(04-27-2014 06:20 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(04-26-2014 10:49 AM)baruna falls Wrote:  

(04-26-2014 10:35 AM)ark30inf Wrote:  They don't consider themselves G5. The P5 does not consider them P5. So they sit alone at one end of the lifeboat. But when our end of the boat goes down theirs will too.

I don't believe the G5 schools are all in the same lifeboat. Each school in the G5 is essentially on its own. The schools that have money, and fan support will survive and those that don't will not. If anything, we will see a continued grouping of the strong schools, again those schools can be in any of the G5 conferences, and a fading of those who cannot survive.

I think this is horrendous for college sports. If a school wants to compete it should be able to do so with the budget it has available without fear of being left out of the competition . Unfortunately, unless some time of lawsuit occurs, we are in a game of survival and not what is best for college sports or the student-athlete.

The difference between being G5 and P5 is that P5 conferences generate enough league revenue that they can survive all but the most disastrous decisions at the school level (see Maryland close call).

A turn of bad luck and/or bad decisions at ECU or Houston has far more damage potential than it has at Texas Tech or NC State. Remember a few years ago, just before their second BCS appearance, Boise had to cut some positions and cut back in spending because their ticket and giving growth simply slowed from what had been a solid pace.

Dealing with a million dollar shortfall at Memphis is much harder to deal with than that number at Tennessee.

All G5's are on their own because their leagues don't generate enough revenue to be a crisis financial lifeboat nor enough to be a major source of operating revenue.

True, but to be fair, most P5 schools generate more off ticket sales and donations that they do from media. That's the place where most G5 schools need to improve. If a schools can reach that 40-50K attendance average, the ticket and donation income stream will offset the poor media contracts to large extent. If 10-14 G5 schools can reach those ticket sales level, a conference including these schools would likely command a decent media value (10-12 million a school) and the conference would be fairly well received by the bowls.