football, there are tons of fans who do not live in or near NFL cities that are fans of the school even though they did not go to school there (or didn’t go to college at all), who root for a college team. Think Alabama, Oklahoma, Nebraska fans (or even older Florida fans, before the Bucs or Jags existed.

Conversely, I think most college hoops fans consist of people who went to the school. Remember, baksetball in general lagged far behind football and baseball until Magic and Bird in the 80s.

Also agree with Bucknell about the methodology for arriving at these numbers.

I agree with this. I will say that the one thing that college basketball has going for it as opposed to college football is March Madness, which I would argue ranks 2nd behind only the Super Bowl in entering the collective sport worlds’ conciousness. Now that the NCAA has decided in tinkering with this by watering down the product, I think this could only serve to further deteriorate college basketball’s standing amongst fans, further underscoring your point that it is clearly in our ADs best interest to maximize our resources to football.

Football is the front porch of the university. It’s not the most important room in the house, but it’s the most visible.

Our porch has sagging floorboards, and old tire swing, and old couch missing a leg with a redbone huntin dog sleepin on it. Shoot.

College basketball used to be THE place to see the up and coming pros. Now, just wait a few months and you’ll see them anyway on an NBA team.

I’ll continue to support the Bruin’s mens and ladies teams, and I still rank both above the NBA on my list. I just don’t care for the me-me-me type of play and attitude in the pros. Never have, and probably never will. Amateurs play their hearts out for the game, not for the money.

A friend recently told me he rarely watches college BB anymore because “all the good players are in the NBA”. It’s not 100% true, but is the general perception. There are some exceptions, and there are excellent teams who retain their players for 3-4 years, but mostly my friend’s sentiment is on target.

this is one more feather in the cap of those who either 1) want a college football playoff system for their own entertainment, or 2) those who want a college football playoff system for financial reasons for the institutions they love.

On the first, count, I’m on the fence. I grew up in LA with the Rose Bowl parade and then the game being one of the best days of the year. Great memories, and good times that I’d like to see passed on to my kids. Then again, I can only imagine how much more exciting a college football playoff system would be to me and the entire sport.

On the second count, the money doesn’t lie. The NCAA tourney brings in 650MMish per year to the NCAA and member institutions, and the NCAA believes it can bring in even more, as witnessed by the current changes. So, what does college football bring in? Well, the Bowls bring in about 180mm, while the conference championship games bring in another 40mmish. That’s about 220mm, or about a THIRD what college basketball brings in for March Madness. Does this make any sense, considering how much more popular college football is nationwide than college basketball? No way. Now, I don’t know if, say, an 8 team playoff could bring in as much money as the NCAA Tourney, but there is no way it wouldn’t significantly bridge that huge gap. In a day and age of people crying to “save UCLA” from it’s financial problems, a football playoff system seems like an easy way to bring in an extra few million dollars a year.

of college football over college basketball, think back a few months to the crazy talk about conference realignment. I think most here would agree that the basketball program at Kansas is on a similar level to UCLA as far as reputation, status, consistent high levels of performance, etc. When the Big 12 was about to explode, nobody wanted KU. A tiny part of that was the impression that the Kansas Board of Regents wanted KU and K-State to be a package deal, but most of it revolved around the fact that the KU football program is irrelevant, and has been way more often than not. KU fans were hoping they might be able to catch on with C-USA. Nebraska’s basketball program? Per wikipedia, they’re one of only three BCS programs to have never won a NCAA tournament game. Never. And yet they were certainly more in demand than KU!
 
(Disclosure, or lack thereof: I am a Bruin, bleed blue and gold, and delight in wearing my UCLA gear when we play KU – and ‘we’ for me is always UCLA. Now that I live in Kansas, I enjoy watching KU’s games, and support them when their winning would not be a negative for us, but I am not and will not be a Jayhawk. Just using KU’s situation to make my point.)

I have actually thought about this over the past few years and realized I am part of what this poll shows. I used to always say college basketball was first with college football a close second. Then I started to think about it and realized at some point this changed. The telling sign for me is that I can (and try to) watch every college FB game on TV. I don’t really care who is playing – I just love to watch the game. With basketball during the regular season, I watch every UCLA game but really only catch other Pac-10 games now and then as well as the Duke/NC game. Otherwise, I don’t stay home or base my schedule around college basketball games. Part of it is because if you lose a game in college football, its a huge deal. Basketball, not so much.

With all that said, March Madness is the greatest playoff in all of sports and by FAR is my favorite post season. There is no contest in my opinion. This is why that first Thursday and Friday when the tournament starts are religious holidays for me and I don’t leave the couch (well, unless I’m on the road with the Bruins!) :)

11 National Championships and the Wooden Legacy puts UCLA Basketball in a different category. Only Duke has such anywhere near a bias in favor of basketball over football. So my initial reaction is that UCLA Basketball and the NCAA Tournament produces as much Alumni identification and brand loyalty to the school as does football for other schools.

I know that Trogans treat basketball as a minor sport and Football as the be all and end all, but of course they do, given our lifetime of dominance.

However, I am struck by the intense interest and number of posts on BN during football season, and what appears to be less activity during basketball season this year, with a much better team.

As football can draw as many as 100,000 fans to a game, and brings with it all the tailgating, it may, in fact be a far bigger factor in the economics of a university than I thought.

FBS Coaching Salaries

Seeing as UCLA spends less money on head coaching than a majority of the Pac-10 schools, as well as the majority of BCS schools, it’s not hard to imagine why we are having difficulty being competitive in college football.

It’s an attitude and a competence thing mor than anything. It’s making the right decisions in a timely manner. It’s demanding excellence and not just settling for mediocrity.

We pay enough money to attract the right coaches. You don’t have to hire Nick Saban or Urban Meyer at the top of their game.

Unfortunately, this Athletic Department/Administration fails the competency test right now. The debacle of the continuing, inexcusable delay over firing and hiring CNC, his replacement and a DC is still ongoing with LOI signing day less than a week away.

It has been botched completely and unprofessionally. The fact we may still get great coaches is secondary to the permanent damage caused by the ineptitude of the UCLA brass. All of this should have been done weeks ago. No excuses, even with NC’s buyout. All of it should have been accelerated long ago instead of letting the fans and the recruits and even the coaches drift in the wind for almost 7 weeks.

Clearly, football is viewed as a low priority by the powers that be on campus. If we win football games, it’s despite their “support,” not because of it.

As mentioned a few times above, this is destroying NCAA hoops. In addition, without much research, my guess is that it probably began declining even before “one and done”, likely when Kevin Garnett, and later Kobe, started the trend of high schoolers jumping straight to the NBA.