Dominate the Super Bowl

Chapter 31: 031 The world is bustling

To tell the truth, the running back position for the new season of Crimson Tide Storm was fraught with difficulties, and injuries were a major obstacle, beyond even the best coach’s ability to manage.

Behind the decision to appoint Jacobs as the starting running back, one could faintly perceive the coaching staff’s helplessness.

However, from another perspective, even though Jacobs was just a high school student, he indeed possessed outstanding talent and ability. Relying on his own strength, he stood out from the fierce competition and secured the starting position; in the current team setup, he was the best choice for the starting running back.

As for Li Wei?

He was indeed excellent, without a doubt; but starting from scratch, with only three weeks of football experience, the time was simply too short.

In Saban’s original plan, he had hoped to use Li Wei as a secret weapon, to achieve victory through unexpected strategies.

However, yesterday’s practice game had shaken Saban’s thoughts, and upon hearing Burns’s words, his first reaction was not to object.

Thoughts surged in his mind.

Ultimately, Saban was somewhat more experienced and rational. Although Burns’s suggestion was very tempting, he still applied the emergency brakes and controlled himself—

He had to consider the overall situation.

After all, yesterday was merely an internal practice game. Given Li Wei’s intelligence, he knew the main team’s defensive strategies like the back of his hand, giving him the upper hand; but what about against external teams? Could Li Wei still deliver such a performance?

"Let’s see in the preseason games," Saban suggested.

Burns was not surprised; regardless of who was the starting running back, everyone needed to play in the preseason games anyway, as they needed a comprehensive assessment of their capabilities.

Football’s warm-up and preseason games are all like this, not just in the NCAA, but in the NFL as well; they are the best opportunities to test team lineups.

Win or lose?

It’s not important, not indicative at all.

With four quarters in a football game, during the warm-up and preseason games, the lineup usually changes after the first half to test the team’s tactic integration and players’ form. Ultimately, it is the stage for coaches to integrate tactics, adjust strategies, and match lineups,

and even some teams switch lineups every quarter, testing the team’s training results with four different combinations throughout the game.

Like the NFL, before the season begins, the NCAA training camps are highly populated and bloated. After the warm-up and preseason games, the coaching staff needs to cut players to match the team numbers as per league regulations, so in the preseason, every player gets a chance to compete.

This is the value of warm-up and preseason games.

Crimson Tide Storm is no exception.

As a top NCAA traditional football powerhouse, there are countless teams each year that are eager, even dreaming, to have warm-up games with them.

The reason?

Television broadcasting!

This was previously mentioned, and now it is further elaborated, with deeper and more complex interests entangled behind it.

In the NCAA, there are Division I, Division II, and Division III, with Division I being the top, housing a series of traditional prestigious schools.

Division I includes the Big Ten Conference, Big Twelve Conference, Pac-12 Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference, among other distinct divisions—

University of Alabama, belonging to the Southeastern Conference (SEC), played twelve regular season games each year, eight of which were intra-league matchups, while the other four were clashes with teams from other leagues—alternating opponents from different leagues each year, making each year’s schedule unique.

In the 1970s, sports leagues were geographically based, such as the Southeastern Conference, whose members were all from the southeastern part of the North American continent. Even away games were in the neighboring city or state, enabling fans to easily travel with the team to watch games.

Naturally, each league had its own power teams and traditional rivalries.

However, by the eighties and nineties, the rise of television broadcasting had transformed the landscape, as broadcasting rights became a significant source of revenue for colleges, which heated up the competition amongst the leagues.

It all started with the Big Ten Conference.

At that time, the Big Ten Conference boasted remarkable football schools, such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania State, Ohio State, Michigan, etc., and the league’s executives always hoped to attract more revenue, since national broadcasters like ABC and CBS could only cover a limited number of significant college games.

To make money, the Big Ten Network was officially established to air games that couldn’t make it to national television, including but not limited to football, basketball, volleyball, hockey, baseball, gymnastics, etc.

This kind of cable network relied on subscriber revenue. The more subscribers it had, the more money it made, and the Big Ten Network became a resounding success, capturing a huge market in the Midwest.

It is noteworthy that NCAA football consistently ranked top in nationwide viewership, easily surpassing other professional leagues like the NBA, NHL, MLB, and although it generally fell short of the NFL, some NFL regular season games couldn’t match the viewership of classic NCAA football school matchups—

This could be seen from ESPN’s willingness to broadcast live the intra-squad games of the University of Alabama.

The Big Ten Network was not satisfied with its success alone; it wanted to expand its territory. Thus, breaking the NCAA’s tradition of geographic alignment, they added the football powerhouse University of Nebraska in 2010 and later Maryland and Rutgers in 2015—

Although these two colleges weren’t strong in football, one was in New York and the other in Washington, thus the densely populated areas of the East Coast also fell within the subscriber base of the Big Ten, making it the most powerful league in NCAA.

Naturally, other leagues couldn’t just sit by and do nothing.

The Southeastern Conference was the first to react.

Southern schools had an intense passion for football, consistently leading in viewership, with powerhouse traditional teams like Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, and Georgia. The fan base was solid, they too established their own TV channel, and started to attract other schools.

The University of Texas was key.

Because Texas was the second most populated state in North America.

The University of Texas, located in the Big Twelve, tried to establish its own television network, leveraging its wealthy and powerful status. After a disappointing failure, in 2010, it threatened to leave in frustration, although it didn’t succeed in leaving at that time, it triggered a series of tumults—

The other schools in the Big Twelve stood firm, indicating they refused to be dominated by the University of Texas.

Then.

The University of Nebraska left the Big Twelve for the Big Ten, Texas A&M and Missouri left the Big Twelve for the Southeastern Conference, and Colorado left the Big Twelve for the Pac-12.

As a result, the Big Twelve could only rely on their traditional powerhouse schools, the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma, to barely stay afloat, with their chances of national broadcast dwindling increasingly.

All endeavors move forward for profit; the moment the Big Ten broke the balance, the commercialization of the NCAA became unstoppable. Like the NFL, NBA, and other professional leagues, the quest for profits began to alter the entire league structure.

And Texas, as always, played a pivotal role in the NCAA’s historical transition this time around, acting as a turning point.

As usual.