• College football used to have a regular season and some bowl games you may or may not have watched.
• Now college football has its own playoffs — and this year, it is supersizing them.
• Can Americans invest even more time watching football? It's a good bet.

Are you ready for some college football? A lot of college football?

Doesn't matter. If you live in America and you're going to be around a TV over the next few weeks, it's going to be hard not to see college football.

That's because this is the first year college football is running a supersize version of its playoffs, featuring 12 teams, up from four. That means there are going to be 11 games — from Friday to January 20 — that are going to get a lot of attention from a lot of people.

The commercial calculation here is straightforward: National playoffs draw national interest for what is often a regional sport. So more national playoff games equals more interest.

That's why Disney's ESPN is paying $1.3 billion a year for the (mostly) exclusive rights to the playoffs. (Disney, somewhat weirdly, has sublicensed a few of the playoff games to its frenemy Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT network.)

ESPN's customers think the playoffs will be popular, too. The network says it has added dozens of new advertisers to its playoff lineup and is boasting about big increases in revenue.

But even before the first snap of the first game, the bulked-up tournament seems like it has already been a hit by boosting the pre-playoff games. Nielsen says regular-season ratings for college football were up 6% this fall compared with 2023 — and up 11% for adults ages 18 to 34.

In a world where traditional TV shrinks every year — and even more so with young viewers — that's quite a bump. And it's exactly what the media industry was hoping for.

"There were more games, throughout more of the regular season, that were meaningful and impactful for the playoff race," says Amanda Gifford, who heads up college football production for ESPN. "Almost every weekend, there were games that had impact."

That boost wasn't just confined to games on ESPN. Mike Mulvihill, who heads up analytics and strategic planning for Fox Sports and Fox broadcast, says his team thought about playoff implications as it was planning which regular-season games it would broadcast this year.

Early in the season, when it wouldn't be clear which schools were likely to compete for a playoff slot, Fox leaned on brand-name matchups, like Alabama vs. Wisconsin. But later in the season, when Indiana became a surprising playoff contender, Fox was delighted to broadcast its game against Ohio State.

I've seen the effects of expanded playoffs play out in real life: A couple of weekends ago, I spent the night with a bunch of middle-age dudes who were toggling between multiple college games, none of which featured Notre Dame, where they had all graduated. But they cared deeply about what happened in games like Texas vs. Georgia because the results could affect where the Irish would end up in the playoff. (Notre Dame ended up matched up against Indiana for the playoff's opening game).

So, if college football is winning, who's losing?

In theory, these games could end up competing with pro football, whose end-of-season games and early-round playoff season overlap with the college tournament. But you'd have to be a very brave person to bet against the NFL — the one thing Americans will watch on TV no matter what.

A much safer wager: College football's playoffs will destroy any remaining interest in all of the also-ran bowl games, which have already been steadily downgraded by fans and networks — some of which don't bother to send announcing crews to the games.

So sorry, Myrtle Beach Bowl. You, too, GameAbove Sports Bowl. And I'm from Minnesota, but I'm still not going to watch the Golden Gophers play Virginia Tech in the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Who cares who wins any of those?

But on Saturday, in the first round of the playoffs, Penn State is playing Southern Methodist — a school I vaguely remember being kicked out of college football for paying players. Now it's essentially legal — and encouraged — and whoever wins gets into an even higher-stakes game 10 days later. Truth be told, I'm not a college football guy. But I'm in, anyway.

Correction: December 20, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the matchup for the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Minnesota is set to play Virginia Tech, not West Virginia.

• Bill Belichick's departure from the NFL to coach at the University of North Carolina is a big move.
• Belichick's deal highlights college sports' further shift toward professionalization.
• Name-image-likeness opportunities are reshaping college sports and changing the jobs of coaches.

Revered football coach Bill Belichick's departure from the NFL says a lot about the ascendance of college football amid lucrative sponsorships in the era of the transfer portal, fast-growing NIL opportunities, and revenue sharing within the NCAA.

Word on Wednesday that the eight-time Super Bowl champ signed a five-year agreement to serve as head coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels rocked the sports industry.

"We are embarking on an entirely new football operation," UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham said at a press conference Thursday. He said Belichick's pro experience played a factor in his hire. "The future of college athletics is changing, and we want to be in the forefront of that."

The Athletic reported Belichick will be pocketing $10 million a year. UNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

Of course, college sports — and especially football — have always been big business. But recent changes underline the move toward allowing more money to flow into programs and athletes, and further professionalize what is still considered amateur athletics.

Scott Fuess, Jr., a professor of business at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who studies the economics of college sports, told BI that Belichick's hire is "a very obvious, public-facing signal" of how college football is becoming more like the pros.

"What we're doing is we're NFL-izing collegiate football," he said.

Another indicator of the shift in college sports? More schools are hiring general managers for their football programs, Fuess said. Their focus is on bringing in talent and financing it, something that's all the more important in the name, image, and likeness — or NIL — era. NIL allows players to be paid by brands and other sponsors for the use of their name, image, or likeness.

Fuess said that in the upper ranks of collegiate football — specifically within the power conferences — "you're going to see arrangements that look more like NFL programs."

Belichick's move is part of a bigger trend

Belichick's hire isn't the only signal that managing a college sports team is looking a lot more like managing a pro team.

In September, longtime ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski left the outlet to become general manager of the men's basketball program at St. Bonaventure University — where he went to school — to work on NIL deals and recruiting.

And Belichick will be getting some help at UNC from Michael Lombardi — a sports host and former NFL exec who said Wednesday night that he'll serve as the general manager of the Tar Heels program.

For Belichick, there are family ties to UNC. His father was an assistant football coach for the Tar Heels in the '50s. And The Guardian's Ollie Connolly, citing anonymous sources, reported last week that as part of his deal, Belichick sought a guarantee that his son would succeed him as head coach — which he reported that UNC is open to.

Patrick Rishe, executive director of the Sports Business Program at Washington University in St. Louis, told BI that Belichick's move doesn't necessarily portend an exodus of NFL coaches to college towns because Belichick's situation was unique.

"I don't think Alabama or Ohio State are going to be recruiting Andy Reid away from the Chiefs," he said, referring to Kansas City's head coach.

Still, Rishe said, his move is a reminder that coaches are free agents just as players are.

Rishe said one of the biggest forces animating college football's bulk-up is money flowing from NIL collectives. He said collective money, already used to recruit players, could also be directed toward bringing on coaches.

The collectives gather money from donors and distribute it to players. For example, at Fuess's University of Nebraska, the 1890 Initiative — its resident, independent NIL collective — raises money for athletes in exchange for donor perks like merch and invites to membership events. Its website says it partners with athletes "to help them build personal brands through athletic endorsements, brand partnerships, and NIL compliance protocols."

An expanded job

Fuess said that until recently, college athletes were limited in transferring to other programs. Now, that's no longer true because of the transfer portal window, which in October was reduced for Division I football and basketball players to 30 days. Because of that, he said, college coaches must work harder than ever to keep players happy.

"Their free agency is freer than in professional sports right now," he said, referring to college players.

Fuess, who also serves as his campus's faculty representative to its athletic department, said college coaches increasingly have to know how to spot talent, how to pay for it, and how to keep it.

That means there could be more people who come from the NFL, though they could also come from elsewhere in college athletics, he said, because the cultures of the NFL and college football are different. Plus, there's also NCAA revenue sharing in the wings, where, beginning next academic year, schools are expected to be able to share athletic department revenues with student-athletes.

"Collegiate sports is a little bit more of a wild wild west than the very buttoned-down world of the NFL," Fuess said.

He said that some college football programs seeking to ascend to the top or remain there are likely to do so by demonstrating big funding commitments or making high-profile hires.

Fuess pointed to a statement days ago by Purdue University President Mung Chiang introducing the Boilermakers' new football coach, Barry Odom, that the university would "invest more than ever before in athletics."

A hire like Belichick represents a similar move, Fuess said.

"Everybody knows his name. Everybody knows his coaching success. Everybody knows about him," he said.

If you want to remain a high-profile program, Fuess said, "you're going to want to demonstrate as best you can that you are committed to doing this."

Travis Hunter made a pair of proclamations Thursday: He's for sure entering the NFL draft after this season, but not until he sees Colorado all the way through the College Football Playoff — if the Buffaloes make it there.

The first was already a given for the draft-eligible junior who plays both receiver and cornerback, and says he wants to do the same in the NFL. The second is a risk-reward play for a projected high first-round pick who averages around 120 snaps a game.

In years past, it took two extra postseason wins to capture a national title. Now, it could take up to four additional contests. That’s more of a chance to shine, but also more chance for an injury.

"I don’t think nobody will opt out because you’re showing NFL teams that you’re more focused on something else, other than the team goal," Hunter said of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. "So I don’t think players are going to opt out of the playoffs."

Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders chatted Thursday in a set of Zoom calls about turning around the program at Colorado (from 4-8 last season to bowl eligibility), chasing a Big 12 title, turning pro — Hunter acknowledged he will "for sure" — and, of course, the Heisman race, where Hunter is currently the odds-on favorite in an award each wants to see the other win.

"He’s deserving of it, and if it’s between me and him, I want him to get it," said Sanders, whose 16th-ranked Buffaloes (8-2, 6-1 Big 12, No. 16 CFP ) travel to Arrowhead Stadium to face Kansas (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App) this weekend. "He does a lot of amazing things that have never been done before."

Countered Hunter: "I know he wants me to win it, but I also want him to win as bad as I want to win it."

Hunter is a generational talent shining on both sides of the ball. As a receiver, he has 74 catches for 911 yards and nine touchdowns. On defense, he has picked off three passes, even though teams are reluctant to throw his direction.

Like he did in high school and now in college, he believes he can do both on the next level. But he understands the trepidation of the NFL team that picks him.

"They don’t want their top pick to go down too early," Hunter said. "I like when people tell me I can’t do it, because they just motivate me to continue to do what I want to do."

Sanders is turning in a stellar season as well with 27 touchdown passes, one away from tying Sefo Liufau for the most in a single season in program history. He's projected to be one of the first QBs off the draft board.

The future certainly looks bright at Colorado thanks to the legacies Sanders and Hunter will leave under coach Deion Sanders. But that's a point to ponder later.

"I can’t think too much forward past Saturday," Shedeur Sanders cracked. "The main thing is winning the Big 12 championship. That’s the main thing we’re focused on."

Reporting by The Associated Press.