Back in March, the Ivy League was the first to cancel its college basketball conference tournament, setting off a chain reaction of other conferences doing the same amid the coronavirus pandemic. Ultimately, March Madness was canceled.
On Wednesday, the Ivy League announced it will not be playing sports in the fall. It did not say whether sports could be played next year.
Though this decision by the conference could signal what will be coming for other conferences, the circumstances of this situation are different.
As Scott Dochterman of The Athletic points out, the revenue gap between what the Ivy League generates in football and what a major conference such as the Big Ten generates in football revenue is significant.
The Ivy League generated about $30.1 million in football revenue in 2019, compared to about $1 billion for the Big Ten last year, according to Dochterman.
The point is: When doing an economic cost-benefit analysis, the decision to not play sports in the fall for Ivy League teams is a much easier one to make because there are fewer costs.
For conferences like the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC, which are comprised of many public schools, the financial impact is much greater, giving administrators more to consider and more reasons to try making a season take place.
Keep in mind the Ivy League has not outright canceled fall sports; it has said it will not play sports in the fall. The Ivy League athletic directors reportedly are open to a spring football season.
Maybe Division I FBS programs will not play this fall. Maybe the season will be postponed until the spring.
But remember there is a lot more at stake financially for FBS programs — especially the Power 5 conferences — than there is for an Ivy League program.
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