Flo Sports

[AndrewB]

FloCollege on X has posted early predictions of Gagliardi finalists: https://x.com/FloCollegeFB/status/2081843319466827790

D3football.com commented, correcting the school one of them is playing for this season.

That's funny. FloSport really should have demanded more for the money they paid to schools.  I know some might think this is crazy.  And it 100% on them for not knowing of the transfer to John Carroll.  But they needed to demand a certain number of Coaches Corners to get fans interested in the upcoming season.  If they demanded media days. Live coverage of a spring practice.  A summer interview with offensive, defense and head coach.  It could work, but it would take work.  I don't see a better option to grow the game.  Pat and Keith have been busting their ass trying to grow the sport.  There's only so much they can do. (Along with Frank).  At some point, somebody had to come with money, which FloSports has done.  If this doesn't work, nothing will work to grow D3 football.

Nothing is going to grow D3 football past the small audience of alumni, parents, and people close to the schools. It's up to the schools to maximize their athletic teams for alumni connection. The schools that do it really well have outstanding game day atmospheres and more connection, the schools that do it poorly have what they have. But nobody, on a Saturday afternoon, is going to be flipping around the internet with the chance to watch LSU vs Ole Miss grudge match and instead decide on W&L vs Bridgewater without a baked in reason.

No, D3 schools need to learn from the places that do it best in D3 and try and make that a regular thing across the division. Get your own people invested and it will pay dividends. That's the best that will happen.

To compare LSU vs Old Miss to W&L vs Bridgewater is a bad comparison.  Now, if you asked would you rather watch Wheaton vs Mount Union or the LSU game  I personally would pick the D3 game.  There is hope.  Will it ever rival D1, of course not.  But it could be a better product with getting to know the players and institutions.  I think we found that out during the Stagg Bowl this past season.  I know it's Reddit, but people were talking about how they were watching the Steeler game but switched over to ESPN and really enjoyed the quality of the D3 game.  For the top tier programs it could definitely pull more than alumni, parents and people associated with the school.

[Kuiper]

But they needed to demand a certain number of Coaches Corners to get fans interested in the upcoming season.  If they demanded media days. Live coverage of a spring practice.  A summer interview with offensive, defense and head coach.  It could work, but it would take work.

Does any coach ever turn down offers to do an interview?  Rhetorical question.  The answer must be very few.  Flo Sports could do this today, but someone needs to do the work as you say.  And Flo Sports has not demonstrated that they are interested in that.
 

I think you would be surprised how many coaches don't have any interest in doing media interviews.  For example, @SimpleCoach has a podcast where he interviews men's and women's soccer coaches and he mentions that it's sometimes difficult to get coaches willing to do the interviews.  They either ignore his requests or decline.  To be fair, the average low-paid D3 coach has a lot on their plate - far more than in D1 - and interviews that might theoretically get seen by a prospective recruit or donor, but don't immediately get them any credit with their administration because it's not part of the metric by which they are evaluated, are far down on their list.

[WUPHF]

I'll watch my favorite team on the live stream and others too when I get time, but...

The best college football game is generally the one that you can watch in person. 

I rather watch W&L vs Bridgewater in person than even the fiercest Division I rivalry, bowl, or championship game on television.

[WUPHF]

I think you would be surprised how many coaches don't have any interest in doing media interviews.  For example, @SimpleCoach has a podcast where he interviews men's and women's soccer coaches and he mentions that it's sometimes difficult to get coaches willing to do the interviews.  They either ignore his requests or decline. 

I have never heard him say that and I might have cited him as evidence of my point.  But I believe you.

[IC798891]

Nothing is going to grow D3 football past the small audience of alumni, parents, and people close to the schools. It's up to the schools to maximize their athletic teams for alumni connection. The schools that do it really well have outstanding game day atmospheres and more connection, the schools that do it poorly have what they have. But nobody, on a Saturday afternoon, is going to be flipping around the internet with the chance to watch LSU vs Ole Miss grudge match and instead decide on W&L vs Bridgewater without a baked in reason.

No, D3 schools need to learn from the places that do it best in D3 and try and make that a regular thing across the division. Get your own people invested and it will pay dividends. That's the best that will happen.

This is so perfectly stated

[Patrick Coleman]

I think you would be surprised how many coaches don't have any interest in doing media interviews.  For example, @SimpleCoach has a podcast where he interviews men's and women's soccer coaches and he mentions that it's sometimes difficult to get coaches willing to do the interviews.  They either ignore his requests or decline. 

I have never heard him say that and I might have cited him as evidence of my point.  But I believe you.

We rarely have a coach decline, but it definitely has happened, including as recently as a couple weeks ago.

[IC798891]

I spent about 7 years as a writer for a trade magazine called Coaching Management. The concept was "Here's advice from experienced coaches to inexperienced coached on how they develop [whatever] on their teams."

You'd think coaches would be more than willing to share strategies for like, growing leadership, or improving communication, or facilitating team building with their fellow coaches.

Take it from me. My interview request to success ratio was not 1:1. It got worse as you went up the ladder from high school to D3 to FCS D1 to FBS D1 and then again up the FBS success ladder. So D3 was the best of all the colleges. But we needed 5-7 interviews for each feature story, and I was routinely sending out at least 20-30 interview requests per story.

[AndrewB]

But they needed to demand a certain number of Coaches Corners to get fans interested in the upcoming season.  If they demanded media days. Live coverage of a spring practice.  A summer interview with offensive, defense and head coach.  It could work, but it would take work.

Does any coach ever turn down offers to do an interview?  Rhetorical question.  The answer must be very few.  Flo Sports could do this today, but someone needs to do the work as you say.  And Flo Sports has not demonstrated that they are interested in that.
 

I think you would be surprised how many coaches don't have any interest in doing media interviews.  For example, @SimpleCoach has a podcast where he interviews men's and women's soccer coaches and he mentions that it's sometimes difficult to get coaches willing to do the interviews.  They either ignore his requests or decline.  To be fair, the average low-paid D3 coach has a lot on their plate - far more than in D1 - and interviews that might theoretically get seen by a prospective recruit or donor, but don't immediately get them any credit with their administration because it's not part of the metric by which they are evaluated, are far down on their list.

This from a coaches perspective makes absolutely no sense to me.  I think of Coach Walker for River Falls.  He constantly did interviews with local networks in the Minneapolis area, Pat Coleman and even Pat McAfee.  Maybe he still gets the job at Drake, but it didn't hurt that he could act like a higher level coach and give good interviews. 

[ziggy]

Here is more information on the FloSports Channel, which is not limited to college sports

https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/07/22/flosports-launches-free-streaming-channel-on-prime-video/

As someone who let Amazon Prime lapse, I can confirm that the new FloSports channel is indeed available for free. Within Prime Video (accessible through the Prime Video app or website) is a set of free channels that don't require any sort of membership or subscription to be able to stream - like their version of Pluto TV, for those who are familiar with that platform.

Will this move the needle in a meaningful way for Division III? I'm not so sure given it is just one channel showing one thing at a time and there is so much under the Flo umbrella that there is a lot of competition for airtime. I haven't been able to find much in the way of a schedule of events but in the limited amount I have tried to access the channel I have seen replays of FCS football, D1 softball and D1 women's basketball (some not even from the past season). It will be interesting to see how things play out this fall when hopefully they lean more into live games and week-of replays.

[IC798891]

This from a coaches perspective makes absolutely no sense to me.  I think of Coach Walker for River Falls.  He constantly did interviews with local networks in the Minneapolis area, Pat Coleman and even Pat McAfee.  Maybe he still gets the job at Drake, but it didn't hurt that he could act like a higher level coach and give good interviews. 

Coaches are insanely busy and there's only so many hours in a day. You can't say yes to everything.

I once wrote a story on advice coaches would give others on maintaining a work-life balance to avoid burnout, and basically every college coach said "There really isn't any way to balance it. At best, you find a way to take some time to yourself."

But you'd ask them how they made time, and it'd be these insane things like "I try to take a 20-minute walk around campus during lunch" or "I don't start a new task after 10 p.m." or "I schedule a two-hour meeting once a week that's just my time to read a book, or get a haircut, or send personal emails"

It was never "I go home for dinner every night with my family" or "I never miss my kids' recital". It was basically "Yeah, I work 70 hour weeks, but I sure as heck don't work 80!"

[blue_jays]

This from a coaches perspective makes absolutely no sense to me.  I think of Coach Walker for River Falls.  He constantly did interviews with local networks in the Minneapolis area, Pat Coleman and even Pat McAfee.  Maybe he still gets the job at Drake, but it didn't hurt that he could act like a higher level coach and give good interviews. 

Coaches are insanely busy and there's only so many hours in a day. You can't say yes to everything.

I once wrote a story on advice coaches would give others on maintaining a work-life balance to avoid burnout, and basically every college coach said "There really isn't any way to balance it. At best, you find a way to take some time to yourself."

But you'd ask them how they made time, and it'd be these insane things like "I try to take a 20-minute walk around campus during lunch" or "I don't start a new task after 10 p.m." or "I schedule a two-hour meeting once a week that's just my time to read a book, or get a haircut, or send personal emails"

It was never "I go home for dinner every night with my family" or "I never miss my kids' recital". It was basically "Yeah, I work 70 hour weeks, but I sure as heck don't work 80!"

As someone who worked in college athletics for 15 years and is now out of the industry, the only way you get through those 70+ hour weeks is a grind mentality. You know if you don't do it, it won't get done. The amount of work is normalized, it's just what you do on a daily basis. Summer is a welcome respite to bring down the burnout level, but fall prep starts quick. Crossover seasons (November and March/April) were the absolute worst and make you question your life choices.

[IC798891]

Exactly why I bailed.

If I had to justify it for upper level coaches, I could possibly do it on salary. I've got a buddy making mid six figures in another field, and he's not working the M-F, 9-5 schedule. There are times where you make that tradeoff.

But for a lot of people who work in athletics, and too many coaches, the expectation is 60-70 hours a week for, honestly, the same amount of money (or less) that plenty of people make working that 9-5.

There's always going to be some fresh-faced 22-year old without kids used to pulling all nighters in college who really doesn't mind working the insane hours for little money and the ****ty free pizza provided. Because heck, they were probably just doing it as a student for even *less* money and no benefits. So it feels like they're getting a lot more.

[y_jack_lok]

As someone who let Amazon Prime lapse, I can confirm that the new FloSports channel is indeed available for free. Within Prime Video (accessible through the Prime Video app or website) is a set of free channels that don't require any sort of membership or subscription to be able to stream - like their version of Pluto TV, for those who are familiar with that platform.

Thanks. I have only ever accessed Prime via Roku when we were piggybacking on my son's account until he ditched his membership. I've located the FloSports channel on the Prime Video website. In the process I also noticed a separate FloRacing channel.