Who Killed College Football?

Steven Godfrey and Ryan Nanni
  • 4.9 (126)
  • FOOTBALL
Who Killed College Football?

College football has undergone radical, sometimes alarming changes in recent years, and this show explores the motives, history, and power behind six different suspects who have reshaped an American sport right before our eyes. wkcfb.substack.com

Episodes

  1. Suspect Number 5: Coaches & Agents

    6 DAYS AGO

    Suspect Number 5: Coaches & Agents

    From its earliest days, college football has had a tense relationship with players and money. But it wasn’t until the market for coaches started exploding that the gulf between what coaches earn and what players cannot really started to look outlandish. Agents, of course, helped usher the age of absurdity in, by winning contract terms that gave their clients more and more, even if they weren’t successful. As their pay skyrocketed, coaches were mostly silent about structural issues popping up in the sport, and for good reason: the status quo was entirely too good to overturn. Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 10m
  2. Bonus Episode: NFL Q&A

    NOV 13

    Bonus Episode: NFL Q&A

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.com Steven and Ryan sit down once again to review questions from the paid subscriber community on Substack, this time about Suspect Number Four: The National Football League. A free preview of the episode is available to everyone, but if you’d like to unlock the full episode and be able to submit questions of your own for future suspects, become a paid subs…

    10 min
  3. Suspect Number 4: The NFL

    NOV 5

    Suspect Number 4: The NFL

    Once upon a time, the NFL shaped its Draft policies (and date) around not angering college football. The power and popularity of The Shield have increased dramatically over the last four or five decades, but the league spent many of those years keeping underclassmen out as a default, and it took years of pressure from players like Barry Sanders, Cris Carter, and Herschel Walker to eventually open up a pro pathway for juniors. Why has the NFL shied away from taking on college football, and what has it meant to the college game to keep players trapped in one system for most of the sport’s history?Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 10m
  4. Bonus Episode: NCAA Q&A

    OCT 29

    Bonus Episode: NCAA Q&A

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.com As we do after every suspect is revealed and investigated, we turned it over to the paid members of the Who Killed College Football Substack community to interrogate us about the NCAA episode. Topics include why the Association and its members failed to plan for the future, the death penalty vs. just kicking a school out of the NCAA altogether, and what…

    7 min

  5. OCT 24

    Suspect Number 3: The NCAA

    The NCAA spent the better part of 70 years stamping out threats to amateurism wherever they could find them. From big scandals to seemingly minor violations, the Association was there to defend the idea that college football shouldn’t be about money, at least for the players. For a while, the courts, media, and public opinion all backed them up. But as the riches in the sport grew, the NCAA became something of a comic villain, and when the time came for college football’s relationship with labor to evolve, the NCAA never seemed ready to lead the charge.Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 9m
  6. Bonus Episode: Texas A&M President Emeritus R. Bowen Loftin

    OCT 17

    Bonus Episode: Texas A&M President Emeritus R. Bowen Loftin

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.com R. Bowen Loftin served as president of Texas A&M from 2010 to 2014. He also appeared in our Conferences episode, discussing the influence the Longhorn Network had on Texas A&M’s decision to head to the SEC. But he had more to share about life in the old Big 12, including some revelations about the Governor’s office and the reality of the conference’s po…

    5 min
  7. Bonus Episode: Conferences Q&A

    OCT 14

    Bonus Episode: Conferences Q&A

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.com As we do after each suspect, we took questions from the paid members of the WKCFB Substack community about the conferences episode. (Temple is mentioned twice here, to give you a sense of how winding this gets.) A free preview of the episode is available to everyone, but if you’d like to unlock the full episode and be able to submit questions of your ow…

    13 min

  8. OCT 9

    Suspect Number 2: Conferences

    Conferences didn’t used to be where all the bargaining power resided in college football, and their concerns used to be exceedingly local. Today, they’re conglomerates locked into escalating wars of spending and revenue, and leaning on their market strength (or weakness) to shape everything from the postseason to realignment. They’ve even found a way to make that business competition important to fans, and the conferences have no reason to slow down now.Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 9m
  9. Bonus Episode: Television Q&A

    OCT 2

    Bonus Episode: Television Q&A

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.com After we review each suspect in our college football murder mystery, we’ll be taking questions from paid members of the WKCFB Substack community about that episode – what went into making it, topics we didn’t cover, questions about the history we laid out, whatever. We got some great questions after the TV episode and enjoyed batting them around.If you…

    14 min
  10. Suspect Number 1: Television

    SEP 26

    Suspect Number 1: Television

    College football’s rise as a valuable TV product is still relatively new. For decades, the sport either couldn’t be televised or was limited at a national level. But once that market opened up, networks moved fast to get more of everything – more games, more bowls, more playoffs. They’re not just broadcast partners either. These companies have found a way to acquire partial ownership of college football, becoming business partners with conferences. Thanks to television, it’s easier than ever to watch almost every game at the FBS level. It’s also a lot harder to tell what that level’s going to look like in the future.Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 5m
  11. Prologue: College Football Is Dead, Long Live College Football

    SEP 25

    Prologue: College Football Is Dead, Long Live College Football

    Before we dive into the six suspects in the death of college football, let’s begin with a confession. College football is, in fact, very much alive, with upsets being sprung, conferences continuing to realign, and expanded playoff spots to fret over. The sport remains incredibly popular, entertaining, and, at least for certain segments, financially lucrative.But the college football you used to know? That might be dead, whether you’re unhappy about the slow erasure of amateurism, swollen superconferences disregarding geography, the power of television networks to shape the future, and any number of other changes that could shake your belief in what college football was, is, or should be.If you’re feeling that way, well, so is Nick Saban. So let’s start digging into how we got here in the first place. Producer: Michael Henahan Researcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com/subscribe

    27 min
  12. Who Killed College Football - Trailer

    SEP 20

    Who Killed College Football - Trailer

    Coming soon: Steven Godfrey and Ryan Nanni attempt to find out Who Killed College Football? in a six-part series examining the major power players who have wreaked so much havoc on the sport This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com/subscribe

    2 min
  • 12 Episodes

4.9
out of 5
126 Ratings

About

College football has undergone radical, sometimes alarming changes in recent years, and this show explores the motives, history, and power behind six different suspects who have reshaped an American sport right before our eyes. wkcfb.substack.com

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