quote:

"The likelihood of someone who didn't go to games when they're an undergrad becoming a fan at age 40 is probably one in a million," Pitt athletics director Steve Pederson said. "If you didn't participate at that time, I don't know why you'd begin later on in life."

I'm not so sure about that. Recently, an Italian friend of mine living in Germany got talked into following the Titans as well as UT. She, yes, she - mentioned that she thinks she'll like the college game better because it's less stale, more tradition, more history etc. She thinks the college game is closer to one of her favorite club soccer teams.

But I think the trick to marketing college football to young people is not just giving them decent home games to attend but also making them feel welcome - universities have over the last 30 years pushed students away, given out lousy seats, and treated students like crap on all kinds of things including requiring guests to ALSO be a student when plenty of students would love to bring a gf/bf or friend who isn't a student.

More importantly though, I think universities need to market the shared cultural and student experiences and parlay that into marketing the culture and unique experiences to adults as well. That's what make CFB special and where there's a lot of room to expand the base of fans.

And for heaven's sake, stop trying to be the NFL. It's dull as frick to a lot of people who love football at other level.