Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.
Like most of the world, I spent most of the weekend watching the World Cup. And late in the second half of the Brazil-Morocco game, I came to a terrifying conclusion.
Brazil’s national team (A Seleção) had enjoyed several highlight moments, and even some championships, over the last 40 years…but their true heyday was around the 1960s. They enjoy a (well-deserved) reputation for flair and style, and attract the attention of movie stars and celebrities all over the country. But despite occasional individual brilliance, as of late, they’ve flamed out well before the championships. Worse, their fans are worried the players have become spoiled and lost sight of their true identity.
Folks…has Brazil turned into USC?
Well, not completely. As one of my dear readers recently reminded me, Brazil would never do this to meat. So I guess they’ve become USC that can barbecue? Gross.
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I had to be honest with all of you. At my core, I am a soccer casual. I played in high school, will play EA FC occasionally, and like a good kickaround in the park, but it was never my favorite sport. I’ve never been the kind of person to wake up at 6 AM so I can watch some European teams, and with one very specific exception, I can’t think of any soccer-related result that would either elate me or bum me out for an entire day.
I don’t root for the Brazilian national team because I’m a shameless bandwagoner. I do it because my mom immigrated to the US from Brazil when she was a kid, and she was desperate to find ways to retain a connection to her culture. In the 1990s, it was basically impossible to get Brazilian cuisine in Licking County, Ohio. Portuguese-speakers were very rare, we didn’t have access to Brazilian television, and we weren’t Catholic. Plus, my mom married a gringo, and somehow, I got my dancing ability from him. Which is to say, I can’t dance.
So one of the only ways we knew how to retain some semblance of Brazilian-ness…was to go all out for our canary-yellow-clad cousins during the World Cup. I’ve continued that tradition today, which is why nobody can open their phone in our house right now without this playing.
Sometimes, that tradition brought joy, like us screaming through the streets in 1994, banging pots and pans while our neighbors wondered what the hell we were talking about, or waking up super early to watch the 2002 team dunk on everybody. But lately? It’s 7-1 jokes (and don’t think I didn’t notice that the Germans did it to a team wearing Yellow again, you don’t have to keep texting me about it), struggles with impossible pressure, and flameouts against much smaller countries. It’s painful, and I’m stuck with it.
And friends, that’s college football for you.
The biggest reason I’m so bullish on spreading college football internationally, even if it means that teams have to occasionally give up a home game to go to places like Dublin, London, Tokyo or Rio, is because this deep identity-based fandom is one that translates all over the world.
You cannot attend the Cleveland Browns. To root for the Cleveland Browns usually means that you live (or lived) near Cleveland, or that you love an individual Cleveland Brown, or perhaps that you have questionable judgement. But you can attend Ohio State. You can live in the same crappy apartment that athletes lived in, drink at the same bars, attend the same classes and have similar experiences. Maybe it’s not true for every case, but often, one’s college sports allegiances also can tell you a bit about one’s class, their religion, their politics, their upbringing, and what is important to them.
That’s exactly how so many people in South America, Europe and all over the world adopt their teams. They’re reflections of personal identity in a way that MLB or NFL teams just usually aren’t. So if a community has some level of interest in American football, with a bit of patience and work, I really believe you can sell college football fandom in a way that our friends all over the world will understand.
It isn’t something you buy. It’s something you are.
That’s a special thing. But it isn’t something anybody should take for granted
At its best, I think that type of shared fan identity can do some truly special things. Just take a look at how Lawrence, Kansas completely adopted the Algerian national team, leading to guys who maybe couldn’t find Algeria on a map two months ago belting out Rock, Chalk, Algeria! If you love college sports like Jayhawks of Lawrence do, even without sharing the same language (or even sport), they quickly understand how the Algerians feel about their national squad.
Throw in some good ol’ fashioned American Golden Retriever energy, and you have something special that neither fanbase will ever forget.
This fan identity can also build economic resilience when on-field results aren’t always so great. Those fans (like say, South Carolina football fans), aren’t buying tickets simply because they are purchasing some economic commodity and wish to exchange their dollars for soda, hot dogs and entertainment. They’re doing it to reconnect with friends, participate in a shared ritual, and because they are Gamecocks. If this is who you are, it’s still who you are, even if you lose to Mississippi State.
But that doesn’t mean the relationship can’t be eroded by greed and neglect. Much digital ink has been spilled by better reporters than I about the rampant corruption and greed of FIFA, a sporting organization that makes the NCAA look like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Greed has pushed ticket prices into the five figures, broken up the game with additional advertising blocks, potentially expanded their flagship event beyond what makes competitive sense, and wasted millions and millions on gold-plated construction projects.
That feels pretty college sports to me!
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Politics is also a threat. In Brazil, many Brazilians struggled with their iconic yellow jersey becoming turned into a political cudgel by the far right, with some fans feeling like they were no longer welcome to wear the colors. As the governance of American universities becomes increasingly tied to the political preferences of their state governments, the same dynamic could happen. And I’m not even talking about how political choices like visa restrictions impact who gets to be a part of international sporting events, or how they’re celebrated.
Eventually, everybody has a breaking point. If something becomes too expensive, too alientating, or if a fan believes that their identity is no longer part of that fandom…they’ll cut ties.
This can be a tough thing to remember in college sports these days. After all, with player payroll commitments exploding, building costs rising and the financial health of most of American higher ed in decline, everybody in college sports is thinking about growing revenue. It’s a major topic at conventions, when I talk to ADs and industry professionals, the trade press, you name it. And i don’t even think that’s automatically bad! But there are absolutely risks when you raise prices and try to slap logos on everything that isn’t currently adorned with ads.
When your favorite toothpaste becomes more expensive, you probably just switch brands. You don’t do that for college sports fandom or attention…yet. But eventually, you’d find some other way to spend your time and money.
I love the World Cup, even with all the corruption and assorted bad vibes. I love hearing about how Europeans lose their mind when they visit a Waffle House for the first time. I love the exchange of cultures, the passion of fans, the elite athletic displays, and the fun of it all. It’s a very similar reason why I love Ohio State football, and why I love getting to do this job every day.
To cover college sports, even now, with one crisis after another, is to learn to love every little subgroup and region in the United States. To love the World Cup, I suspect, is to ultimately, love the world.
Here’s hoping that despite the threats and encroaching greed, we don’t lose sight of what makes all of these things special before it's too late.
Unless, of course, Brazil loses to Scotland or something. Then you can cancel the dang entire event as far as I’m concerned.
