Today’s guest column is from professors John Cairney and Rick Burton.
As most baseball and softball fans know, the challenge for many managers is knowing when to replace the starter with someone from the bullpen. In basketball or soccer, it’s subbing in a replacement.
With that in mind, we wondered if college sports, circa 2027, will eventually suffer from what marketing professors call the “Substitution Effect?” That’s the moment customers start replacing, sometimes en masse, traditional purchases with less expensive alternatives.
No one would logically expect that seismic disruption to take place with true blue NCAA fans, the ones who have, for more than 100 years, passionately supported their favorite university and quasi-religiously loved historically successful football, basketball or volleyball teams.
But who on campus today is thinking about the price elasticity of big-dollar private donors, the ones who have started recognizing they’ll have to pony up significant millions every single year to keep key players home or buy expensive new free agents.
