College Football Provides an Economic Boost for Local Communities
College football is known for its frenzied fans who come from far and wide to watch regional conference games, but more than just entertainment, these events create a significant economic impact on their individual regions, which may improve as regions become less defined.
Higher education institutions and hospitals are known as anchor institutions because they are usually tied to their regions, unlike manufacturers and corporations that can pack up and move to more economically hospitable areas.
With more conference realignments announced for the 2024-2025 college football season, the question of how these changes will affect local economies may become more clear.
Economic dependence on anchor institutions has had positive effects on regional economies, but as technology, demographic shifts, and rising costs disrupt higher education and health care, dependence on anchor institutions may become increasingly risky as time goes on.
During the pandemic, higher education and hospitals became more dependent on remote learning and telehealth, making their services less community-based and hurting local economies.The widening of conference regions could positively affect local economies by generating more revenue for these communities and a stronger reliance on their anchor institutions.
The majority of preseason top 10 football programs are based in the Southeast or Midwest regions, which also have experienced a revival in manufacturing due to investments in semiconductors and electric vehicles. Still, with demographic changes and the impacts of the pandemic, higher education institutions remain important to the economies where they are located. College football draws large crowds each season, increasing spending in these
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