https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... -gets-best
"Welcome to the Tomorrowland, er, Todayland, of collegiate athletics, currently being driven like a limousine on a frozen lake by the power brokers of college football -- OK, maybe just one power broker (singular) of college football -- steered toward a here-and-now future where maps and calendars no longer seem to matter. A new frontier where athletes can jump from one roster to another to improve their situation (but don't you dare call them free agents) and hire agents to help them find financial backers through name, image and likeness
(but don't you dare call it pay for play). All ultimately vying for a spot in a College Football Playoff poised to expand from four teams to a dozen, a bracket that promises to reward the highest-ranked teams with first-round byes and welcome previously denied outliers with postseason wild-card slots
(but don't you dare say it looks like the NFL)."
"Hey, NASCAR used to be so big. McGee, you worked there. What happened?"
"The answer is a cautionary tale. A warning shot. Past as prologue."
"I tell them about a sport that was on such a steep growth curve for so long, its leadership went to sleep at the wheel and didn't realize it. There was so much money coming in via unwavering ticket sales and always-rising TV revenue, it masked years of bad decisions. At some point, the leadership bought into the assumption that their core fan base would always have their backs no matter what they did.
So, they abandoned their roots, leaving traditional racetracks and ditching decades-long annual race dates for flashier new facilities in sexier new markets. Then, literally overnight, the economy tanked, and the cash flow stopped. When NASCAR looked up, the cool new fans and cool new markets it worked so hard to woo had moved on to the next cool thing.
But the sport had also wandered so far from its base that the old-school fans were nowhere to be found, having departed the less-charming present in search of nostalgia. They were angry Darlington Raceway was empty on Labor Day weekend. Just as college sports fans in Oklahoma and Texas will be angry when they don't see "Cowboys" on the football schedule or "Jayhawks" on the basketball calendar."