Is Your College Team Getting Money In Exchange For Losing?

Is it more fun to watch your favorite team dominate lesser competition or struggle against the best? Do you like to see them win even though the competition is terrible or pull off the occasional win against ranked teams while losing most of the time? 

With the re-alignment of college sports, one thing that seems to be looked over is the long-time success of the program. The SEC, Big10 and Big12 are gobbling up college teams and destroying other conferences like the PAC12. It’s pretty traumatizing for us as fans. 

We want to see our teams in the biggest conferences getting tons of money, but we also want to see them win on a regular basis. Jumping into a bigger pond is exciting until you look at the teams on the schedule and you get a twinge of nervousness. I think this is true of BYU basketball fans who are now going up against really good basketball schools starting with Kansas. It could be brutal. 

When Utah went to the Pac12, I thought they might struggle like Colorado, but they went to the Rose Bowl the last two years. Obviously, it is worth it to play the best schedule you can. There is also the downside. I would hate to be a Vanderbilt fan. They get the SEC dollars but is it worth it to be pummeled in that conference year after year? 

Everyone likes to cheer for a winner. If you are a fan of any team, you know how bad it sucks when all they do is lose. When the Jazz are terrible, I don’t watch as much. When you’re factoring in the long-term health of your college team, I think your brand will be seriously hurt over time if you are always at the bottom of the conference. 

I don’t have an answer for this, except to be one of those fickle fans you knew in middle school. They jumped on the fan bus of whatever team was winning, and you know, they were always celebrating championships.