College Football Association

The College Football Association (CFA) is the name of a now-defunct body through which American college football schools negotiated TV contracts with networks. The CFA^[1] was an alliance of 64 schools from the major conferences and selected independents.

History

Background

On June 27, 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma that the NCAA's television plan violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. As a result, individual schools and athletic conferences were freed to negotiate contracts on their own behalf. Together with the growth of cable television, this ruling resulted in the explosion of broadcast options currently available. So beginning in 1984, they sold their own television package first ABC, and later with CBS. The Big Ten and Pacific-10 conferences sold their own separate package to ABC.

Decline

By 1990, the television landscape changed. ABC had both the CFA and Big Ten-Pac-10 packages, and NBC had the Notre Dame home package^[2]. It was once again relegated to limited appearances. The beginning of the end for the CFA occurred in 1995, when the Southeastern Conference and Big East broke from the CFA, signing a national deal with CBS. They are the only major conference guaranteed a national "game of the week" because ESPN's games may come from any of the conferences they offer.^[3]

The CFA officially sealed the books on June 30, 1997.

References

1. ^ Reed, William (August 26, 1991). "All Shook Up: Seismic Shifts Are Altering the Sport's Landscape". Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1140740/1/index.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-15. 
2. ^ Sandomir, Richard (1991-08-25). "COLLEGE FOOTBALL; Notre Dame Scored a $38 Million Touchdown on Its TV Deal". New York Times (nyyimes.com). http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE0D91038F936A1575BC0A967958260. Retrieved 2008-04-06. 
3. ^ Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961

External links

• The College Football Association Television Broadcase Cartel
• CFA bids farewell after accomplishing its goals
• College Football Association - SI Vault