Football games are trivial, non-consequential events, the gladiator contests without (much) blood and not ending in executions. I’m far too spiritual to give much time and attention to such things, and, knowing the disdain that my friends have for certain college conferences, I’ll not waste much time on that.
But…
Most clergy take time off around the end of the year…
(LSU 63 Oklahoma 28)
…and it’s a form of harmless entertainment…
(Georgia 26 Baylor 14)
…to watch a football contest…
(Kentucky 37 West Virginia 30)
…and eat some triple bypass snacks like chips and queso…
(Florida 36 Virginia 28)
…maybe order out for a pizza…
(Tennessee 23 Indiana 22)
…spend time with family and friends…
(Texas A&M 24 Oklahoma State 21)
…and things like that.
Just for a statistical backdrop, a certain conference that runs from Columbia, SC around the south to College Station, Texas, has combined annual athletic association budgets that approach two BILLION dollars. Money doesn’t guarantee top tier success in winning football games (ask the Longhorns) but it does land impressionable stellar athletes at the schools with unbelievable facilities. That number is about three times the total combined Cooperative Program, Lottie, and Annie.
It’s the marketplace, brethren and sistren. People make opportunity cost decisions about spending and donations to school athletic associations, purchases of tickets and merchandise heavily outweigh our three top mission offerings.
That’s life in a secular consumer society.
So, what’s the average New Year’s Day bowl game ticket price (just the ticket)? Maybe $100. Take, say, half of the people in attendance on average in SBC churches on a given Sunday (2.6 million souls). Let them give the average ticket price…there’s your $200 million Lottie offering. But, games with stats are games.
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(Auburn, well, even SEC fans like to see them lose and Mississippi State will always have cowbells.)
