From Game Day to Pay Day: How College Sports Risk Losing Its Fans
In the words of famous philosopher Charles Barkley, “College athletics is so f—d up right now. I don’t know what they’re gonna do to fix this thing. It’s out of control. I don’t know how you’re gonna put toothpaste back in the tube.”
He’s right, but despite its flaws, the current system appears to be working for many in the ecosystem:
The coaches – many of whom have huge multi-million-dollar contracts, including 10 Division I football coaches with contracts exceeding $10 million a year
Division I athletes – who were awarded an estimated $1.67 billion in NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) deals for the 2024-2025 season, and the agents who brokered them
The nearly 9,000 collegiate football players (all divisions) – who entered the portal during the 2023-2024 cycle in an attempt to freely transfer to another university with no adverse consequences
The Power Four Conferences – which have television broadcast rights agreements that today total an estimated $17.2 billion, and their member institutions that share in that revenue
But what about fans? How are they faring?
Fans are becoming increasingly emotionally disconnected from collegiate sports and their respective teams, and quite frankly, growing increasingly fatigued with being the primary funders of a system that they are growing progressively dissatisfied with.
There are several primary drivers:
The Money
With the settlement of the House vs. NCAA lawsuit, universities can now pay a maximum of $20.5 million directly to athletes, with the pool increasing 4% annually during the 10-year agreement.
Beyond that, collectives can continue to structure NIL deals for athletes that are now at least vetted by a third party under the auspices of the new College Sports Commission. Oh, great, another governing body.
This new model places enormous financial pressure on athletic departments. As a result, many programs across the country have introduced “talent fees,” per-seat contributions and surcharges on tickets and concessions, and even new student tuition fees to cover athlete compensation and escalating operational costs.
These measures and others create donor fatigue and strain fans' willingness to provide the emotional and final investment that once defined college athletics.
The Transfer Portal
In collegiate sports, there is now free agency every year for any player in any sport who wants to transfer to another university for any reason – lack of playing time, dissatisfaction with the coaching staff, or a desire to earn more NIL money at another institution.
For example, UNC brought in 41 new players via the transfer portal ahead of the 2025-2026 season, Oklahoma State 30, Arkansas 30, Arizona 29, Texas Tech 21, and LSU 18. Closer to home, USC brought in 11 basketball players via the portal for the 2024-2025 season and 9 for the upcoming season out of a total team of 15.
But it’s not limited to men’s sports. This past season, nearly 30% of the slightly more than 5,000 Division I women’s basketball players entered the portal.
This roster churn makes it much harder to connect and build loyalty to a team that is new every year. And it’s no piece of cake for the coaches either, who not only have to recruit incoming freshmen but re-recruit their entire current team each year. It seems that loyalty only goes one way these days.
Conference Realignment
Big-time conference realignment began about 15 years ago and continues today – all in an effort for schools to maximize television and media revenue in expanded conferences, create greater NIL opportunities for athletes, and gain a competitive recruiting edge for players who desire to play on a bigger stage.
In that process, many high-profile, traditional rivalries that drove intense fan interest in collegiate sports across the country, particularly football, were lost.
The lost rivalries include Texas vs. Texas A&M, Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia, Nebraska vs. Oklahoma, Penn State vs. Pittsburgh, Florida vs. Miami, Arkansas vs. Texas, and Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State, to name just a few. And the USC vs. Stanford game.
In addition, realignment has created conferences that make no geographic sense, which is a positive for the networks, but dramatically increases team travel expenses and alienates many local fans.
As a result, fans, who long served as the lifeblood of college sports, now feel like secondary cogs in a system that increasingly prioritizes dollars, media and image rights, and short-term wins over tradition, community, engagement, and loyalty.
To be sure, this new model for collegiate sports is not sustainable in its current form, particularly for devoted fans.
Going forward, athletic departments will place an even greater emphasis on fundraising, maximizing revenue, controlling costs, and improving the in-person game day experience, among other things. They, along with some combination of the new commission, the NCAA, Congress, and a proposed Presidential commission, or some other new entity, need to bring some sanity to the current state and take a much closer look at what’s ultimately in the best interests of the fan.
Because without the fans, this becomes nothing more than a made-for-TV movie.