ABSTRACT
Huge college football television rights deals are possible thanks to a 1984 Supreme Court ruling that ceded control of the college football cartel from total NCAA domination to entirely unregulated negotiations. This chapter will examine how NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma shifted power away from the NCAA to what is now a super-division of Power Five conferences and altered the cultural tradition of college football Saturdays by opening television access on weeknights. This chapter will include historical analysis of the court case, explore the evolving and rapid growth of media rights in college football, and assess how access to nearly every college football game on air or online, especially weeknight games, has impacted the tradition of college football.
