I would prefer a playoff bracket as well. This 12th game business is more about extra revenue and payouts than about anything else. And Notre Dame on NBC one extra time...
With money that a LSU, OU, Michigan and the likes make per home game this will not be a Home and Home type game. Look for the ULL's and others the make the trip to Baton Rouge and put 500K in the bank and put an additional 80 to 90 thousand people buying hot dogs peanuts etc in Tiger Stadium. From a fan point of view it would be fun to see the bigger schools come in. From a business point would you rather open the gates to your stadium and give the 500k, basically the first 14 to 15 thousand people, or leave your gate shut and get the travel money. On a bad day you are still looking at probably over 2MM bucks. No way Michigan etc. pass this up for a road trip. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
With the advent of what is essentially personal seat licences, fans will demand an upgrade to the OOC schedules. The only way to do that is a home and home. What you will get is alternate years of 8 and 7 home games. As an aside, Michigan just implemented their PSLs this year. Ticket prices are the same where ever you sit ($50/game average--prices vary based on opponent). Endzones are contribution free and sideline contributions vary from 60-250/seat this year and 125-500/seat next year.
I don't know what demand means here. Are they going to quit buying season tickets because of one game. Look at it this way if you have to give up open date and you just one three SEC games are the fans really going to be poed to go see Example LSU play ULL and then the next week start up SEC play again. The money pumped into the system food, hotels, gas the money spent on campus would be huge. That's my take and if the other major players see it that way then you won't have anybody to schedule except the examples who will make more money going play you than they will by accumulating most if nor all the home games for the year.
Long term, I would expect your view to win out, but this is not going to happen right away without a significant backlash. Fans have been educated that 7 games is what it takes to balance the budget; there have been massive price increases in ticket costs; and now we are going schedule another bad team on top of this, which is essentially another price increase to see the only 2 games you really want to see? IMO, it will be more gradual because you can't abuse customers forever.
"You can't abuse customers forever." I hate to say it, but college football is becoming even more revenue focused than it has ever been. It appears to me that the trend/attitude is simply to follow the money...
I don't disagree with this at all, but there is a limit. There is a hell of a lot of elasticity in the demand, but at some point, something will trigger a realization that the customer really can do without because it just isn't worth it, especially if you keep hitting them in rapid succession. If they cross that line, it will be extremely difficult to get the customer back.
