Florida Football will have its annual Orange and Blue game on Saturday at 1 PM. Unlike other programs around the country, the Gators are having a spring game that the public can attend and enjoy.
But in an ever-growing trend, the Gators have restricted access to watching the spring game if you are not inside The Swamp this weekend.
Florida Football: Stone Age
Swamp247 reported yesterday that Florida will not be televising the spring game tomorrow.
This follows the trend we have seen around the country where coaches are paranoid about having other coaches try to tamper with players who have a great spring game. According to Swamp247, Texas A&M is the only SEC school to actually announce a television broadcast of their respective spring game.
So, in one breath, Florida isn’t doing anything different than anyone else.
It also doesn’t mean this is a good thing for Gator fans.
Not everyone can make it to The Swamp on Saturday, whether due to living 3+ hours from Gainesville or due to prior commitments like a soccer tournament. So, the ability to watch the spring game on broadcast better allows fans to stay connected with the team heading into the summer.
Part of the reason the NBA, MLB, and NHL have struggled to gain viewership over the past decade compared to the NFL has been those leagues making it harder and harder to actually watch their games, whereas the NFL makes sure that the local team is on free TV for all 17 games.
Fans become more invested in a product they can actually watch. One reason Gator Baseball, for example, has seen a boom in popularity is that all of its games are easy to access on TV.
At the end of the day, college football teams are paid more than the track, golf, and swim teams combined not because of meritocracy but because people care more about what they do.
So it’s a step backward for the sport as a whole to look at fans and go, “Yeah, we aren’t going to let you watch us. But also, can you still please donate to our NIL fund?”
Fans in The Swamp will have a great afternoon and great weather. Fans not able to make it will have to hope someone streams it off their phone.
Welcome to the new era of college football.
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