Television is the ruling body of college sports

These days, big-time college football without TV is nearly unthinkable.

If a game is played in State College, or Tuscaloosa or Los Angeles, and only 108,000 people watch it, do the bands make a sound? Had a television ban been imposed by the NCAA, Penn State could have lost $20 million in TV rights revenue, not to mention immeasurable recruiting damage. Television provides the monetary bricks that has built college football into a business. As television contracts have swelled to upward of $5 billion for just one conference, concepts of amateurism and education have loosened, and the sport treads on a prosperous but dangerous path. "It's clearly the most powerful entity," said Ellen Staurowsky, a Drexel University sports management professor and co-author of "College Athletes for Hire: The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA Amateur Myth." "The pressure that schools are under to maintain a competitive edge hinges on their ability to have exposure on television."