Why Basketball is almost irrelevant in conference re-alignment

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During the 2020–21 season, the most-watched regular-season men’s basketball game was the Feb. 21 Michigan-Ohio State game on CBS, with 2.63 million viewers. Want to guess how many regular-season football games were watched by more than 2.63 million people last fall? 58.

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It's no surprise. Football has the advantage over basketball on many fronts, and one of the major ones is having far fewer games per season maximizes their value (12 vs. 33).

First, it means more people are going to tune in to any individual match-up in football. Even major basketball match-ups like Duke-UNC take place 2-3 times PER SEASON. It really takes the edge off.

Second, having just 3-4 non-conference games in football compared to 13+ in basketball means conference affiliation means a whole lot more for football. A blue blood basketball school could theoretically compete in a pretty weak conference and load up their non-conference with 10+ marquee games and it would almost totally offset the conference affiliation issue. Doesn't work in football, as evidenced by the recent Texas and OU moves to the SEC.

And on an unrelated note, the one and done rule was the final nail in the coffin for college hoops. The product is garbage - blue bloods now just pay to rent-a-kid for a year before they turn pro. Sometimes it works, but often it doesn't and you are stuck watching underdeveloped players with huge potential clank a thousand shots per game (see: Kentucky). Football on the other hand is saved by the fact that most 19-20 year old kids simply aren't physically developed enough for the NFL game, so we get to watch these guys develop over 4-5 years at our school and forge their own little legacies.

And this won't improve for college hoops, the NBA has wised-up and has enhanced its G-League, more and more 5-star caliber recruits are choosing to skip the college game entirely. That is simply not an option in football.

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I care about college basketball as much as UGA's Athletic Department cares about it.

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I want to care about our basketball program, but it's very hard to. I thought we had something going when we brought in Crean and Anthony Edwards, but it turns out Crean is a moron

Yes football games get higher ratings, but there are far more basketball games being played each year. Total TV ratings for the season should be the metric. Kansas makes a surprising amount of money off its basketball program, but that is a rare example.

I mean what the hell else is there to do in Kansas but leave?

8 November 25, 2016 Columbia, MO Missouri 28–24
9 November 24, 2017 Fayetteville, AR Missouri 48–45
10 November 23, 2018 Columbia, MO Missouri 38–0
11 November 29, 2019 Little Rock, AR Missouri 24–14
12 December 5, 2020 Columbia, MO Missouri 50–48

Congrats. We have been on the worst 9 year stretch in program history. No argument from me on that. We both suck at football you just suck a little worse

Doesn’t hide the fact your football program brings nothing and your athletic department operates at a loss for the 3rd year in a row or the fact around 25 schools make more in basketball than you do football

Golfer is the most mizzousessed poster on this board.

If that is how you want to look at it.

I’m just a big fan of college basketball so decided to look into the numbers.

Don’t let those numbers/facts get in your way.

It is weird because I never realized how poor Mizzou was. I did know your fans didn’t give much support and basketball is the more popular college sport at Mizzou. You did name the court after a guy with one elite 8 after all.

Let me know when those statues of Snyder and Anderson are going up. They did accomplish as much as Norm ya know

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Kentucky’s basketball program is more valuable and brings in more money than Mizzou football.

Kansas brings in more and is more valuable than Mizzou football.

There are around 15-20 other programs that do that as well.

Arkansas at around $25 million per year in basketball is more than Mizzou football. Arkansas number will take a massive jump with close to 19k season tickets already sold this year

Mizzous football program has around an 11 million value or profit in football. Ouch
Mizzou athletic department is currently in the hole for 9 million. Ouch

This is the 3rd year in a row for ticket sales decline at Mizzou and the athletic department operating at a loss.

You want to know the only sport not operating at a loss in Mizzou……

Basketball

Ouch

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You are cherry-picking the healthiest and most popular basketball programs against an extremely mediocre football program in my Tigers. Now compare the top five football programs to the top five basketball programs. The college hoops game is also dying a slow death to the NBA minor league, football has no such competition.

Edit to add: your numbers for Mizzou are entirely made-up to fit your silly little narrative. Aside from being wrong in the first instance, you used the 2019-2020 COVID season and revenues for Mizzou and compared it to prior seasons for the other schools. That is pathetic.