Despite the rise of the NFL, college football remains hugely popular in the USA and Canada. Recent decades have seen plenty of positive changes take place.
One major change has been in the area of safety. American football has always been a tough sport and injuries can occur. Technological changes have seen the introduction of better helmets and pads. This has had a positive result in cutting down the number of injuries that take place.
It’s not just in the equipment that changes have taken place. Now it is possible to monitor player safety by using monitoring technology to track their movements. This isn’t just when matches take place but also during practice sessions. Potential injuries can be identified and being able to take action quicker can greatly help the player.
Tactical play has also seen big strides take place. The strategies that are employed by head coaches have become far more creative.
Technological advances have seen the introduction of video replays. Nothing is worse than a wrong decision costing a team a match. This new technology has allowed college football matches to include rulings that are far more accurate than in the past.
College football has had to adapt to the rule changes that have taken place in recent decades. For example, there’s the new targeting rules. These allow referees to be able to see video footage and then decide whether or not a player should be penalized.
Using aggressive defensive strategies isn’t so easy as before their introduction. Any contact with another player’s neck or head can lead to penalties being imposed. As a result, college football teams now need to make changes to their defensive plans.
There has to be adjustments too when it comes to offense. Changes to offensive pass interference rules has produced a new approach to the passing games of teams. More creativity is now seen in plays.
Preseason drills are important for any team. More emphasis is now being placed on coaching that places a focus on safety awareness and tackling. The latter doesn’t just protect the player but their opponents too.
Recent years have seen expansion in the gambling industry in both the US and Canada. A 2018 US Supreme Court Judge ruled that individual American states can have the final say on whether or not to make sports betting legal.
In the legislative process that takes place before legalization takes place, college football has often been part of the discussions. There are usually arguments over whether betting on college football matches should be allowed. When betting is allowed on college football, sites such as Powerplay in Canada find the matches attracting plenty of wagers.
As it seems with everything these days, money plays an important role in college football. Television contracts can be very lucrative indeed.
This year has seen the national champion determined in a new way. A 12-team play-off was used to decide the champions. Again, finances played an important role in this change with TV contracts and advertising revenue seeing hundreds of millions of dollars being received.
It’s good news too for the players as they now receive payments. There’s lots of money to be made from NIL – use of their name, image and likeness. This has been in place since 2021 after a US Supreme Court ruling.
This decided that the restrictions that had been in place on “education-related benefits” for college athletes should be removed. This was because they violated antitrust laws. Some college football players now find themselves in a position where they can become millionaires in their freshman year.
What if a college footballer is unhappy with their school? There’s now a “transfer portal” in place that allows players to move to a new team and this is now being used on a regular basis.
There may be more money involved now but college football still has an important role to play in the experience a youngster has at their college. Not just for the players but the fans who support their college teams and forge friendships.
The first college football match took place way back in 1869. There wasn’t such a desire to use playing as a chance to move onto becoming a professional and earning huge amounts. Learning about humility, community pride and teamwork was considered more important in the early days of college football.
Some college footballers did rather well in other fields. Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford both went on to become President. The latter played for the University of Michigan in the 1930s and nearly became a professional player.
What does the future hold for college football? Research carried out by ESPN saw over 200 players, administrators and coaches interviewed. 80% of respondents believe that sometime in the next ten years, universities will begin to directly make payments to their players.
75% were of the opinion that college football will become even more like the NFL. Nearly everyone thought that realignment of the conferences would continue in the future.
able trends emerged. Roughly 80 percent of respondents said that they believe universities will pay athletes directly within the next decade. Nearly 75 percent said they think the sport will become more like the NFL. And almost everyone surveyed (98 percent) said they thought the conferences would continue to realign.
At present there are five “Power” conferences but mergers will see even further expansion of college football and even more money being earned.
With the quality of players now higher than it’s ever been, that means more entertaining matches that will prove popular to watch. There will be even more players that make it big in the NFL, Before they do so, the matches they play for their college will be seen by a larger audience as Saturdays become almost as popular as the NFL Sunday fixtures.