It was the best of college football times, it was the worst of college football times. The season has begun, with all its typical fanfare, but many are noticing conspicuously empty stadiums. USC was so vacant for its opener against San Jose State that it sparked a broader sports media conversation about whether LA is a bad sports town.
I don’t think that’s enough evidence for us to call “the top” on college football, but something is clearly rotten in the state of, well, at least the formerly Pac 12. One half of the Split Zone Duo wrote an article for The Guardian titled, “College football is booming, chaotic and more confusing than ever,” which attempted to contextualize what the hell is happening for an international audience. The piece opens with:
Is college football healthy?
And that’s a good way to frame the situation. CFB is America’s second favorite sport. It’s also plausibly unhealthy and floridly risking that status. We can see this sort of dynamic across sports, in different leagues. There’s a Colin Cowherd-esque frame dichotomy between “booming” and “healthy.” The NBA is booming with its escalating franchise valuations, but suddenly many are asking whether the league’s aggressive financialization is good in the long run. But anyway, what of college football and its increasingly political future?