College Football Season

XFL Football discussion.
GDAWG
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Re: College Football Season

Post by GDAWG »

The Big 10 has canceled and will play in the spring

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ring-2021/
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XtremeFanForever
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Re: College Football Season

Post by XtremeFanForever »

Well, they might play in the spring.

XFL is probably better off aiming for a 2022 season. Either the pandemic improves and they have to contend with college football or there's no significant improvement and staging a season becomes even more difficult.
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Tank55
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Re: College Football Season

Post by Tank55 »

It's all about the TV deal. If college football is playing in the spring, are they playing on Sundays? What about Tuesdays? If someone wants to pay for it, I don't see why the XFL wouldn't take it, regardless of the competition.
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GDAWG
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Re: College Football Season

Post by GDAWG »

So apparently, the Pac-12 is likely to follow suit and cancel in the fall.
MGB01
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Re: College Football Season

Post by MGB01 »

Well the question now is when and where. Do they have a ten game season (then the champ game) in the XFL's spot on Saturday with one game on ABC and one on FOX so they can be done by the draft? FOX would love to have a "Sports Saturday" college basketball/football quadrupleheader, but would they really compete with themselves say with Ohio State vs Penn State on ABC and Michigan vs Michigan State on FOX with the Big Ten semis on CBS? Fat chance. Not to mention February in the midwest.

The Pac 12 has more or less been crap in basketball for over a decade so it won't matter much there. In fact if the Big Ten only has a short spring season FOX can plug in a Pac 12/MWC football doubleheader which lines up with the west coast (remember they had a noon ET start set for Florida State/Boise State in September so this would spare that nonsense). The same weather concerns do apply for Washington, Oregon, and Idaho (Boise) although neither Dragon game had a blizzard or anything.

Nothing's stopping the league from maybe getting that Sunday buzz off a college Saturday however. FOX could always pair it up with NASCAR on Sundays they don't have mid-afternoon telecasts (as well as ones they either had the race on Sat or moved it to FS1).

Less than ideal, but not all bad news.
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johnnyangryfuzzball
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Re: College Football Season

Post by johnnyangryfuzzball »

XtremeFanForever wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:04 pm Well, they might play in the spring.

XFL is probably better off aiming for a 2022 season. Either the pandemic improves and they have to contend with college football or there's no significant improvement and staging a season becomes even more difficult.
Then you're up against the Olympics, though. That was part of the reason the old XFL never came back.

Ironically, it might well be too late for this, but their best hope at this point is most likely rushing and trying to get in a fall 2020 season in October and November. Maybe frame it as a completion of the spring season, depending on who's available after NFL preseason cuts. Fox's only major college football rights are the Big Ten, and with them taking themselves out of contention, that leaves an open time slot. There will likely never be another opening for a competing fall professional league like this in our lifetimes.

Otherwise, you're looking at having to wait until 2023... and by then it'll be ancient history.
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Re: College Football Season

Post by 4th&long »

XtremeFanForever wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:04 pm Well, they might play in the spring.

XFL is probably better off aiming for a 2022 season. Either the pandemic improves and they have to contend with college football or there's no significant improvement and staging a season becomes even more difficult.
2022 is a buzz kill, no need to buy the assets to restart 2yrs later. 2021 or nothing. Could it be a bubble? Reduced # of game? Reduced # of teams? Sure, absolutely ..... but a 2 yr wait for a league that played 5 games? Not smart.
MGB01
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Re: College Football Season

Post by MGB01 »

It wouldn't necessarily be too late to have a four-team mini-run in say, St. Louis in November--depends on how much is left infrastructure-wise, but the other three power conferences are either playing or moving towards it, so it's not like there's that many open slots. Sure, FOX's Big Noon Saturday is out (basically created for Ohio State, Michigan, and Oklahoma), and there's next to no demand for a whole day of Big XII football--though they have had two Big XII games on before. But which slot do you put it in? Mid afternoon? CBS SEC territory. Prime time? FOX will lock that in after the World Series. Noon? That'd really make the league look out of place.

Also PJW and Jordan Ta'amu will be "up north", so if you were gonna go the counterprogram route you really needed to have them.

I'd start in December, remember most of these conferences have also shut down winter sports (i.e. basketball) until the new year as well, although then you run into the possibility of the NFL adding more Saturday games--might have to. Then get ready for a May restart proper.
laxtreme56
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Re: College Football Season

Post by laxtreme56 »

There's no way they can get a quick enough turn around to play this fall, and Spring 2021 is unlikely as well. The XFL is a gate driven league and needs fans in the stands to support its growth. Even if crowd restrictions are lifted by the new year, I don't see crowds of 15-20k "braving" it for an XFL game. Wait til 2022. Build up your core sponsors, start your marketing and ticket sales in Spring 2021 and have a full 12 months to build a season ticket base. Court various media outlets, Fox and ESPN aren't going to pay a penny to air the games, but DAZN or Amazon may shell out $10-15 million for a Thursday night game of the week, that would cover 50-75% of payroll before a single ticket or T-shirt is sold. The XFL is not conducive to a bubble tournament, people in Tampa aren't going to care about the Vipers if they physically can't watch them at Raymond James Stadium.
nick1091
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Re: College Football Season

Post by nick1091 »

At this point I tend to think 2022 is the best option.

At present all XFL has is the team names/branding, a few executives, and the rule book. That leaves seven months for hires of all team specific personnel, coaching staffs, hundreds of players and determining how to allocate them, venue contracts, TV carriers (paying or otherwise), etc. etc. That's a lot to be done in a short span. Aside from venues all those things are still a requirement if they have a bubble scenario, with the exception being you need one venue that can house thousands of people for likely months.

My advice would be to take the time and due diligence to build up all the above with the time it takes. If the articles about them wanting to be a "365 day" league are accurate, you could probably create some kind of documentary series to build up interest and maybe as a fore runner to a network that would eventually air the games.

I'm all for the league starting back as soon as it's feasible, but I also think that restart should be something that's sustainable and representative of the product as you want it perceived long term. In the best case scenario, the B10/Pac-12/who knows who else at this point delaying their seasons actually can function as a proof of concept that the market for spring football is huge and very real.
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