Category: Media

A Deeper Look Into The NFL’s Upcoming Television Negotiations

11/12/2020

By Adam Bressler, WCBN Sports

As the 2020 NFL season approaches its halfway mark, millions of fans are following the action on the field to see if their team will make the playoffs. However, behind the scenes, negotiations are taking place between the NFL and various media conglomerates that will shape how fans consume professional football for the next decade and beyond.

Immediately following Super Bowl LVI on February 6, 2022, the current NFL broadcast contracts are set to expire. These contracts dictate which networks broadcast each game, what time slot each game is scheduled for and on what devices viewers are able to watch the games. The current contracts were negotiated in 2011 and are worth over $5 billion in total each year.

During previous seasons, the NFL’s broadcast partners publicly stated that it would not start negotiating contract extensions until the NFL reached a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA. The NFL players association approved this CBA on March 15, 2020, leading many to speculate that television negotiations would begin shortly after. However, earlier that week, Utah Jazz center Rudy Golbert tested positive for COVID-19, sending all of professional sports and American society into uncharted waters.

Both the NFL and its broadcast partners preferred to delay the television contract negotiations. The NFL executives were busy adjusting the upcoming season for an unimaginable virus, while television networks wanted to wait and see what effects the pandemic would take on professional sports and viewership patterns. Now that the season is underway as “normal” and television ratings have largely stabilized, preliminary contract negotiations are taking place.

Below, I examine the history of NFL television contracts and the economic considerations behind them, before speculating what the next round of television contracts might look like.

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Week Three XFL recap, Players of the Week and Power Rankings

2/28/2020

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By Adam Bressler

St. Louis Battlehawks kick returner Joe Powell (44) scored the first kick return touchdown in XFL history during Sunday’s win over the New York Guardians. Photo by Getty Images

The XFL is beginning to hit stride, with a quarter of the first season in the books (10 regular season weeks, plus two weeks of postseason match-ups). By all measures, the teams are playing more cohesively and the league is giving us a preview of what to expect when the novelty wears off. Here are my quick thoughts on the happenings around the league from Week 3:

Surprisingly, there is much more parity in the XFL than I expected prior to Week 3. The undefeated Houston Roughnecks faced the winless Tampa Bay Vipers in a game that many XFL fans and pundits (myself included) expected to be a comfortable blowout. However, the Vipers kept it close, with the Roughnecks edging them out 34-27 in a shootout. Additionally, prior to Sunday afternoon’s game between the DC Defenders and Los Angeles Wildcats, I thought that the then-undefeated Defenders would have no trouble beating the then-winless Wildcats. However, to much surprise, the Wildcats steamrolled the Defenders, finishing with a final score of 39-9 and giving Cardale Jones his first loss since high school. The quality of play is beginning to level out, which is great news for XFL fans and executives alike.

We finally got to see a kickoff return for a touchdown under the XFL’s modified formation, but it required a bit of trickery to occur. The historic moment happened during Sunday’s game between the St. Louis Battlehawks and New York Guardians. The ball was kicked by New York Guardians placekicker Matthew McCrane and initially received by Battlehawks wide receiver Keith Mumphery. Mumphery almost immediately pitched it to teammate Joe Powell, who was running a reverse route across the field. Powell caught the Guardians off guard and was able to take a hole along the sideline for 84 yards to the endzone. The XFL has teams line up five yards apart from each other on the returning team’s 30 yard line. They are not allowed to move until the ball is either caught or touches the turf. If the ball is kicked out of bounds or into the endzone, it is placed on the 35 yard line. These changes are supposed to incentive returns and limit high speed collisions between players. It took a while for the rule change to result in a touchdown, but hopefully, this was just the first of many kick returns under the league’s modified rules.

The XFL’s average attendance was higher than Week 2, marking the third straight week of attendance growth. In Week 3, the league averaged 20,485 fans per game, up 7.4% from Week 2’s average of 19,071. This high average was supported by the league’s final two home openers. On Saturday, the Tampa Bay Vipers hosted the Houston Roughnecks at Raymond James Stadium and drew a reported attendance of 18,117 fans. The following day, the Battlehawks hosted the New York Guardians for their first home game at the Dome in St. Louis. The game garnered 29,554 fan, selling out the entire bottom bowl of the stadium, surpassing the XFL’s attendance record set in Seattle during Week 2. However, the attendance at stadiums which hosted previous games were not as strong. Seattle’s CenturyLink Field had a billed attendance of 22,060 fans, positive in its own right (the third highest attended game of the season), but down 24.3% from the attendance at the same stadium in Week 2. The Los Angeles Wildcats continued to have poor attendance at Dignity Health Sports Park, with a league low 12,211 fans, down 18.5% from Week 2. The Wildcats’s two home games are the two least attended games of the season. The XFL is now complete with all season openers, but all Week 4 games will be played at stadiums that have only hosted one game so far (Metlife Field, The Dome, GlobeLife Park and Raymond James Stadium). I am interested if the league can keep its average attendance growing, even without the boost caused by home openers.

Despite the strong attendance, television ratings fell for the second week in a row. The four games on ESPN, ABC, Fox and FS1 averaged 1.61 million viewers. That is down 21.8% from Week 2 and 48.5% from Week 1. Saturday afternoon’s Seattle-Dallas game broadcast on Fox drew the most viewers with an average of 2.05 million over the course of the broadcast. That is down 11.7% from Week 2’s broadcast on Fox. The second most viewed game was Saturday’s ABC game between the Roughnecks and Vipers, which drew an average of 1.91 million viewers, down 10.9% from the prior week’s game on that network. The Wildcats-Defenders game broadcast on Sunday on FS1 drew an average of 1.00 million viewers, down 28.3% from FS1’s Week 2 broadcast. The final game, which was between St. Louis and New York, was broadcast on ESPN and drew 1.47 million fans. Although many involved with the league are probably not surprised by the drop in viewership, I am sure that they were hoping for a smaller decline. Interestingly, the AAF actually increased viewers between Week 3 and Week 4 of its season, so it will be interesting to see if a similar pattern occurs for the XFL. However, the AAF had much lower ratings than the XFL has at this point in the season and AAF games were broadcast on more obscure networks. An argument can be made that the AAF had reached its floor by Week 3 of its season, while the XFL might still have room to fall.

Keep reading to see WCBN’s XFL power rankings, Players of the Week, MVP race standings, and our Week 4 game to watch.

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XFL Week Two recap, Players of the Week and Power Rankings

2/21/2020

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By Adam Bressler

In his first game back from injury, quarterback Landry Jones led the Dallas Renegades to its first victory of the season, a 25-18 win over the Los Angeles Wildcats. Photo by Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

The XFL is in full swing, which means another week of spring football to contain my appetite for the sport. I don’t have quite as much to say about Week 2 as I did last week, but here are my quick thoughts on the happenings around the league:

The main takeaway from Week 2 is that the XFL is a quarterback’s league. The teams with talented quarterbacks have been successful, while teams without have been tough to watch. Just consider this past week’s matchup between the DC Defenders and New York Guardians. The Defenders cruised to a dominant victory behind elite quarterback Cardale Jones, while the Guardians struggled to get a first down as quarterback Matt McGloin threw 2 interceptions and was benched in favor of backup Marquise Williams. However, when teams with competent quarterbacks face each other, as seen last weekend when the St. Louis Battlehawks, led by Jordan Ta'amu, faced P.J. Walker’s Roughnecks in Houston. The game was arguably the most balanced of the season intermission of quarterback skill. As a result, fans were able to enjoy a neck-and-neck shootout, which was more competitive than many NFL games. I am curious to see how the XFL attempts to address this problem in future seasons. Out of all players, the NFL is most likely to poach the XFL’s elite quarterbacks and I think very few fans and coaches would be surprised to see Walker or Jones in an NFL jersey in August. Will the XFL be able to retain enough elite quarterbacks from the pool of players unable to make it in the NFL? Will they attempt to poach players of their own from the Canandian Football League?

Week 2 featured the first instances several XFL rule modifications were taken advantage of. In the first game of the week, DC Defenders head coach Pep Hamilton called the first ever double pass in XFL history. Schematically, the play design was very similar to a flea flicker. Defenders quarterback Cardale Jones revived the snap and pitched it to running back Donnel Pumphrey. Pumphrey then pitched it back to Jones, who was standing unguarded in the pocket and was able to pass it to wide receiver DeAndre Thompkins for a 21-yard gain. However, since the first pitch went slightly forward, it is considered a forward pass. Under the NFL rules, Jones would be unable to throw the ball forward after reviving the pitch from Pumphrey. However, in the XFL, this play was perfectly legal. Also, Week 2 saw the first ever successful 3-point conversation in XFL history. After teams score a touchdown, they are given the option of attempting a 1-, 2- or 3-point conversion from the 2, 5 and 10 yard line, respectively. During the first week, not a single coach elected to go for 3 points after scoring. In the first game of Week 2, Hamilton’s Defenders elected to go for three late in the game after extending their lead to 27-0 over the New York Guardians. However, the conversation attempt resulted in an incomplete pass from Jones. The following day, the Los Angeles Wildcats were trailing the Dallas Renegades by 10 points in the 4th quarter, before Nelson Spruce scored a 44-yard touchdown, narrowing the deficit to 4 points. The Wildcats elected to go for the 3-point conversion and were aided by an offsides penalty called on Dallas, which moved the line of scrimmage half the distance to the goal line to the 5. Quarterback Josh Johnson connected with Adonis Jennings in the endzone to complete the conversion. Despite the conversion, the Wildcats ended up losing the game 18-25. Over the course of the season, I am interested to see the creative play calling that makes uses of these modified rules.

There might be a possible quarterback controversy in New York. Coming off of an incredibly dominant Week 1, Guardians quarterback Matt McGloin was frustrated by the Defenders strong defense. Through 3 quarters, McGloin completed 8 of 19 pass attempts for a total of 44 yards. Exacerbating the struggles, McGloin made some controversial statements to ABC’s sideline reporter immediately after throwing the first of two interceptions, saying, "We need to change the whole entire gameplan.” When asked for a statement during halftime, Guardians head coach Kevin Gilbride responded, "I need to go talk to him & figure out what the problem is because he needs to play better." After throwing a second pick and bring benched in favor of backup Marquise Williams, McGloin double downed on his sentiment, saying, "at no point in time did I think we were comfortable out there. At no point in time did I think we were in a position to try to be successful." I am keeping an eye on who head coach Kevin Gilbride decides to put under center during Week 3 when the Guardians face the Battlehawks in St. Louis.

The XFL also had its first referee no-call controversy last weekend. Early in the fourth quarter of Sunday evening’s St. Louis-Houston game, the Battlehawks were trailing 18-21 and driving down the field. On 2nd and 14, a Houston defensive lineman clearly jumped offsides. Believing it to be free play, St. Louis quarterback Jordan Ta'amu threw a risky pass intended for wide receiver Alonzo Russell. The pass was intercepted, but the anticipated flag never came. Houston punched in the ball for a touchdown two plays later and was able to hold off the Battlehawks with a final score of 24-28.

The league’s average attendance was higher than Week 1, however, the figures might be misleading. In Week 2, the league averaged 19,071 fans per game, up 9.3% from Week 1’s average of 17,454. However, Week 2’s average attendance was aided by the first home game at CenturyLink Field In Seattle, which garnered a league record attendance of 29,172 fans (first game to break 20,000 fans in league history). However, when comparing attendance between stadiums that hosted games in both Week 1 and Week 2 paints a bleaker picture. The Defenders had a billed attendance of 15,031 at Audi Field this past weekend, a 12.4% drop from Week 1 (17,163) — although it is worth noting that the temperature was below freezing in Washington at kickoff, which surely depressed attendance. Similarly, attendance at Houston’s TDECU Stadium (17,103 in Week 2) dropped 4.0% from Week 1 (17,815). The Los Angeles Wildcats had the most disappointing turnout of the week, with 14,979 fans at the team’s home opener, the lowest attended game all season. If the home opener at Dignity Health Sports Park was so low, that is not a good sign for the rest of the season in California. Next week will be the final two home openers. The Houston Roughnecks take on the Vipers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, whole the New York Guardians will face the Battlehawks in St. Louis at The Dome. Both are current or former NFL stadiums, so it is unlikely that either will sell out. However, the Battlehawks have the potential for a big turnout. St. Louis has the highest local television ratings for XFL broadcasts so far this season, and the city is clamoring for a team to support since the Rams moved to Los Angeles in 2016. The team has reportedly sold out the entire bottom bowl at The Dome, which amounts to around 28,000 seats. The team has no plans to open up the upper level and second hand sales are going for an average of $100 per ticket.

As expected, TV viewership dropped in its second week, but was still pretty respectable for a fledgling league. Between the four broadcasts, the XFL averaged 2.06 million fans, down 37.9% from last week (average of 3.318). Sunday afternoon’s Dallas-Los Angeles game, which was broadcast on ABC, drew the largest viewership of the weekend with an average of 2.397 million viewers. However, that is still a 29% drop from Week 1’s ABC game. The second largest viewership of the weekend was Fox’s coverage of the Tampa-Seattle game, with 2.324 million viewers, a 21% from the previous week’s Fox game. Saturday afternoon’s ABC game between New York and DC averaged 2.146 million viewers, while Sunday evening’s Houston-St. Louis game averaged 1.395 million viewers on FS1. Sunday’s game was the first to be broadcast on FS1, the least carried of the XFL’s four broadcast partners. Big viewership drops between weeks 1 and 2 are nothing new for spring football leagues. As novelty wears off, some fans are assured to tune out. Last year’s AAF had a 69% drop between weeks 1 and 2, although this was certainly magnified by a shift from CBS to sparsely-carried premium cable network NFL Network. The original iteration of the XFL in 2001 dropped 52% between weeks 1 and 2. XFL’s comparatively minor drop is promising, especially if the ratings can stabilize over the coming weeks.

Keep reading to see WCBN’s XFL power rankings, Players of the Week, MVP race standings, and our Week 3 game to watch.

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XFL Week One recap, Players of the Week and Power Rankings

2/13/2020

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By Adam Bressler

Houston Roughnecks quarterback P.J. Walker scored 4 touchdowns in his Week 1 victory over the Los Angeles Wildcats. Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images

After a nearly two decade hiatus, the XFL is back in action. Week 1 of the season did not disappoint and was an absolute joy to watch. The on-field product was palatable, while the off-field antics gave the fledgeling league some character. Here are my quick thoughts on the happenings around the league:

The gameplay was surprisingly enjoyable to watch. Unlike the AAF, which at times was incredibly slow paced, the pacing of XFL games felt akin to the NFL. The league featured extensive passing, which is expected considering the league’s inexperienced offensive line corps. Only 3 rushing touchdowns were scored league-wide during Week 1, compared to 12 passing touchdowns. It will be curious to see if these passing-centric playbooks continue over the course of the season or if teams rely more on running backs as the offensive linemen improve.

The first weekend of play featured nearly every fan favorite play. In the opening game between the Seattle Dragons and DC Defenders, Defenders cornerback Elijah Campbell blocked a punt, which was recovered by teammate Jonathan Celestin in the endzone for a touchdown. Later in that game, Defenders cornerback Bradley Sylve intercepted a pass intended for Austin Proehl and returned it for a pick six. At the end of the first half, Defenders placekicker Tyler Rausa successfully kicked a 54 yard field goal. And the most exciting play of the game occured in the third quarter when a fleaflicker pitch resulted in Defenders quarterback Cardale Jones connecting with Khari Lee for a 39 yard touchdown. All of these exciting plays occurred in a single game, more than many NFL games.

The rule changes that separate the XFL from the NFL were largely dormant during Week 1. After scoring a touchdown, teams generally went for the standard one extra point. There were only 8 two point attempts, with only three of them being successful. No team attempted a three point conversion during Week 1. The modified kick off, although successful in limiting touchbacks (only 2 occured all weekend), did not result in any major gains as expected. And not a single head coach had the guts to attempt the fabled double pass. In future weeks, I will be watching to see if any team has the guts to attempt a three point conversion or double pass.

A goal of the XFL from day one was to have quicker games. At the very first press conference which publicly announced the league, Vince McMahon said he wanted the league to have “less stall, more ball”. Although McMahon originally aimed for an average game to be under two hours, Commissioner Oliver Luck said that they are aiming for games to be under a more reasonable 2 hours and 45 minutes. In the first week of play, they were unable to reach that goal, with games coming out to an average length of 2 hours and 56 minutes. This is slightly shorter than the average NFL game (Around 10 minutes shorter to be precise), but still a far cry from the innovation that the league’s executives had in mind before the season. I imagine the average length will shorten slightly over the next few weeks as players, officials and broadcasters become more accustomed to the XFL’s modified rules, but I don’t anticipate it making much of an impact.

The one rule change that was very successful was the modified punting rules. Under the XFL rulebook, any punts that go out of bounds or into the endzone are treated as a touchback and placed on the 35 yard line. This incentives coaches to go for it on 4th and short, when they might have elected to punt otherwise. In the DC-Seattle game, Defenders head coach Pep Hamilton faced a 4th and 6 with the ball on the Dragons’ 31 yard line. In the NFL, a coach might attempt to coffin corner a punt, pinning the opening team near their endzone, but preventing the possibility of a return. Under the XFL’s punting rules, all coffin corners would result in a touchback, where the ball is placed on the 35-yard line. In this situation, it would have been more strategic to take a turnover on downs, or a knee for a loss of yards, than risk punting the ball out of bounds or into the endzone. As a result, Hamilton decided to go for it on 4th and 6, which resulted in a 31 yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Rashad Ross. Thanks to the XFL’s modified punting rules, an otherwise boring and routine play was replaced with one of the most exciting of the game.

The attendance and television viewership were both solid. All four games featured a billed attendance between 17,000 and 18,000 fans, with the league averaging 17,454 fans per game (HOU: 17,815; NY: 17,634; DAL: 17,206; DC: 17,163). This is slightly less than the 19,210 fans that the AAF averaged during Week 1 last season, but is comparable to the average attendance at an NBA or NHL game. The television viewership averaged 3.12 million viewers, which is quite decent for an upstart league. Last year, the AAF averaged 2.9 million viewers during its first week. The opening game between the DC Defenders and Seattle Dragons, which was broadcast nationally on ABC, averaged 3.30 million viewers. Saturday’s late game between the Los Angeles Wildcats and Houston Roughnecks averaged 3.29 million on FOX. The most viewed game of the weekend occured on Sunday for Fox’s coverage of the New York Guardians vs Tampa Bay Vipers, which averaged 3.39 million viewers. The final game on Sunday between the St. Louis Battlehawks and Dallas Renegades was broadcast on ESPN and received 2.50 million viewers, slightly less than the other three games since it was the league’s lone cable game. The three games on broadcast television ranked second, third and fourth, respectively, among this weekend’s live sporting events, behind only the PGA Tour on CBS. Notably, those three games surpassed ESPN’s coverage of Duke vs North Carolina men’s basketball and the Lakers vs Warriors game on ABC. The question remains if the league can match, or even improve, its decent attendance and viewership numbers over the course of the season. I will keep an eye on the billed attendance for the home openers in Seattle and St. Louis. Both cities are expected to draw a large number of fans and have even opened up more sections for seating during their upcoming games (Both the Dragons and Battlehawks play in NFL, or former-NFL, stadiums and are only selling tickets in certain sections of the stadium). Reportably, the Seattle Dragons expect to surpass 20,000 spectators, while the St. Louis Battlehawks are expecting over 25,000 fans in attendance. If the original XFL and last year’s AAF are any indication, the television viewership will almost certainly drop off during Week 2 as the league’s novelty wears off for many fans. Best case scenario, the XFL retains an average viewership of 2.5 million fans for its Week 2 slate of games, and then slowly grows its viewership over the remainder of the season.

Although I was initially skeptical, I enjoyed the in-game interviews with players. I found that these moments humanized the players and added personality to the broadcasts. In an upstart league with very few household names (Cardale Jones and Aaron Murray are the only two who come to mind) these interviewers are an ingenious method of helping fans get to know the players. Additionally, in an era where fans expect professional athletes to be infallible, these interviews work wonders in humanizing the players. Also, they aid in investing in storylines over the course of games. For example, consider Tyler Rausa, the placekicker for the DC Defenders. Early in the second quarter, Rausa missed a 35 yard field goal that would have tied the game. Immediately after the kick, sideline reporter Dianna Russini asked him about his mindset. Because of that interview, fans were especially proud of Rausa when he nailed a 54 yard kick later in the game. Finally, the in-game interviews are opportunities for the occasional gem, such as Seattle center Dillon Day’s inadvertent profanity after Day was penalized for an on-field skirmish.

Continuing off of the last topic, Pat McAfee as an XFL sideline reporter for ESPN is incredible to watch. McAfee, the former All-Pro punter for the Indianapolis Colts, was ESPN’s ears on the field for Sunday’s game between the St. Louis Battlehawks and Dallas Renegades. Throughout the game, he interviewed players, coaches and even found time to speak with XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck and Troy Aikman, the three time Super Bowl champion quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. McAfee’s best moment came of the evening came in the third quarter during a punt from the Battlehawk’s Marquette King. On Fourth & 4, St. Louis elected to punt from their own 37 yard line. King blasts the ball over 60 yards and it comes to rest right on Dallas’ 2 yard line, a near perfect punt. McAfee is gushing about how beautiful the kick was when Battlehawks linebacker Steve Beauharnais pushed it into the endzone, causing a touchback and placing the ball at Dallas’ 35 yard line. McAfee, ESPN’s undisputed punting expert, was outraged and instantly said “I'm going to go talk to that guy”. True to his word, mere seconds later, he got the scoop from Beauharnais (who claimed that he thought the Dallas returner had touched the ball, making it live). McAfee’s position as both a former player and fan of the game at heart makes him a perfect sideline reporter (I believe this reasoning is similar to why Tony Romo has seen so much success as Color Commentator for CBS). During Week 2, McAfee will be covering the 3:00 game on Sunday between the Dallas Renegades and the Los Angeles Wildcats, which will be broadcast on ABC. I am excited to follow McAfee’s commentary over the course of the season and to see if his stint with the XFL becomes a stepping stone for his career.

In my opinion, the league’s other broadcast innovation, allowing fans to hear play calls in real time, was not as successful. Before the first game, I was pretty excited about this, as I thought it would allow fans to be tipped off about what is happening. However, as I should have expected, the coaches communicated in coded phrases, and might as well have been speaking German. Maybe this has a chance to go viral in future weeks with a repeat of Peyton Manning’s 2015 “Omaha” trend, but for now, this addition will be appreciated by few.

The XFL is dominating their social media presence. The XFL is going to see much success if it can engage fans, particularly a younger audience, through social media. And so far, the league is doing a fantastic job. Even before the first kickoff, team accounts were forming rivalries with each other. In one poorly-aged tweet, the official Dallas Renegades account posted “@XFLBattleHawks QUICK! Re-post this while it’s still relevant for you!” and included a photo from @XFLonFOX which listed every team as undefeated (The Battlehawks went on to beat the Renegades 15-9). During games, accounts post highlights, scoring updates and interviews with players and fans. And these accounts are unafraid to break the norms of professional sports by posting memes about their opponents. One particularly schathing gif posted by the DC Defenders instagram account after their victory over the Seattle Dragons showed a video from Seattle's famous Pike’s Place fish market. The gif had a giant “L” superimposed over a fish, which was being tossed from a Defenders fisherman to a Dragons fisherman. To close out the weekend, the main XFL account posted “NFL Red Zone”-esque clip on Instagram showing every single touchdown of the entire weekend. The XFL’s social media presence enhanced my engagement with the games and players.

Finally, it would be a disservice to ignore the intangibles that made the weekend chaotic and unpredictable, yet awesome for fans. In what other league would you see players on a winning team (the St. Louis Battlehawks in this instance) shotgunning hard seltzer in the locker room after a Week 1 victory? What about a receiver on the Dallas Renegades doing push-ups as a self punishment after dropping a pass? Los Angeles Wildcats running back Elijah Hood leaped over a Roughneck Defender on Saturday. And probably the most absurd moment of all occurred when Houston wide receiver Kahlil Lewis started projectile vomiting during an extra point attempt (Apparently, he just chugged some gatorade and was too excited after teammate Cam Phillips scored the first touchdown in Roughneck history). Buckle up, because this is going to be a wild season.

Keep reading to see WCBN’s XFL power rankings, Players of the Week, MVP race standings, and our Week 2 game to watch.

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Four things to Watch in the XFL Reboot

2/7/2020

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By Adam Bressler

XFL Owner and wrestling tycoon Vince McMahon as he introduces the resurrection of the XFL on January 25, 2018. The first game of the league will occur on February 8, 2020. Photo by Alpha Entertainment

On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs captivated the nation with their comeback win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. But after the final note of the Lombardi processional was played and the last pieces of confetti were vacuumed out of the turf at Hard Rock Stadium, football fans braced for the annual hibernation that takes place from February to August.

Fortunately, this year, wrestling tycoon Vince McMahon is launching a substitute that aims to satisfy America’s appetite for football. Nearly two decades after the first iteration of the XFL collapsed, McMahon is hoping to learn from his mistakes when he reboots the league this weekend. Back in 2018, McMahon said, "I wanted to do this since the day we stopped the other one. A chance to do it with no partners, strictly funded by me, which would allow me to look in the mirror and say, 'You were the one who screwed this up,' or 'You made this thing a success.'" I have been following the revived league since December 2017, when the XFL was simply a punchline and a reboot was nothing more than speculation. On January 25, 2018, McMahon live streamed a press conference over the internet to officially announce the return of the XFL. From the onset, McMahon did not want to rush the league’s development saying in the initial press conference, “We have two years now to really get it right.” The original iteration of the XFL was criticized for cutting corners and rushing the league to market. In the 743 days since the league’s announcement, host cities were selected, team names were revealed, players were drafted and a competitor, the infamous Alliance of American Football, played both its first and last games.

Now that the revived league’s inaugural game is scheduled this weekend in Washington, DC between the DC Defenders and the Seattle Dragons, here are four things to watch over the course of the season:

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ESPN’s Secret Football-Industrial Complex

12/10/2019

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By Adam Bressler

It’s December, which means we are blessed with peppermint milkshakes at Chick-Fil-A, non-stop Christmas music at department stores, and numerous reruns of Elf on ABC Family. But for NCAA football fans, this time of year means only one thing: postseason bowls. Before we can watch intriguing matchups such as the New Year's Six bowls and College Football Playoff games, we have to sit through an onslaught of tiresome contests. In the ten days leading up to January 1, disappointing 7-5 teams face off against each other in bowls with names that could be ripped out of a Saturday Night Live sketch.

No longer do bowl games pay homage to commodities prominent in the hosting city. Many are designated with abstract ideas, product names or whatever a “Gasparilla” is. Even classic bowls with heritages dating back over a century have taken on corporate sponsors. The Orange Bowl is now known as the Capital One Orange Bowl, while even the famous Rose Bowl is officially branded the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual. Some names have become so outrageous that they require no such explanation: The Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl; the FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl; the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl; and the granddaddy of them all, the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.

However, something you may not have considered is who pays to put on these bowls. And who gets to keep any profits that the games generate? It is not the company that pays for the title sponsorship of each game, nor are they operated by the NCAA or any athletic conferences. Many of the older bowls are managed by non-profit entities that are entirely focused on managing the logistics of its respective game. These non-profits were established by local civic organizations, for the purpose of promoting tourism. However, of the 40 FBS bowls, 17 are owned by for-profit companies. The National Championship Game is owned by the College Football Playoff Administration LLC, an entity held by the 10 FBS athletic conferences and Notre Dame. Three bowls (the Pinstripe Bowl, the Quick Lane Bowl, and the Redbox Bowl) are owned and managed by the professional sports team that plays in that stadium (the New York Yankees, Detroit Lions, and San Francisco 49ers, respectively). The remaining 13 for-profit bowls are owned and operated by an obscure subsidiary of ESPN, called ESPN Events.

Wyoming Coach Craig Bohl holds up the championship trophy after defeating Central Michigan in the 2017 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The game, which is one of 13 bowl games owned and operated by ESPN Events, was acquired by the network in 2013. Photo by Darin Oswald / Associated Press

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How the Age of the Internet Created a Divide Between Michigan Fans

10/29/2019

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By Eric Margolin

In a twitter poll in August, @ItsAntWright (a Michigan sports personality) asked Michigan fans whether they would rather beat Ohio State and win a New Year’s 6 Bowl, or lose to Ohio State, win B1G championship, and loose in the national championship game. 49% said beat Ohio State and 51% said win the B1G championship and make it to the national championship. While this is just one sample, it is indicative of a larger schism within the Michigan fanbase between those that value beating our rivals and those that value national prominence. I believe the main reason for this divide is our current globalized society brought about by the rise of the internet.

Before I continue, I feel the need to say that rivalry games are important and do matter. Beating Michigan State is fun. Beating Ohio State is fun (I assume). The competitive fire of both teams in a rivalry game produces some of the best football I’ve ever seen. But it is not the end-all-be-all.

Before the internet, it took time and effort to get information about a college football team on the other side of the country. As a Michigan fan, why would I spend hours getting information on Alabama’s team knowing we most likely would never play the Crimson Tide? Why would I care about the score of the Texas-Oklahoma game unless we were going to play them? Overall rankings mattered sure, but Big Ten championships mattered more. Beating Ohio State, Michigan State, and Notre Dame mattered more. The 1970’s are remembered more for the “Ten-Year War” than Michigan’s bowl games or Michigan’s wins against top tier non-Big Ten schools. No one cared about bowl games because they were far away and against opponents who most fans had never seen before.

Society is currently as interconnected as ever. News spreads over social media like wildfire. In an instant, I can get the scores of every single college football game in America. The internet has allowed millions of people to be more invested in the sport of college football, not just their own teams. Many of us are no longer just “Michigan football” fans, but “College football” fans. Think of it like this. The Big Ten is the Creation of Adam. It’s a beautiful piece of art that you could spend all day looking at and still not fully grasp every element. Fans from the internet age acknowledge the beauty of the Creation of Adam, but realize it is just one of 50+ gorgeous frescoes that make up the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The internet has allowed us to see the rest of Michelangelo’s paintings just as clearly. Winning against the Big Ten is important, but the internet has allowed us to contextualize each win in the larger landscape of college football.

All of this is to say that there is a divide within the University of Michigan football fanbase. The older generation, who became fans before the internet age, value rivalry wins, while the younger generation value national prominence. I know I’m painting with broad strokes. Not every older fan disregards the CFP and not every younger fan ignores rivalry wins. But generally, those brought up with the internet are more aware of the national and global implications of events, including the results of college football games.

I do feel it’s important to mention one other very likely reason for this split in the Michigan fanbase. The geographic makeup of the University of Michigan is drastically different than it was even fifteen years ago. In 2003, 63% of incoming freshmen were from Michigan. In 2017 only 52% were from Michigan. This decrease in in-state enrollment (a nationwide trend) means that a lot of students/recent grads don’t know as many people who go to other Big Ten colleges. It’s much less exciting to beat a team when you can’t rub your win in someone else’s face.

I was raised in a Michigan household in New Orleans. Every Saturday at 11:00 AM (Central) my eyes would be glued to the TV. I saw the Henne to Manningham TD against Penn State, the loss to Appalachian State, Rich Rod’s first losing season, and the failed punt against Michigan State. All this to say, I’ve been following this team for a while. Yet the proudest I’ve been of the Wolverines wasn’t the one year (that I remember) that they beat Ohio State, but their Sugar Bowl win against Virginia Tech. National prominence matters a lot to my generation. It could be because of the internet or some other reason, but the goals (as set by the fanbase) for Michigan football, are changing as the fanbase does. You can either get on the train that wants to be the best in the country or get left behind and be unreasonably mad when we lose to Ohio State again.

Title Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute

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Industry Professionals Celebrate Intersection of Sports and Business at Annual MSBC

9/29/2019

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By Adam Bressler

ESPN’s Senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter (right) speaks with Seth Ader during an interview at the 2019 Michigan Sport Business Conference. Photo by Adam Bressler

As reminded by recent news of Draftkings’ partnership with the NFL and the sale of Fox Sports’ regional affiliates to Sinclair, sports and business are closely linked. For the past eight years, undergraduate students from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the School of Kinesiology have celebrated this intersection by organizing the Michigan Sport Business Conference. This year’s conference took place on Friday, September 27 in the Robertson Auditorium of the Ross School of Business.

The annual event draws speakers from the financial aspect of sports to discuss the latest trends within the industry. In the past, speakers have included Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Don Garber, Commissioner of Major League Soccer, Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, and Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins. This year’s conference featured four panels, three one-on-one interviews, and two condensed keynote-style presentations, dubbed “power talks”.

According to its mission, MSBC aims “to educate and connect the next generation of sport business professionals.” Outside of the structured discussions, there were opportunities for students to network with industry professionals and meet with representatives from sports organizations across the country.

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Industry Professionals Celebrate Intersection of Sports and Business at Annual MSBC

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