The NFL is without a doubt, the biggest of all US Sports. The whole college sport setup itself dwarfs other sports in the nation with coverage of it as in depth as we may see here in Britain with the Premier League. According to Sporting Intelligence, in 2015 the NFL’s 23 professional teams averaged over 68,000 fans per game with the top 30 college programs averaging even more at 81,000. This is staggering and if combined, would make it the highest attended sports league on Earth.
This level of popularity has allowed US colleges to create some of the most advanced facilities anywhere in the world which dozens of our FirstPoint Athletes have been able to discover first hand during their time in the states.
[caption id="attachment_11015" align="aligncenter" width="625"] University of Kentucky's ground where FirstPoint Athlete Jordan Wilson plays.[/caption]TV rights alone have brought billions in each year to the NCAA and its respective conferences and programs which allows for development at an exceptional rate.
It’s not only the facilities that have been effected by the sizeable revenue of college sports with coaches and staff being paid huge salaries. The defensive coordinator at the University of Oregon has a reported $1.15 million annual salary package which is enough to hire 10 assistant professors! There are several college sport coaches around America with similar salaries to this. As you can see below, some coaches at this level are on absolutely staggering salaries which would rival coaches in premier divisions of other sports all around the world.
[caption id="attachment_11016" align="aligncenter" width="690"] American Football coach salaries at college level.[/caption]The issue with all of this is that NCAA has a philosophy regarding amateurism and says…
““Amateur competition is a bedrock principle of college athletics. The collegiate model of sports, the young men and women competing on the field or court are students first, athletes second.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how far this rapid expansion goes and whether the NCAA will have to move away from their ethos in the coming years. College sport is certainly on the rise.
