Adding a few tarps could add some lost revenue to college programs this year

One thing everyone can agree on is the current health pandemic is going to cost colleges and universities a significant amount of money and the NFL may be offering a clue how to get some back.

It’s actually simple, really, and finding out later Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek hasn’t already figured it out won’t be surprising.

The NFL owners voted Thursday to allow teams to cover the seats closest to the field with a tarp that contains sponsor’s logos, according to a story at CBSSports.com. Per league mandate, the first six to eight rows at each stadium will require covering.

College teams are probably taking notice.

While the move will put fans farther away from the players and folks running around on the sideline it will open up some enormous advertising potential.

Television numbers for any kind of football game are going to shoot through the roof. People aren’t necessarily desperate to attend sporting events as much as they want to be able to turn on the television and WATCH live sports.

College football puts up big numbers. The guess is that will be going up significantly this year, especially if ESPN starts putting big games on ABC, which is available to a staggeringly larger number of homes (despite what many of us initially think, a lot of people actually don’t have cable, satellite or a clue how to watch a game online).

With every SEC game on television live that’s a big sponsor opportunity.

In Arkansas the numbers could be staggering for sponsorship spots on a tarp covering the first few rows around Razorback Stadium on a red tarp.

Much like I anticipate from colleges, the NFL is allowing each team to determine how much of seating capacity will be used determined by local and state guidelines.

Some owners are squealing, not particularly because they are concerned about anybody’s health (that likely is the excuse), but because it could give some teams a financial advantage over others.

For example, if the New York football Giants (sorry, old-school phrase) are only allowed to put 20,000 people in the stands and the Dallas Cowboys can put 60,000, well, that’s at least a $64 million differential in revenue. That number, by the way, includes a healthy covid-19 discount.

Nothing gets an NFL owner more stirred up than losing money.

For Power 5 college football programs it’s getting that way, too.

Even at Arkansas where putting a big red tarp with several sponsor logos could be a way to help get back some of the lost money.