Category: News

Is College Football Gaining or Losing Popularity vs. the NFL?

Joe Burrow played for LSU in college and plays for Cincinnati in the NFL

If you’re on this site, you’re definitely a big college football fan. Odds are, you like college football more than you like the NFL. But, do you match the rest of the country?

The short answer is no, the NFL is holding its popularity better than college football. Over 5 years, Super Bowl viewership declined -19% while college football championship viewing declined -24%. Of course, the numbers don’t tell the full story.

One things certain, and that’s that NFL has a firm hold on the number one sport in the country. 165 million unique people viewed NFL games last season. College football land at somewhere between half and one quarter of that depending on what metric you use.

However, many points indicate that CFB is experiencing incremental growth. TV ratings grew following the introduction of the playoff before falling during the COVID era (note, NFL ratings fell during this time too). Merchandise sales, though not always the most correlated, point in this direction too; following Georgia’s National Championship, Fanatics saw record sales for college licensed merchandise.

Due to the COVID years weighing down all live sports ratings and lots of moving parts in realignment and TV deals right now, it’s likely the next few years will provide a much more definitive answer on how college football popularity is changing compared to the NFL. Hopefully, intriguing matchups and an unbeatable culture help make this the biggest sport in the country.

4 College Football Teams That Will Exceed Expectations In 2022

Maryland Football, led by Taulia Tagovailoa, is ready to make some noise this season

Everyone wants their football team to win lots of games, but it’s always even more special when a team comes out of nowhere and defies preseason expectations. Here’s our four picks to make some noise this season and silence the haters:

1. Bowling Green

Bowling green football 2022
Bowling Green Football

No offense to the Falcons, but we can imagine Bowling Green isn’t top of mind for many of our readers. However, they return the most overall production this upcoming college football season, and a wide open MAC means we have Scot Loeffler’s Falcons making a long shot run at a conference title.

2. TCU

TCU football 2022
TCU Football

The Horned Frogs had a pretty middling season last year, just missing a bowl. However, this is the first year Sonny Dykes gets to cook with his own guys recruited, though TCU also boasts one of the highest returning production percentages. TCU will have experiences on all sides of the ball plus some great recruits, and we see Sonny’s Dykes finally bringing his winning culture to Fort Worth.

3. NC State

Devin Leary, NC State Football

NC State has lots of returning seniors (especially thanks to COVID amendments), an experienced QB in Devin Leary, and a reasonable strength of schedule. Nothing stopping NC State from getting double digit wins, and we expect it will be them or Clemson taking the ACC title. Write down the Wolfpack as must watch TV.

4. Maryland

Taulia Tagovailoa, Maryland Football

Though Taulia may not have met the initial, galactic expectations his brother set for him, he’s been working in silence (more or less) and continually improving on his game. Furthermore, Maryland has finally recruited the supporting players he needs to succeed as well as developing some all American talent (like Biletnikoff contender Rakim Jarrett). Mike Locksley isn’t just building a spoiler team – Maryland could finish Top 3 in the Big Ten East, setting up for even more success down the line.

Follow us on Twitter at @CFBSelect for daily CFB content like this!

4 College Football Teams That Will Exceed Expectations In 2022

Maryland Football, led by Taulia Tagovailoa, is ready to make some noise this season

Everyone wants their football team to win lots of games, but it’s always even more special when a team comes out of nowhere and defies preseason expectations. Here’s our four picks to make some noise this season and silence the haters:

1. Bowling Green

Bowling green football 2022
Bowling Green Football

No offense to the Falcons, but we can imagine Bowling Green isn’t top of mind for many of our readers. However, they return the most overall production this upcoming college football season, and a wide open MAC means we have Scot Loeffler’s Falcons making a long shot run at a conference title.

2. TCU

TCU football 2022
TCU Football

The Horned Frogs had a pretty middling season last year, just missing a bowl. However, this is the first year Sonny Dykes gets to cook with his own guys recruited, though TCU also boasts one of the highest returning production percentages. TCU will have experiences on all sides of the ball plus some great recruits, and we see Sonny Dykes finally bringing his winning culture to Fort Worth.

3. NC State

Devin Leary, NC State Football

NC State has lots of returning seniors (especially thanks to COVID amendments), an experienced QB in Devin Leary, and a reasonable strength of schedule. Nothing stopping NC State from getting double digit wins, and we expect it will be them or Clemson taking the ACC title. Write down the Wolfpack as must watch TV.

4. Maryland

Taulia Tagovailoa, Maryland Football

Though Taulia may not have met the initial, galactic expectations his brother set for him, he’s been working in silence (more or less) and continually improving on his game. Furthermore, Maryland has finally recruited the supporting players he needs to succeed as well as developing some all American talent (like Biletnikoff contender Rakim Jarrett). Mike Locksley isn’t just building a spoiler team – Maryland could finish Top 3 in the Big Ten East, setting up for even more success down the line.

Follow us on Twitter at @CFBSelect for daily CFB content like this!

College Football Week One: Top CFB Stories

Here’s this week’s top college football news. We’ll post the top CFB headlines and happenings in this format at the start of the work week.

The Big 12’s Expansion Choices Are Submitting Their Official Applications

Cincinnati Houston BYU UCF Big 12
Cincinnati vs UCF 2020. Both are Big 12 Expansion Selections.

Both Cincinnati and UCF have confirmed submitted their applications to join the Big XII. It is expected that the other two rumored expansion selections, BYU and Houston, will also submit theirs by the end of the week. Additional rumors suggest that the new members could be approved as soon as the weekend. BYU would be able to join as early as next year due to being an independent, but the other three schools would have to complete negotiations with the American conference as they are under contract through 2025.

Michigan State Football Players to Receive $500 Stipend from United Wholesale Mortgage

Michigan State Football NLI $500 Stipend United Wholesale Mortgage
Michigan State Football players celebrate a win vs Nothwestern

We’ve seen some wild Name, Image and Likeness (NLI) contracts now that players are allowed to receive money for their brands. But, in a wild new deal, every Michigan State football player will now receive a $500 monthly stipend (including during the offseason) from United Wholesale Mortgage, owned by an MSU alum. Who wouldn’t want to play for that kind of deal? We expect to see more of the biggest NLI deals come from P5 teams in the coming months.

Iowa State to Wear Black Uniforms vs Iowa

Iowa State White/Black/White Uniforms vs Iowa
Iowa State in the White/Black/White Uniforms they’ll wear vs Iowa

Normally a uniform announcement wouldn’t make our top headlines, but this reveal has stirred up the bad blood between Cyclones and Hawks. The Iowa Hawkeyes are one of a few schools to use black as a primary color, and they have a history of getting ticked off when other schools wear black jerseys against them for this reason. So, having their biggest rival in the Iowa State Cyclones wearing all black has made some Hawkeyes blood boil. We’ll see it settled on the field this weekend in the first Top 25 match up (and both Top 10 nonetheless) of the CyHawk rivalry.

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CFBSelect.com: Your New Home for CFB Discussion!

CFBSelect.com is your new home for college football news and content.

As of today, we have completed rebranded the site and are ready to be your new provider of CFB content. Welcome to CFBSelect.com!

Our site was long ago Grid Lines Blog, then had an incredible journey as Sidelines Sports Net. Now, with the sale/merger of Sidelines Sports Net and Kollege Sports, we’re taking this site in a new direction.

CFB Select will be your home for CFB news, content and discussion. We will continue our Top 25 polls during the season and will remain active on our Twitter, @CFBSelect.

Leave a reply in the comments for what you want to see on this site!

40 Years in the Making

By Kenny van Doren (@SidelinesCuse)

The NBA Finals are finally around the corner. The scene is set; Lakers vs. Heat. The lucky thing for Syracuse fans is that for the first time in 40 years a former Orange hooper will win a ring. That player is Dion Waiters. 

Dion played at Syracuse for two years averaging 9.7 pts, 1.9 rb, and 2 ast. He was not the huge standout that you may have thought he was, but he led a Syracuse team to the Elite Eight in his second year. Dion ended up going 4th overall to the Cavs and since then he’s jumped around from the Thunder, to the Heat and now finally a Laker. 

Dion is already an NBA Finals Champion, because he played for the Heat earlier this season. The last player to be in this situation was Anderson Varejão in 2016-2017, when he went from Cleveland to Golden State. 

Dion is only the fourth former Orange to make it the NBA Finals. Marty Byrnes was a bench player for the 1980 LA Lakers – they ended up beating the Philadelphia 76ers. Dennis Duval was a bench player for the 1975 Washington Bullets, and they ended up losing to the Golden State Warriors. Duval later became the city of Syracuse’s Police Chief. Lastly, Bill Gabor was a role player for the 1954 Syracuse Nationals that lost to the Minneapolis Lakers in 7 games.

Dion’s Wikipedia page already says this:

However, don’t expect much from Dion in the Finals. If we see the “Philly Cheese,” the Lakers must be blowing out the Heat in game 5. Either way, we’ll be happy to see a former Orange win a ring!

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Ohio State Can’t Play – But Governor Allows High School Football

Ohio Gov. DeWine orders state employees to stay home until 2021 ...

Unless Kevin Warren and the Big Ten do some major backtracking, Ohio State will not be playing football this fall. However, the state of Ohio will be.

This morning, Gov. Mike DeWine announced that all high school sports are allowed to start next week. This includes football. So, if you’re a football junkie in the state of Ohio, you may just have to tune in on Fridays instead. Gov. DeWine had been working with the Ohio High School Athletic Association to set guidelines for fall competitions before giving the go-ahead.

Ohio high school football: Looking ahead to this weekend's state ...

However, you won’t be able to be a fan at these games unless you’ve got a family member on the team. Attendance will be limited to the family of players. But, football will be happening in the state of Ohio, and it appears Ohio State (and along with them, MAC teams Bowling Green, Ohio, Akron, Kent State, Miami and Toledo) will be left out of the fun.

Do you think Ohio State should have pushed back harder on the Big Ten, or do you think they made the right call? Either way this will be quite an unrecognizable season. Let us know what you think in the comments and on Twitter @Sidelines_SN.

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