1951 and College Football's First National Television Contract

Westinghouse’s 1951 brochure listed the college football schedules for all NCAA teams and the nine games available on television in each locale.

Major college football today is defined by its television revenues. The vast television monies pouring into college athletics provide palatial training facilities, extended training and coaching staffs, enormous salaries, conference realignments, and have led to NIL. All can be traced back to 1951, when colleges and conferences ceded their television rights to the NCAA, resulting in a national television rights deal. Other than the 1906 season, when the forward pass became legal, no season has impacted the shape of college football today more than the 1951 season. So, let's take a look at what happened.

The television technologies of the late 1940s and early 1950s were primitive compared to today. TVs had poor resolution, and despite the limitations, the seventeen-inch screens of the top-end televisions were better than listening to the radio. Radio provided sound, while television gave us moving images. Live. Sometimes.

Westinghouse showed off the latest in television technology in this 1951 ad.