Three Lessons College Sports Can Learn from the World Cup

The World Cup has the effect of making all other sports look puny, but particularly college sports—an American phenomenon with very little parallel worldwide (maybe the Canadian Hockey League, maybe Koshien). What is Miami-Indiana, or Michigan-Ohio State or Auburn-Alabama, against the majesty of Japan-Brazil or Morocco-Netherlands?

To watch the 2026 World Cup as an American college sports fan is to undergo the kind of ego death astronauts suffer while orbiting the Earth. Suddenly, our quibbles seem petty, our vision desperately limited. This can be turned on its head as well—our endemic corruptions are next to nothing in FIFA’s shadow.

With that sense of wonder in mind, here are three very real lessons that college sports leaders can learn from watching the World Cup—and given FIFA’s riches, we can assume they’re watching closely.

Smart expansion is better than expansion for expansion’s sake

Much has been made of the overwhelming success of the World Cup’s expansion to 48 teams, announced way back in 2017 and initially criticized as cynical and profit-driven. It may have been cynical and profit-driven, but it also has opened the door for new blood in the beautiful game. If this World Cup had a “One Shining Moment” montage, the feats of Cabo Verde and Curacao would no doubt be present and accounted for.

The plaudits afforded the enlarged World Cup are worlds apart from the rancor that greeted the NCAA basketball tournaments’ expansions to 76 teams in May (or hypothetical 24-team CFP brackets). There are a few factors outside college sports’ control here—the relative rarity of this kind of global sporting event in North America, the enormous diaspora communities that dot the United States—but one harsh reality that isn’t.

When you think deeply about it, the expansion of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams makes a sort of sense. Since the tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1998, the gross domestic product of the world has nearly quadrupled—a fact that has, despite the persistence of global inequality, positive implications for human well-being, and with that human leisure time, and with that time to play the world’s most popular sport. People are playing soccer now that might not have had time to play soccer 30 years ago, and that means that the World Cup can swallow the addition of 16 nations without a drop-off in quality.

This is, of course, apples and oranges from the situation of college basketball and football. It can be plausibly argued both sports have boomed in popularity since the pandemic (particularly football), but not due to any alleviation of human suffering—gambling, general intrigue over the state of college sports, the initial round of CFP expansion, and streaming are more reasonable explanations. We are not seeing an influx of new talent per se, with the possible exception of players from overseas coming to play college hoops—therefore, diluting the postseason is likely to scan as simply diluting the postseason. That’s before accounting for the drop in college-age Americans on its way.

The moral of the story: It’s in college sports’ interest to slow-play postseason expansion. Wait a generation, see what the economic climate looks like. Assuming television is still around in 2046, your TV partners will thank you.

The game is better off when everyone eats—i.e., diversity of region and size is worth celebrating

Just as the modern world of college sports is dominated by two conferences—the Big Ten and SEC—soccer historically has been dominated by the European and South American confederations, UEFA and CONMEBOL. In fact, no team from outside of Europe or South America has ever reached the World Cup final.

That, however, is not a fact your hear repeated ad nauseam on any platform covering the World Cup. That’s because the feats of the other four soccer-playing continents have all been deemed worth celebrating. Africa sending nine teams to the knockout stage is one of the tournament’s most compelling storylines. Asia is trending upward. North America, home of the hosts, has given a good account of itself. Even Oceania saw New Zealand scratch out a draw with Iran.

Now, imagine if Europe and South America tried to slam the door on the rest of the world and contest their own World Cup (we don’t have to—until the advent of the FIFA Club World Cup, the European and South American club champions would contest the Intercontinental Cup). That’d be no fun, and it’d sap the competition of much of its appeal. This is, unfortunately, what seems to be happening in college sports—the Big Ten and SEC pick on the ACC, Big 12 and Big East, and all five pick on the mid-major leagues.

The point is that college basketball and football must not shrink to a (roughly) 30-team point, like some seem to envision. The game will retain its health and vitality only if it involves schools from Miami to Washington, and Maine to San Diego State.

Be judicious about advertising

This lesson is a double blade, with FIFA rejecting commercialism in one important area while embracing it with brute force in another.

If you’ve watched any of the World Cup, you’ve likely heard the announcers make reference to games played on Atlanta Stadium, or Boston Stadium, or Kansas City Stadium. That is because FIFA has a blanket prohibition on World Cup stadiums being named after companies that are not FIFA sponsors. If slightly self-interested, it’s an admirable rule, and it’s one college sports should keep in mind before greenlighting any further eyesores like Safelite Field.

On the flip side! FIFA has introduced hydration breaks in the middle of each half this World Cup, ostensibly to guard against the brutal North American summer heat. Many fans have interpreted this as FIFA shoehorning commercial breaks into a sport they’re incompatible with, and have responded accordingly. Now think about how many four-hour college football games you’ve sat through—how many touchdown-commercial-kickoff-commercial combinations have afflicted the game over the years. It drags the game to a crawl to marginally enrich a ridiculously wealthy sport.

We don’t have to live like this. If college sports—and indeed, American sports at large—take the good from this World Cup and reject the bad, the industry can take real steps toward building a sustainable framework for generations to come.

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