SBJ College: Amazon's 'Just Walk Out' tech goes to school

Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” is perfectly named. When you’re shopping in a marketplace with “Just Walk Out” tech, you’re supposed to literally just walk out. But there’s something behaviorally that tells you not to.

We’re conditioned to pay for our items after we’re done shopping. But with Amazon’s tech, consumers swipe their card first, enter the store, grab their items and “Just Walk Out.” It's counterintuitive at first, but once shoppers go through, it’s a breeze. Retailers call it a contactless or frictionless shopping experience. The only time the consumer engages with store employees is when they check an ID for the purchase of alcohol.

My introduction to the concept came at Texas A&M on Saturday. In full disclosure, I was there to watch my alma mater, Appalachian State, play the Aggies. But A&M’s deputy AD, Chris Park, and Levy Restaurants VP Chris Warner, met me before the game to test out what they’re calling “March In and Out.”

A&M has three concession spaces that they’ve added this season using the Amazon tech. Kyle Field is the first college venue where it is in effect. A&M’s concessionaire, Levy Restaurants, introduced the tech to the school and the response has been off the charts. It essentially cuts shopping time in half.

Warner: “As a company, we’re committed to reducing lines and wait times -- making things more convenient and accessible. ... If you look at the stadium experience, from parking to security, food and beverage and restrooms, the more we can make those areas easier, the better it is for everyone.”

Levy and A&M share the overhead costs associated with the new marketplaces, from the cameras that monitor the shoppers to transaction fees.

No word yet on whether Levy will attempt to take the Amazon tech to other stadiums where it is the concessionaire. Warner said they’re currently evaluating it.

College football continued its upward trajectory in Week 2, notes my colleague Austin Karp.

Alabama’s late win over Texas on Fox in the Big Noon Saturday window was easily the most-watched game of Week 2, delivering 10.6 million viewers. The game is the top audience this season to date on any network, and Fox’s fourth-best CFB game all-time (behind only three iterations of the Ohio State-Michigan game).

The game was 80% better than the Big Noon Saturday averaged last season (which was a record for Fox). Bama-Texas also delivered an average minute audience of 243,708 viewers, marking the second-best streaming audience for a CFB game on Fox (behind only last season’s OSU-Michigan at 276,412). Fox CFB is averaging 4.82 million viewers to date, up 4% from the same point last season (a record for Fox).

Week 2 was also up 24% for the combo of ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. ESPN Digital also achieved its third-best day of traffic all time on Saturday. Some highlights from around the Bristol family o networks:

• Kentucky’s win over Florida delivered 4.33 million viewers on Saturday, marking ESPN’s best September Saturday game since 2018.

• BYU’s win over Baylor at 10:35pm ET averaged 2.37 million viewers, which is ESPN’s best late-night window since Texas-Cal averaged 2.45 million on Sept. 17, 2016.

• ESPN2 in primetime averaged 1.85 million viewers for Louisville-UCF, marking the Deuce’s best regular season game since 2017 (and best Friday night game since 2013).

Big Ten Network had its second-best day ever on Saturday in terms of aggregate viewership (three regionalized windows). The day was fueled by coverage at 12pm ET (Ohio State-Arkansas State and Western Illinois-Minnesota averaged 1.44 million). The best day remains Oct. 10, 2015 (was Week 6 that season, with games including Maryland-Ohio State, Michigan State-Rutgers and Northwestern-Michigan).

After two weeks, per Fox Sports' Michael Mulvihill, ESPN college football game viewing is up 60%, while ESPN2 is up 31%, FS1 is up 42% and BTN is up 125%.

Sun Belt Saturday stole all of the headlines after upset wins by Appalachian State (over Texas A&M), Marshall (over Notre Dame) and Georgia Southern (over Nebraska). They also generated these TV viewership numbers:

• FS1 averaged 1.24 million viewers for Georgia Southern’s defeat of Nebraska in primetime. That’s up 30% from last year’s Big Ten Saturday average on the cable network. Head-to-head, Georgia Southern-Nebraska also outdrew ESPN2’s Arizona State-Oklahoma State game, which averaged 1.02 million.

• ESPN2 on Saturday afternoon averaged 1.77 million viewers for Appalachian State’s victory over Texas A&M. For comparison’s sake, that audience was the same that ESPN drew in the same window for the women’s final of the U.S. Open on Saturday.

• NBC averaged 2.48 million viewers for Marshall’s win at Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon. The network’s first game in 2021, against Purdue, averaged 2.58 million. NBCs first Irish game against Duke in 2020 averaged 4.32 million.

TurnkeyZRG, the firm assisting the NCAA with its search for a new president, posted a compelling job description on its website. Despite the clear migration to a more professionalized model of intercollegiate athletics, the educational component will remain at the core of the president’s mission.

The right person for the job is a unifier and a visionary, someone who knows how to navigate a government-regulated industry and has managed through once-in-a-generation change. A background in tech, media and revenue generation could be beneficial.

“The collegiate model will need to be more fully resourced to keep up with higher costs, meaning the NCAA will need to get innovative about attracting more revenue, and perhaps even capital,” TurnkeyZRG Chairman and CEO Len Perna wrote. “But it won’t be for pros. It’s for students who want to play sports AND receive an education. … It’s ‘dare-to-be-great’ time.”

TurnkeyZRG completed a “listening phase” that included sessions with 79 groups and meetings with more than 300 stakeholders, plus an online survey. The NCAA’s board of governors will make the final decision on the hire.

When NIL went into effect 15 months ago, a widely held expectation was that jerseys could be an immediate source of income for the players. It’s taken a while, but college football jerseys with player names are now here.

Fanatics, through a partnership with OneTeam Partners and Compass, launched the program last week and fans can now order authentic-looking jerseys at Fanatics for $140 with the player’s name on the back. I caught up with OneTeam interim CEO Malaika Underwood to get her feedback on jerseys finally making it to the marketplace.

“This is a significant moment in the movement for athletes," she said. "We had NIL on July 1 of last year and on July 2 people were wanting video games on the shelves and jerseys in market. But the reality is that it took time to put an infrastructure in place to do this at scale. But here we are with a program that’s the largest group licensing program to date with more than 4,000 football players and additional sports on the way.

“It’s still very early to determine what the demand will be for a customizable jersey program, but there are certainly top players who will sell a significant number of jerseys and I’m sure we’ll see some interesting trends develop, too. It may not drive a ton of revenue for every athlete, but we’ll learn from year one and build out the program from there.

“We work with professional athletes in these areas and we are taking those key learnings and applying them to college to maximize the collective value of all athletes. There will be varying deal terms and those deal terms are dependent on a number of different elements -- product categories, distribution channels and the like. There also are opportunities for athletes to be included in multiple deals. They can participate in as many group licensing deals as they want. We encourage athletes to maximize their portfolio.

“We’ll roll out men’s and women’s basketball jerseys this winter and then spring sports with baseball and softball. It’ll be a very robust program. We’re talking about tens of thousands of athletes in these programs. We’re focused on creating something that can be sustainable. We want this to be a movement, not a moment.”

Questions I’m always asked by fans of the opposing team, especially when Appalachian State is playing on the road against a Power Five opponent:

1. Where is Appalachian State?
2. Boone? Where’s Boone?
3. Is that near the beach?
4. You guys any good?
5. How do you pronounce that?

• ESPN/ESPNU’s “College GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” both aired from Austin for the Alabama-Texas game on Saturday. “GameDay” in its final 11am ET hour averaged 2.7 million viewers, while Fox in the same window averaged 1.61 million viewers, notes SBJ's Austin Karp. The complete three-hour “GameDay” averaged 2.1 million, up 19% from Week 2 last year.

• Brad Edwards is leaving his role as George Mason AD to become CEO of NFL Alumni. Edwards, a former NFL player, will succeed Beasley Reece, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

• Mobile banking app MoneyLion has a new financial education deal with INFLCR. Student athletes will now be able to watch short-form financial literacy videos on INFLCR courtesy of MoneyLion.