Given the many changes to sports in the last half century, what will games like baseball and football look like 50 years from now? Graphic by Alison Carpino.
College sports, like everything in our world, is something that is constantly changing and evolving.
In the 1950s, sports were generally not very popular. There was no such thing as ESPN and the sports themselves hadn’t had the chance to evolve yet with old rules and little safety protocols.
Flash forward to today, the landscape of college sports has completely changed. The founding of ESPN sparked a huge and accelerated increase in airing of college sports games. Now we find games on countless TV channels, as well as on our phones and computers at all times. Over time, crowds grew and certain games became must-watch TV for people across the nation.
As well, rule changes, like the addition of the three-point line in basketball and the featuring of the designated hitter in baseball have completely changed the way sports are played today. More points are scored, players are more focused on skill and less focused on physical dominance, and games have never been more watched by viewers as a result.
Among these changes in the sports themselves, there have been numerous changes having to do with the NCAA. For decades, the NCAA has been an organization that is meant to profit off of the performance of student athletes. As of late however, college athletes have stepped up and spoke on the corruption within the league, with some of the biggest names in high school sports now being able to decide against the NCAA path in pursuit of becoming a professional without ever competing collegiately.
This has forced the NCAA to act, with danger of less viewership and potential protests looming. In May 2019, the Fair Pay Act was passed in California allowing for student-athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness, completely changing the way we look at college sports.
From these drastic changes, it is reasonable to expect that college sports will only continue to evolve with time. In 50 years, so much can change. Generally, we can expect viewership and platforms for sports watching to continue to grow. More networks will begin to join the trend of streaming sports online like ESPN+ and Peacock, which means anyone will be able to watch any team they want, whenever they want.
As a result of more viewership and with the Fair Pay Act being passed, we can likely expect student-athletes to be making decent money off of their personal brands. We will see jerseys with famous college athletes’ names on the back and college sports video games, a widely popular industry which was stopped by the NCAA in 2015.
Another result of the increase in viewership may be an increase in scrutiny toward the sports and their players. Rule changes are happening all the time and, soon, we will probably see those changes be made by the viewers, as sports are only as entertaining as the viewer believes they are. If college athletes are making money as well in the future, viewers will see that as a simple reason in support of criticizing such players. Athletes will be under constant scrutiny from sports analysts and networks, and they will potentially become like celebrities in a sense; more so than they already are now.
We are entering an age of player and viewer empowerment in college sports and, in 50 years, who knows what could happen?
All we know is that college sports are always evolving, and it will be exciting to see where they go, given the potential we’ve already seen.