I for one welcome our new playoff overlords

The highest level of college football is finally getting a playoff. This is something for which I have advocated, including co-developing the Enhanced Bowl Season to incorporate a 12-team playoff within the existing constraints of the power structure. The conference commissioners did better by ceding a little power/control for the long-term good of the sport (and ultimately themselves). I still have issues with a 4-team system, but many of the flaws I noted can be reduced by breaking with the status quo.

I've disagreed with some actions of Jim "the bulldog" Delany and Mike Slive over the years, but there is no denying the deftness with which they've navigated many competing interests. They're smart men and have done an excellent job representing their conferences' interests. By moving to a playoff, they continue to do so - Delany estimates that this will bring 3-4 times the current revenue, an estimate that may be conservative. Further, this will make the regular season even better by keeping more teams in the hunt for a national championship longer into the season. More importantly, it may help stem the tide of cupcake scheduling for fear of getting a loss.

It looks like there will be a selection committee to choose the four tournament teams. There are many problems with that, but a positive will be removing the influence of the polls. They will still exist, but they will go back to being interesting fodder for debate. The selection committee will surely be influenced by them, but will process them through mental filters.

To be clear, this change is the result of pressure from the outside:

• Pollspeak.com shed light on the inherent flaws of human voting and advocating for transparency. The world is better when those with power provide transparency (c.f., Arab Spring, US government, Google).


• Playoff PAC consolidated the opposition and put forth a focused counter case.


• The media played a huge role with blogs (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BCS) and books (Death to the BCS)


• Larry Scott brought cultural change and the willingness to take on sacred cows.


• Federal & state governments got involved


• And don't discount the bowls who sewed the seeds of their destruction through avarice and corruption.

The new playoff won't be perfect. It may not even be good. Fans, pundits, and critics will still rightfully howl. Biases will still permeate the selection committee and power interests will still work to be maintained. But it will be better. This is progress toward fairness on the field. Decades of lowering my expectations make me happy about that. But watch this space sometime after 2014 for more complaints.

Fantasy sports and advice for fantasy auction drafts

Guest post. The ending of the NFL lockout was a relief to fantasy football players, who dreaded an Autumn of family time and achievement in the workplace.  Thus, I though it would be an appropriate time to share this post.  This post is part of series of posts written by my sport management students and is cross-posted on the UMass Center for Spectator Sport Research blog. The authors of this post are Cody Chrusciel, Jose Genao, John Halas, Jordan Koren, and Trevor Marshall.

America is becoming addicted to fantasy sports. A Chicago-based outplacement firm estimated that companies lose $7.4 billion during the 17-week NFL season as employees spend an average of 10 minutes of company time each day fidgeting with their teams.

Fantasy sports are big business. While the foundation for early fantasy leagues in the 60s and 70s was laid by a small group of people with an affinity for numbers and a close connection to the game, the industry has expanded from roughly 500,000 players in 1988 to 27 million in 2007.
Of the top five providers of fantasy football leagues (Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, NFL.com, CBS Sports, and Fox Sports), all but one (NFL.com) are among the 500 most visited websites in the United States according to Mintel.

In 2005, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (which represents 100 industry companies) released the following demographic information about fantasy sports players:

• 92% of fantasy players are male. 77% are married.


• 86% own their homes. 91% are Caucasian.


• 71% have a bachelor's degree. 92% attended college.


• 59% make over $50,000 annually.


• Players spend an average of $493.60 per year on fantasy.

The 29.9 million current fantasy football participants represent 11 percent of the U.S. population – a 69% growth rate from 2003. And due in large part to recent legislation exempting fantasy sports from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, it's safe to assume this industry will continue to rapidly expand in the future.

Fantasy sports are similar to the stock market in the sense that players accumulate points based on on-field performance, strategy is influenced by rules and regulations (set by a league commissioner rather than by the government), and there are different ways to acquire players (a secondary market exists through trades and add/drops). Fittingly, the strategies employed by fantasy sports players are similar to those utilized in finance.

Fantasy auction drafts – in contrast to the alternative "snake" draft – require owners to develop a pre-conceived strategy. Auction drafts are inherently more unpredictable due to the elements of human nature that become apparent during the bidding process. Auction drafts present a high degree of risk, but the potential for higher reward also exists (having the league's top quarterback and runningback on the same fantasy team is possible in an auction draft, only at the expense of rest-of-roster depth).

Here are a few tips to keep in mind heading into this year's auction draft:

• Know your league settings (scoring system, roster spots available, etc.)


• Rank and establish a ceiling for players.


• Utilize tier system at each position. Look to identify the best value within each tier.


• Keep bye weeks in mind (you don’t want to draft two players at the same position who will both be unavailable the same week).


• Remain disciplined. Resist the allure of over-bidding on your favorite players or deviating from your pre-draft strategy.


• Remain cognizant of your and your opponents' rosters and budgets at all times.


• Don't leave money on the table (there is no reward for having extra cap space following the draft).

Why Fiesta Bowl shenanigans might benefit Jerry Jones

The CEO of the Fiesta Bowl, John Junker, was fired for paying employees to make political contributions and then covering it up. This is in addition to a host of other offenses, like using Fiesta Bowl money to pay for a strip club visit (pdf of full report). Junker was already a popular target for his nearly $600,000 per year compensation at a tax-exempt, non-profit organization. Who might stand to win from this executive shake-up? Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones.

Already talk has swirled about the Fiesta Bowl losing its place among the BCS bowls. Should that happen, the Cotton Bowl is well positioned to take its place (the game, not the facility). The Cotton Bowl Classic is played at the palatial Dallas Cowboys stadium, and prior to the BCS, was one of the highest prestige bowls.

Some (including your author) have felt it would work its way into the BCS mix somehow even before the Fiesta Bowl scandal - now it might have an even easier path. Or the BCS committee (made up of the six BCS conference commissioners and the Notre Dame A.D.) may just use its leverage to negotiate concessions from the Fiesta Bowl to stay in the mix, such as a more generous pay out to participating conferences.

The benefit of having the Cotton Bowl as a desirable alternative is the same benefit that professional sport leagues see to having "open markets" for teams: leverage. For example, the NFL benefits by not having a team in Los Angeles because it can use that as a bargaining chip when trying to get public funding for stadiums in existing locations. "If you Minnesotans don't pay more in taxes to fund a new stadium for the Vikings, we'll just move the team to L.A." (hey, it's happened before).

This idea, part of the larger topic of franchise free agency, is how one party can gain negotiating power (i.e., leverage) over another. If there weren't viable places into which teams could move, the threat of them leaving town is an empty one. For the Fiesta Bowl, the threat of losing its BCS status is very real because of the attractiveness of the Cotton Bowl Classic as a bowl destination.

Leading to a lockout? NFL vs NFLPA collective bargaining negotiation

Guest post. This post is part of series of posts written by my sport management students and is cross-posted on the UMass Center for Spectator Sport Research blog. The authors of this post are Lilah Brown, Dan Hatman, Oleg Kamenetsky, Miha Kline, Ariel Weisman.

To put the current negotiations in perspective you need to look at the last 20 years.  The Reggie White vs NFL antitrust case led to NFL players gaining free agency, while the owners gained a salary cap and floor.  The salary floor was based on the players having access to 58% of broadcasting and attendance revenue.  Subsequent renegotiations of the CBA led to increases in minimum salaries and increased contributions to pensions and 401K’s.  In 2006, the owners’ in-fighting over revenue sharing allowed the NFLPA to gain tremendous leverage in the negotiation.  This led to the players gaining access to 59.5% of ALL football revenues.  In 2008, the owners opted out of the CBA saying that the 2006 agreement increased salaries to the point that the owners felt they were not making the same profits.

The owners said after opting out that they wanted to renegotiate the CBA with an 18% revenue exemption that the players would not have access to. The NFLPA expressed concerns over justifying this cut, when NFL teams average $31 million in profit.

The NFLPA has said publicly that they have no intention of accepting an 18% pay cut and are preparing for a lockout in 2011. To protect the players, the NFLPA has saved $200 million as a lockout fund by increasing dues by $5,000 per player and the players signing over their royalties from group licensing rights to the NFLPA.  From this fund, the NFLPA hopes to pay each player $60,000 in 2011 if a lockout occurs.  The NFLPA has made their perspectives public, hoping fans and lawmakers put pressure on the owners to lower their demands.  One such strategy is to remind the public that the NFL is a non-profit and does not pay taxes on its $8 billion of revenue.  Another move has been to highlight the NFL’s reluctance to open its books to the NFLPA or the public in order to prove that they are actually hurting financially.

The NFL owners have countered many of these points.  The NFL argued that their non-profit status should remain as they do not collect the $8 billion in revenues, but rather pass those profits on to the 32 teams, who in turn, pay taxes on that money.  Furthermore, several NFL owners have made multi-million dollar investments into new stadiums to grow revenues for both owners and players.  The owners want players to contribute to these projects and share in their risk.  The NFL also clarified the 18% cut.  This would not be a straight 18% reduction in player salaries, but rather the NFL would take 18% of the total pie, before revenue sharing, to cover operating expenses. The remaining 82% would be shared with 60% going to the players and 40% going to the owners. The players would end up only seeing around 5% less than they currently do and the owners argue that this 18% ($1.4 billion) would be used to grow league revenues, allowing for higher player salaries in the future.

As fans, we see this as an argument between millionaires and billionaires but this potential lockout also impacts local government (less tax revenue), corporate sponsors (less funding), stadium development (suspended), NFL employees in both the league and team offices, coaches, transportation groups, and stadium & media employees (unemployment).

Scheduled sponsorship revenue for the 2011-2012 season

Revenue Source	Value (in millions)
Visa	$30
AB InBev	$50
Verizon	$187.5
EA Sports	$30
Reebok	$30
Other sponsorship discounts	$125
Preseason	$500
Potential league-wide losses	$952.5

So it's come to this - Fees for tailgating

One of the things I teach my sport marketing students is to look for new sources of revenue. If you are able to provide the consumer with something "extra" and extract additional income through doing so, you're on your way toward doing your job very well.  But there are times when my instructor/practitioner sides come in conflict with my personal views as a consumer.

Today's source of internal dissonance: a company is charging fans $5 to walk through the tailgating parking lot at Cleveland Browns games (HT: @emhuddell).

On the one hand, these individuals ARE using the services provided by the parking lot company. Failing to charge them passes the cost onto someone else, creating a negative externality. Why should those parking in the lot have to pay extra so that adequate services can be provided to accommodate all the freeloaders?

On the other hand, this just feels wrong. When you are a host of tailgate, you understand the situation is not financially fair. You buy food & drinks. You spent hundreds or thousands of dollars in gear. You spend all week preparing the food. You get up early to get to the parking lot. You pay a parking fee that covers the services used by you and your guests.

Attendees at a tailgate are guests of the host. You don't charge visitors to come to a party at your home (well, except the $5/cup college parties), and you wouldn't charge them to come to your tailgate. Hosting a tailgate party isn't about making money, it's about having fun with your family and friends.

If this company needs to recoup their costs, it should do so by charging the tailgate hosts. This is a situation where social norms should trump market norms. While it's not financially "fair" for tailgate hosts to pay more, it is a social expectation.

I should note my personal biases here: I love tailgating. My wife and I have hosted tailgates for many sports, including football (DI and DIII), lacrosse, and curling. Our wedding registry was half tailgating paraphernalia. Based on my experience, I feel competent to judge the mores that guide the tailgating social world. If anyone thinks otherwise, let's argue about for several hours in the parking lot some weekend.