How’s everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending a portion of it with the Six.
Earlier this week, the Big 10 football conference set a new bar on the billion-dollar industry of college sports.
Over the course of seven years beginning in 2023, four networks will pay a total of $8 billion for the right to broadcast Big 10 football games, a conference currently featuring 14 teams.
(Beginning in 2024, blue blood west coast programs USC and UCLA will join the conference, most certainly spiking the rights valuation significantly)
If this deal doesn’t kill off the pollyanish view of college athletes as ‘amateurs,’ I don’t know what will.
Consider this – by 2024, the year that USC and UCLA join the conference, projections have each Big 10 team (16 by then) earning almost $75M per season from TV distribution rights. By 2029, the final year of the seven-year contract, each school may be earning out as much as $95M.
Yes, that’s 95 million dollars. Per school.
That kind of money can buy a lot of books. And world-class professors.
But that’s not where it’s going to be spent.
It’s going to be spent on bigger, more lavish athletic facilities, on coaches, on athletic administrative support, and eventually, on the labor force, the players.
The professionalism of college athletics has been in the works for decades. But earlier this past week, we got a glimpse of just how much money we’re talking about.
And it’s only just the beginning.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
Poll Shows Suburban Dads Voting Democrat at Mid-Terms.
There is a prevailing assumption that a “red wave” is coming in November (at least nationally) and the GOP will make big gains in the House, Senate and in state gubernatorial races. That may be true, although more likely the House than Senate (hard to predict state-wide races). A new Fox News poll shows suburban dads are not drinking the red wave Kool Aid. In May, congressional Republicans had the dad advantage: 53 percent versus 33 percent. By August, dads had swung by 28 points. Now, its 44 for the Dems and 36 percent for the Republicans. Mediaite with a breakdown of the numbers.
2. Growing Gaps in U.S. Crime Reporting.
Is crime down? Who can say. In 2021, the FBI moved to a new national crime database collection system. As a result, 40 percent of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States just didn’t report crime data to the FBI last year. That’s a massive gap that seriously jeopardizes the ability to actually talk about crime in this country. For instance, in Florida and Pennsylvania fewer than 1 percent of agencies reported full data for last year, California’s law enforcement notched only 2 percent reporting, Maryland 4 percent, Illinois 12 percent and New York and New Jersey 13 percent. That’s a lot of missing data, as this piece from The Marshall Project reveals.
3. The Afterlife of a Brain Trauma Survivor.
A Canadian woman suffers a traumatic brain injury after a car crash. When she wakes up from a coma, "a quiet, easygoing young woman fell into a weeklong slumber and woke up talkative, tempestuous, and inscrutable.” Her executive function and inhibition control were completely changed. In this fascinating piece from Wired magazine explains, after years of trying to regain her former self, she came to reject the notion of innate identity and embrace the idea of a self formed by external circumstance
4. How Bird-Collecting Evolved Into Bird-Watching.
Until the early 20th century, the relatively few people who wanted to study birds tended to catch and kill them in order to do so. One steep change…. the arrival of decent binoculars in the early 1900s: Now any hobbyist with a good set of field glasses could study birds in minute detail. After the Second World War bird-watching transitioned into a passionate pursuit, hatching thousands of clubs and organizations throughout the world. And as the author of this piece from Smithsonian magazine argues, the world longed for more peace and tranquility and what more relaxing activity then staring through binoculars at bluejays and sparrows? If asked, I’d bring the wine or whiskey.
5. No Great Stagnation in Guinness Beer.
If, like I do, you love to sip a perfectly poured pint of Guinness (preferably at a quiet pub on the Emerald Isle or any Irish Pub in Chicago), you’ll enjoy this salute to the famous brewery and iconic Irish brand. Guinness has been a corporate trailblazer in every way, most profoundly for its own beloved employees, for 250 years. That’s how long the company has been in business. Still brewing strong after two-and-a-half centuries.
6. Ultramarathoner Attacked By Coyote. Instagrams Instantly.
Dean Karnazes is a 59-year-old ultramarathon runner. While jogging in California, he stopped to munch on an energy bar. While eating, a hungry coyote jumped Karnazes, apparently attracted to the runner’s energy bar, not his flesh. He survived the attack and felt compelled to shoot an Instagram video of the experience. I’ve never been attacked by a coyote but if so, I don’t know if my first impulse would be to shoot a video and share it, but that’s just what a bloody-faced Karanazes did. Don’t think a wild coyote attack would keep him from finishing his run. Gotta get those miles in no matter the obstacles.
Thanks for reading everybody and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for The Sunday Six? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.