Marketing tool

Aaron Murray, a six-foot tall quarterback rehabbing an injury to his ACL, is at the Senior Bowl.  Not to play, but to meet with prospective employers.  He’s got a sales pitch, too.

… “They have four years of film on me,” Murray said. “They can go back and watch all those games and see how I’ve thrown the ball.” He’ll also be able to impress coaches on the dry erase board with his knowledge of their offensive systems. The scheme used by Bobo and Georgia coach Mark Richt is far more similar to an NFL offense than some of the spread schemes that have all but taken over the college game. “It helps a lot,” Murray said. “A lot of the stuff we’re going over in meetings — the drops and play-action and stuff like that — is stuff I’ve been doing for the past four years.”

That works as well for the program he comes from as himself.  Recruits, take note.

Fandom in an era of premium pricing

Meet the cheap seats, national championship edition:

Those who want to guarantee themselves a premium ticket to the first college football title game under the new playoff system can start buying Monday.

But fans might want to check the limit on their credit cards before doing so, as the cheapest tickets will run almost $2,000.

Ticket and hospitality companies PrimeSport and Colonnade Group, two of the vendors chosen by the organizers of the College Football Playoff, posted identical prices on their websites Monday morning.

The cheapest premium seat available through either company for the 2015 title game, which will be played Jan. 12 in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, is $1,899.

Oh, but look at what you get for your money:  “The seat, in the corners of the top level of the stadium where the Cowboys play, comes with a three-hour pregame hospitality event, a full premium menu and top-shelf bar, and a $50 merchandise voucher.”

If you’re really serious about it, you can jack the price up over $5,000 with better seating and a fancy hotel stay.  The question is how many Joe Fans can afford to be that serious, especially if they want to spring for semi-finals tickets, too?  Answer:  not many.  But don’t worry, guys.  Bill Hancock’s bosses have a bone to throw your way.

… Last week, the organizers of the playoff announced that 1,000 tickets to the title game will be made available by a random drawing to fans who submit their names between Jan. 13 and May 1. Five hundred winners will be notified that they are entitled to purchase two tickets at face value, which has not been announced.

Aw, how nice.

As Rovell notes, “The premium ticket offerings are only the first glimpse into the business of the college football playoff system.”  College football’s bedrock, regional appeal, is going to get away from us in a hurry, I expect.  And for those of you who quaintly insist that college football will have no choice other than to move the semis to on-campus sites to help the little guy out, let me know the last time college football chose a course of action that favored the little guy over a bigger revenue stream.  Take your time.

Face values for the two semifinal games, which will take place at the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2015, and are controlled by the organizers of those venues, have not been determined.

If you’re looking for a pre-game hospitality event with good food and drinks, I suggest you start checking out your favorite sports bar’s plans for the title game.  Can’t help you with the merchandise voucher, though.

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UPDATE:  And make sure you read Allen Kenney’s analysis of the cost to the consumer for the new SEC Network.  Bottom line, they’re gonna nick your wallet staying or going.

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UPDATE #2:  Following in the footsteps of the NFL?  I’m looking forward to this in a few years.

“There’s not a lot of crowd noise,” said Ron Jaworski, an ESPN analyst who was the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles when they reached the Super Bowl at the end of the 1980 season. “People mostly sit on their hands, outside of the fans that buy the tickets for the team. It’s kind of a corporate get-together.”

But at least you don’t have all those silly motion penalties and wasted time outs.

Tuesday morning buffet

A few choice morsels to get your day started:

• The only program in the SEC since 2001 that’s changed less than thirty members of its coaching staff in that time?  Georgia, at seventeen.
• Seth Emerson has a list of the players from teams Georgia is scheduled to play next season and the underclassmen they lost to the draft here.
• When it comes to minority hires, Sylvester Croom suggests that athletic directors have moved ahead of head coaches on the curve.
• It didn’t take long for Tony Brown to become shit that Nick Saban has to make time for.
• Speaking of Saban, Stewart Mandel makes an interesting point about his hire of Junior:  “Saban’s last two offensive coordinators — Jim McElwain and Doug Nussmeier — worked in relative anonymity. But with Kiffin, I have no doubt he will get the requisite praise or blame for the Crimson Tide’s offensive performance.”  I wonder if that will turn out to be a feature or a bug.
• Hal Mumme lands his seventh head coaching job.
• Supposedly FSU was willing to go toe to toe with Georgia on Jeremy Pruitt’s salary, but couldn’t come up with the jack to outbid Mississippi State for Geoff Collins’ services.  Interesting.