This was the headline on a story in SI.com: “What’s driving all of the midseason firings in college football?” It was dated October -- of 2021.

Big college brands and captivating storylines have buoyed the pregame football shows on ESPN and Fox Sports to major increases in viewership this season, writes my colleague Austin Karp.

ESPN and ESPNU -- U carries a simulcast of the main feed -- are averaging 2.03 million viewers for “College GameDay” in the 9am-12pm ET window. That’s up 11% from 1.83 million through the same period last season. It also marks the show’s best start to the season since 2010, when the show expanded from two to three hours (the show began a full three-hour simulcast on ESPNU in 2018).

“GameDay” has combined the big brands -- Alabama at Texas for starters -- with the most compelling stories, which has taken ESPN on a journey that included a first-time trip to Appalachian State on the heels of its win at Texas A&M, and now its debut in Lawrence with an undefeated Kansas this coming weekend.

Fox is averaging 979,000 viewers for “Big Noon Kickoff” from 10am-12pm on Saturdays, up 22% from the same period last season. There was no pregame show in Week 1 this season for Fox, which followed up by taking the show to Alabama-Texas followed by Oklahoma-Nebraska. The Fox audience got a big boost in Week 2 because the net began its “Big Noon Saturday” slate for the season with Alabama-Texas in Austin, which remains the net’s best CFB audience this season to date (and Fox’s fourth-best CFB game on record). Looking head-to-head during the 11am-12pm hour, ESPN/U are averaging 2.6 million viewers through Week 5, while Fox’s audience during that hour is roughly half of that (1.3 million season-to-date). Fox has leaned heavily on its big brands to elevate “Big Noon Kickoff” with the traveling show setting up at the site of the Michigan game for the next three weeks.

When I caught up with Christy Hedgpeth, president of Playfly Sports Properties, she was scavenging for office space at Nebraska, her newest university partner. A few days earlier, Playfly had closed on a 15-year deal to secure the Cornhuskers’ multimedia rights. It was Playfly’s most substantial individual MMR deal since the company entered the college space in 2020 -- the deal will pay Nebraska nearly $20 million a year. Hedgpeth came to Playfly from the WNBA, where she had been the league’s COO. But she’s “just loving” her move into college sports. “I knew I’d have a lot to learn, but I also knew that I could bring some perspective from the pro side,” Hedgpeth said. “This space is so dynamic right now with NIL, conference realignment, the transfer portal. It requires a lot of nimbleness, a lot of innovation.” Playfly also struck an MMR deal with FAU and extended its relationship with Old Dominion in the past week, bringing its number of college properties to nearly 30, ranging from blue-chippers like LSU and USC to mid-majors Oakland (Mich.) and Denver. “All of the changes in the college space certainly present opportunities for disrupters like Playfly,” Hedgpeth said. “If you’re an AD, the ground is shifting beneath your feet right now. Our approach has given us a bit of an advantage in these talks.” One of the unique components in the Nebraska deal is that Playfly will commit $2.25 million toward an NIL fund that will be spent on Huskers’ athletes. Playfly also started “Campus Cast Live,” a second-screen broadcast by Michigan State athletes during basketball games. Hedgpeth, a former basketball player at Stanford, says these real-life experiences are vital to “making the transition beyond athletics. These are opportunities we need to be providing for the student athletes.”

The sidelines of a college football field are where you find some of the most valuable TV-visible signage for hydration drinks, equipment and apparel brands -- and healthcare companies that put their brand on the injury tents. The heating and cooling benches from Dragon Seats are the latest platform for sponsors to get their brand on the sideline in a most authentic way.

Cleveland-based Dragon Seats came onto the scene in college football last season with its fiberglass heating and cooling benches. Through an arrangement with Learfield, it sold the TV-visible space on its white benches to DeWalt in a deal that spanned about 25 schools. Just today, Rocket Mortgage announced that it had a deal with Michigan State through Playfly Sports.

Dragon Seats has enhanced its offering this season by acquiring the rights to sell the bench space on the opponents’ sideline in select Big Ten stadiums as well. My colleague Bret McCormick wrote in detail about Dragon Seats’ growth earlier this year. “It’s endemic to the game of football and it’s an asset that provides safety and comfort and performance benefits for the players,” Dragon Seats COO Franklin Floyd said.

I also found it interesting that Floyd and Dragon Seats have brought on former IMG Golf managing director Clarke Jones as an adviser to the company. Jones spent 25 years at IMG and now runs his own consulting shop.

Rocket Mortgage has a new sideline deal with Michigan State through Playfly Sports

Here is my ranking of the best college football head-coaching jobs that have become available this season:

Register for a free SBJ account to unlock one extra article per month.

© 2022 Leaders Group. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Leaders Group.

© 2022 Leaders Group. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Leaders Group.

Already a subscriber? Click below to sign in.

Upgrade your subscription to get all the news you need:

Adding SBJ weekly content will give you the comprehensive view of sports business with:

Already a subscriber? Click below to sign in.

Upgrade your subscription to get all the news you need:

Adding SBJ daily content will give you the comprehensive view of sports business with: