There are varying shades of grey here. From 1980-2000, 16 different schools won a football title.
You donāt need complete parity but you need enough so that enough schools feel like they are playing for something and total regions (read: conferences) arenāt written off before the season starts. That hasnāt really been the case in the 4 team playoff era.
Agree with you there, not sure MLB is the right reference point. MLB has 0 parity IMO. If you arenāt NY, LA, Bos, CC you have no chance to compete cause the money is too big. But I donāt think thatās whatās hurt the sports popularity. Same with college sports, itās a regional/tribal affiliation. The butts will be in seats, and the TVās.
Iām getting out over my skis here a bit, but the MLB went from roughly 0 sharing (I think) in the 90s to āsomeā sharing of revenue, etc. But I will leave the details to others, with which Iām not too familiar.
And Iām not sure to what extent that revenue parity has translated to on-field parity.
Also, unlike the NBA, the MLB draft doesnāt seem to be as quick or as sure a mechanism to ensure the first will be last, and the last will be first.
** complicating factor ā in MLB, more revenue is local revenue. The ānationalā revenue (eg, ESPN contracts) is lower than the NBA, and MUCH MUCH lower than the NFL. NFL can mostly avoid this stuff (IMO) because the revenues are already so league-wide.
*** thatās an interesting question for college hoops - how much is national revenue (tourney share), how much is conference revenue (ESPN / ACCN share), how much is local (JPJ tix, merch?). I go cross-eyed whenever I look at UVaās athletic financial statements.
College sports has never had full parity. To me the paragon of parity is the NFL. And then on the other end is Premiere League. Right now it seems that college athletics (as evidenced in college football) may be drifting towards the premiere league end of the equation, which to me is an inferior product
Good point, I donāt know the details on the MLB enough either. More going on what I see on the field, vs. some stats Iāve seen on team spending. Youāre definitely right on the local tele rights vs. national rights for the MLB.
Interesting question for college hoops, got to imagine it comes down to conference alliance packages. At least for the Power 5 schools. Theyāre the ones that ink the deals with ESPN, CBS, and Fox. Is there even local/regional coverage left? I assumed all that got absorbed by ESPN+ and other online outlets, which likely pay pennies on the dollar.
I like the Premier League ā¦ of course Iām a Liverpool fan so thereās that ā¦ but I liked it when Liverpool wasnāt great tooā¦
To your point I think the BCS and subsequent small playoff structure have hurt parity in college football more than NIL ever could. The actual way to increase parity is to go back to the old bowl system or make the playoff bigger so more schools have a real chance to compete. Right now when only 6-8 schools have a chance they naturally are going to get all of the top talent no matter if you regulate NIL, leave it unregulated, or ban it altogether again (of course not a realistic option).
Looking just at World Series winners, MLB isnāt too bad. 8 different champs in the last 8 years. Yankees have just one championship since 2001.
Interesting. Would be interested to contrast those winners by amount of cash spent.
But overall you could say mlb is not flat
Crazy that the leaders of those divisions have 2 World Series combined and the others have 8 combined
Think the expanded playoff could help here, especially if thereās autobids for conference winners. Yeah, UVA might get destroyed in the playoff, but we could imagine a miracle run to an ACC championship and then weāre in the thing. Just that hope helps a lot. But weāll never make it in in a system where itās just the four teams with most impressive resumes.
Yup just shows stats without context are arbitrary
lol good luck with that retroactive enforcement. NCAA just inviting more court cases and even more loss of control over this.
Good luck with any enforcement
Also good luck to the NCAA in enforcing rules banning activities that laws in several states explicitly allow.
Itās like the media relations guy is just on auto pilot.
Also SI doesnāt even exist anymore. Someone bought the name and hired*** a bunch of college kids. Did the NCAA pull Austin Murphy out of his Amazon delivery van as he was pissing into his Gatorade bottle and try to give him a scoop?
No joke. Have a neighbor who used to be an editor there. Damn shame.
***not in any actual legal meaning of the word of course
The lack of a salary cap or luxury tax in MLB drives the disparity in many ways IMO. I think the NFL is the closest thing to having a revenue sharing agreement that is intended to create parity as @norfolk_hoo mentioned. Obviously, you have the dominant teams but I think a lot of that is just on having better front office and coaching staff able to find the right talent. Just my two cents. Seems CBB is more going towards the MLB model. Do think there is still way more parity in CBB than CFB for sure. The āget old and stay oldā teams are still finding a lot of success.
Yeah, best of luck holding that Miami dude accountable for his recent laundry billsā¦
