When it comes to sports television what you can see on certain stations has become a very specific and high money motivated system. Whether the sport is baseball, football, the Olympics, NASCAR or college sports the industry has grown in leaps and bounds. But in order to see this concept fully grow into a big business situation you must first look at its humble and less complicated beginnings.
In the beginning the NCAA was just a mere thought in somebodies head. In 1905 a meeting between the then President Roosevelt and 13 athletic institutions directors sparked the debate over college football schedules and who was going to play whom. Of course with this conversation football playing rules were discussed. Because of this and other meetings the IAAUS (Intercollegiate Athletics Association of the United States) was formed. In 1906 the program was changed to its now famous name of the NCAA. In 1952 a program to control live television of football games was approved, the annual convention delegated enforcement powers to the Association's Council and legislation was adopted governing post season bowl games. The Association's membership was divided into three legislative and competitive divisions in 1973 at the first special Convention ever held. Five years later, Division I members voted to create subdivisions I-A and I-AA in the sport of football.
Nearly 25 years later the program was making billion dollar deals to just sell the rights to show a particular championship games. In 1999 the negotiation of a comprehensive championships rights agreement with CBS was worth potentially $6 billion dollars payout over 11 years.
This was not always the way as you can already tell by the pre ...