Buckeye Breakfast: No College Football Could Cost $4 Billion for Power Five Schools
Rise and shine, Buckeye Nation! Each morning, we get you caught up on the latest news and information regarding the Ohio State Buckeyes and the college athletics world. Here are your headlines for July 22, 2020.
No College Football Could Cost the Power Five Schools $62 Million Each
The threat of no college football this fall is very possible, but now the actual cost of not playing is more real.
According to a report published by Washington University in St. Louis, the collective losses of the 65 Power Five schools would likely exceed $4 billion, or roughly $62 million per school. Patrick Rishe, the Sports Business Director at the Olin Business School, spoke on the matter.
“These losses will likely exceed $4 billion alone this year,” said Rishe. “I don’t see any scenario at present where fans are back this year — not unless teams or leagues invest heavily in testing for fans. And I don’t see that happening this year because they already have to exhaust quite an effort to ensure players and staff are tested."
Rishe did a deep dive into data for ESPN. His analysis shows the sudden disappearance of sports will erase at least those billions in revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs, “an economic catastrophe that will more than double if the college football and NFL schedules are wiped out this fall” by the pandemic.
“I do believe we will see a small percentage of fans allowed back,” he continued. “The challenge for teams and athletic departments — aside from allowing a small percentage of fans in — is to decide which fans will be allowed in. Your biggest college donors are likely to be given priority, but will they be willing not to attend all games so that some of the other season ticket holders and students can attend games?”
While there hasn't been any official decisions to play or not to play football this fall, you'd be have a hard time convincing me that the Power Five schools aren't doing everything they can to play this year. While the Buckeyes reported $210 million in revenue last year, 12 schools in the Power Five earned less than $100 million.
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