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And that issues, as a result of whereas U.C.L.A.’s head soccer coach, Chip Kelly, makes about $4.7 million a yr, the college’s head coach for girls’s rowing makes about $100,000 in a metropolis with a number of the highest housing prices in America. To remain aggressive, U.C.L.A. and U.S.C. each want to have the ability to rent not simply top-notch head coaches, however assistant coaches and sports activities data administrators, too — and that employees wants to have the ability to afford a home. Tv cash might assist.
What makes the Massive Ten so profitable as compared with, say, even the very worthwhile S.E.C.? Brown instructed me that it not solely incorporates main media markets, like Chicago and Detroit, however that followers of Massive Ten groups stay all around the nation, distributing themselves throughout America in ways in which followers of different conferences usually don’t. Coupled with the Massive Ten’s slate of analysis universities, Brown stated, the strikes truly made lots of sense. “For those who’re a provost at U.S.C., you’ll fairly be capable to say, ‘We’re a peer establishment to Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois.’” Extra so than to Mississippi State, he stated. (This isn’t a slight to Mississippi State, a tremendous college that attempted for many years to bar folks from ringing cowbells at soccer video games earlier than giving up. Clanga.)
However Brown instructed me that the transfer, whereas seemingly smart, nonetheless makes him unhappy. He talked about that the journey can be extremely difficult for athletes. Think about making an attempt to make it from Ann Arbor to Los Angeles for a midweek monitor meet and again with finals looming. However extra vital, he’s nervous that conferences that aren’t tethered to a selected area or stuffed with colleges which have historic rivalries with each other will lack the intimacy that makes school sports activities enjoyable. “I believe a part of what makes school sports activities, like, not simply soccer, however school sports activities, a singular and enjoyable enterprise for customers and followers is that it very a lot isn’t the N.F.L. It’s very provincial. I didn’t go to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I went to Ohio State,” he stated.
I get that. A part of why I like school sports activities is that if you say you’re a Michigan fan, and also you meet an Ohio State fan, you instantly have a rapport (granted, one primarily based on rivalry). And in case you grew up within the Midwest, you might be assured of understanding individuals who attended just about each Massive Ten college, making it a household affair of types. I’ll not have met you but, however in case you went to Penn State, I have already got lots to debate with you. However I didn’t develop up with anybody who went to U.C.L.A., and I do know just one U.S.C. grad personally.
“If you have a look at the rivalries and the locations the place school sports activities are most original and energized and thrilling, it’s the place you have got that proximity. It’s the Holy Warfare the place each church congregation is filled with Utah and B.Y.U. followers. It’s the Egg Bowl,” Brown stated, referring to the annual rivalry sport between Ole Miss and Mississippi State. “The sport isn’t nearly soccer. It’s about faith and tradition and sophistication and Mississippi. And once we break these issues down within the title of making an attempt to achieve the biggest informal viewers, I fear that you’ll undermine your entire worth proposition and what makes this attention-grabbing. After which finally it turns into one thing like child N.F.L. After which folks will notice, ‘If I’m gonna watch the child N.F.L., I’d fairly watch the N.F.L. the place all the gamers are good.’”
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