By Buddy Martin
SouthernPigskin.com

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Will there eventually be a collision course between college and pro football, both in competition for ad dollars in a potentially fractured sports TV market?

No matter how you slice it, dice it, inflate it or deflate it, football is about to explode. The game is still primarily entertainment supported by the TV Sugar Daddy: Ratings, which drive sponsorship dollars.

College and pro football are about to hit the Super Mega Ball lottery.

For championship games alone, audiences will have swollen to more than 146 million viewers this month. Thats a projection of how many will have watched the NFL and CFB title games after Sundays Super Bowl XLIX.

This Super Bowl is expected to go over the record 112.2 million viewers of 2014.

On Jan. 11, 33 million watched Ohio State pummel Oregon in the first-ever real college championship game. Apparently that was enough to get the attention of the NFL, which is already starting to jockey for position for future dates as it explores more playoff games.

Which raises the question: Will there eventually be a collision course between college and pro football, both in competition for ad dollars in a potentially fractured sports TV market? Lets be honest here: Not yet, but there could be.

As the college game stands now with the new Power Five Conference takeover, it has become a junior pro league. And the money is rolling in. So much money was made on the CFB playoff games that theyre still counting it and trying to figure out how it should be divided.

The 30-second commercials from the game at the Rose Bowl went for $1 million each 3 hardly in the league yet with the NFLs numbers, however.

Meanwhile, Deflate Gate 3 there, I said it! 3 is only going to help draw more attention to the Seattle-New England Super Bowl game. In fact, it already has.

NBC reports it has sold every 30-second spot for the Super Bowl, but would not confirm the average of $4.5 million, which would help NBC generate a haul over $360 million from the event.

With the NFL casting an eye toward more wildcard games and the eventual certainty that the College Playoff will expand from four to perhaps eight teams because of the enormous dollars, this seems inevitable.

It kind of feels and smells like a bit of an arms race.

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Meaningless, but interesting stat:

Seventeen of the 81 total drafted players (active roster and injured reserve) on the Patriots and Seahawks rosters were taken in the second round 3 three more than the first rounders.

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None of these things are really significant, but if New England loses we can look back on it as a bad week for Tom Brady:

–The week started out with him explaining Deflate Gate and now the finger points at him even more — but apparently the NFL wont talk with him about it until after the Super Bowl.

–Then his chops get busted by his childhood hero, Joe Montana, who told the Boston Globe: cIf I ever want a ball a certain way, I dont do it myself. So, somebody did it for him. But I dont know why everybody is making a big deal out of trying to figure out who did it. Its pretty simple. If it was done, it was done for a reason.d

–Brady announced midweek that hes been battling a cold cfor four or five daysd and that his whole family came down with it,. He then promised he will cbe fine.d

–And if you want a good conspiracy, fire alarms went off twice in the middle of the night at the Patriots hotel, although Tom said he slept through both of them.

Meanwhile, the media couldnt stir up much on Russell Wilson. All they got from him was bland answers about why he did an ObamaCare PSA. And there was mild speculation about Wilsons new contract: He is about to become the NFLs highest paid quarterback — but that wont strip the Seattle roster.

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Montana is one of two quarterbacks with four Super Bowl rings, and the other one says he wont be the least bit resentful if they are joined by a third after Sunday.

cI (would) say 8welcome, Tom Brady if he does it,d Terry Bradshaw insisted this week on his radio program, The Terry Bradshaw Football Show on Southern Pigskin Tonight. cHeck, hes worked really hard and hes been in, what, six Super Bowls and would have four of them? No, not at all.d

By the way, Bradshaws four rings are in trophy case at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La., his alma mater.

cMaybe one day itll inspire another young quarterback to do it,d said Bradshaw.

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I wont go as far as to say the Super Bowl is a Southern phenomenon, but it definitely has some Southern roots.

Consider:

–Twenty-seven Super Bowls have been played in the South, and thats not stretching to include Texas.

–Twenty of the 48 MVPs in the Super Bowl played for Southern colleges.

–Twelve New England Patriots played college football in the South. There are 20 Seattle Seahawks from Southern teams.

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My favorite prop bets, other than the odds on whether Bill Belichick will smile during the game or what color hoodie he will wear:

–What hair color will Katy Perry have to open her first song?

–How many times will the announcers mention any form of the word cdeflated between the singing of the national anthem and end of the game?

–What will be higher? Russell Wilson’s passing yards (-130) or the national average gas price (in cents) on Monday (even).

–Over/under on mentions of “greatest of all time” during the broadcast.

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Controversial shutdown corner Richard Sherman of Seattle has been a big hit with the media. He offered some extremely interesting and intelligent comments about the college football experience, noting that he would love to attend college a year without having to play so he could focus on studies. But money and time are big issues.

cBut to their (the school officials) knowledge, youre there to play football,d said Sherman. cThose are the things coaches tell you every day. Luckily I was blessed to go to Stanford, a school primarily focused on academics.d

Then there is the cash shortfall and a sort of poverty vow.

cI tell you from experience that one time I had negative 40 bucks in my account,d Sherman said. cIt was in the negative more times than positive. You have to make a decision whether you put gas in your car or get a meal.d

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Every year this question to those who played in the Super Bowl makes the rounds: Did you abstain from sex the night before the Super Bowl.

Terry Bradshaw had the best answer:

cYeah xa6 but not by choice!d