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Originally Posted by Rams Fan
You bring up a valid point and I’m not disregarding that basketball has a national following for it. It’s just not THE main factor for all of these conference alignments.
It’s football-plain and simple. And the. Anything involving basketball is an additional bonus for the most part.
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Just looking at Kentucky. 2019 FB attendance 425,000. Hoops 390,000
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Texas and Oklahoma aren’t joining the SEC because they have a large following for basketball-they’re joining because of football.
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Markets. Then football second. See Buttgers, Maryland.
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And football moves the needle for decision making. You have anomalies like Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, UNC where basketball still has a large national following that probably supersedes football, but it’s still not as large of a $ driver. as footbal.
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2019 all NCAA levels FB attendance 47M. All hoops 31M. Again, the gap isn’t nearly what the avg fan has been told by talking heads.
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KU won’t fall to the wayside like Kansas St. because of their basketball following, but from a department and revenue standpoint, having football not be a complete embarrassment for the last decade would probably benefit them more for the next conference wars(if there’s another one).
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KU FB is a lost cause and it’s prinariky because they’re next door to an NFL franchise. Even when the Chiefs suck, I go to the games and watch them all because the quality is so superior. Not many programs (if any) can compete with The Shield.