Every week, PowerMizzou.com publisher Gabe DeArmond answers questions from Tiger fans in the mailbag. This format allows for a more expansive answer than a message board post. Keep your eye out each week to submit your question for the mailbag or send them to powermizzou@gmail.com. On to this week's inquiries.
cbwallace asks: The University of Michigan president was cited in the Wall Street Journal on May 24th as indicating that there would be no football played by the University of Michigan this fall unless all students are able to be back on campus for classes. If the University of Michigan decides not to play football, what "ripple" effect do you think this might have on the B1G, their marginal schools (e.g. Illinois, Rutgers, Nebraska,...), and other Power 5 Conferences? Any impact to the SEC?
GD: Okay, first off, Michigan is playing football this year. Period. End of story. Don't care what the president said or why he said it. No way in hell Michigan isn't playing football.
That out of the way, here's what Mark Schlissel said: “If there is no on-campus instruction then there won’t be intercollegiate athletics, at least for Michigan,”
That's a lot different than if all students aren't on campus they aren't playing. He said if there is "no on campus instruction" they aren't playing. And I agree. If no classes are being held on campus then they're not having sports. But some classes are going to be held on campus. Everybody's going to open campus to some degree and at least have a hybrid model. Some classes will be online, yes. But some will be in person. And students are going to have the option to come back to campus. None of these places are going to go full University of Phoenix because they'll lose a ton of enrollment and money and sports won't be played and the college experience as we know it will be completely changed. They're going to have some students on campus. Which means they're going to play football. So I don't even think it's worth talking about the ripple effect because the event that is the premise of it isn't even happening.
TigerCruise asks: Have you gotten any word what the "voluntary workouts" will actually be come June 8th? Is this just weight training and meetings?
GD: I would assume it's the usual summer conditioning and such. There was also an extension of the eight hours a week of virtual meetings and instruction. And then it won't surprise me at all if the players are organizing their own activities at least by position. The linemen are getting together and doing walk throughs, the quarterbacks are meeting with the receivers and throwing, etc. That happens all the time on every campus. The coaches aren't there and aren't running it but it's happening. Once these kids get back to campus in a week and a half, it's going to be more or less the normal summer activities in smaller groups.
wehrli_22 asks: In theory, the Covid-19 crisis is deemed 'under control' but only marginally so ... still limiting open stadiums and crowd exposure for the fans. What conferences have the best television contracts to allow a full schedule of conference games to be played with either limited or no fan stadium attendance? Full stadiums allow for increased profitability, but television contracts may still allow seasons schedules to be played.
GD: The SEC and the Big Ten are miles ahead of everyone in terms of TV contracts. Here are the numbers from last year:
I'd assume this year's numbers look somewhat similar. It's virtually impossible to find a Big Ten or SEC game that isn't televised and readily available to anyone with a working knowledge of technology. The Big 12 gets the third most money, but there are some games that are on pay-per-view or digital only platforms. I'm not as familiar with the ACC and PAC 12 contracts.
I was talking to someone last week and they told me that there are some schools where the TV money is the biggest source of revenue and some where ticket sales are the biggest source of revenue. But you can see by the numbers above, even if crowds are reduced for a year, these schools are going to be able to get by assuming the TV money is still paid out. Let's say you have 25% capacity in your stadiums, yeah, you're losing a lot of revenue, but you're probably still making more than $50 million off the combination of tickets and TV money. They'll get by. Not forever, but for the short term.
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