(04-18-2024 10:00 PM)MUther Wrote: (04-18-2024 04:10 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote: Again.. no more playing the SEC or BIG-Ten teams.. EVER!
That should be the mantra for every team.
The ratings will collapse so hard, the SEC and BIG-Ten will be steamrolled in a heartbeat.
Gimme some big-xii/acc teams that are still likely to kick our butts due to having facilities and advantages.. but SEC and BiG Ten.. nope, you guys go enjoy your circlejerk.
You guys are always sniffing out the big paychecks from the SEC teams. I get the sentiment, but as long as our schools are broke they will play who they have to. This new format would seem to cut off that source of funding by eliminating bodybag games and offering home and homes to the temporary select few. No payouts with return games or they offset if money is involved.
But the SEC and Big Ten would have to do that since they will be likely losing 2 extra home games each season, moving to a 6-6 home and away schedule. I suppose the 7th team in each division would schedule "other" G5 teams, since there wouldn't be anyone else to play, in a 3 home and 3 away format.
This would also ensure that no "power" team ever lost to an FCS school ever again.
Turn the clock back.
In 1973 the first Division-wide limit on scholarships at 105 was imposed. Before that it was whatever your wanted. If you wanted to put 120 on scholarship, so be it. You had conferences that capped at 85 or 80 or 75 or 70 or even 0 all playing Division I. Until 2003 if you so desired you could play (though not well) in FBS with 60 scholarships if you wanted.
Until the TV money took off after Penn State and South Carolina left football independence and Arkansas left the SWC in 1989 you didn't have a lot of zipping across the country for a big dang check.
1976 USM (after being a vagabond during stadium renovations that had them playing home games in Jackson, New Orleans, Mobile, and Biloxi) played exactly one opponent on the road who didn't have a contract to come to MM Roberts at some point (which was the case in 1975 as well). Alabama which was basically a standing game. That same year, Arkansas State played one that wasn't home/home, a game against NW State (La), same for Louisiana who also played NW State.
It is crazy to me that I have seen football writers talk about that era and call it "The Golden Age of College Football". The golden age was a time when LSU bought two home games. Pac-8 member Oregon State and WAC member Utah and played Rice on a 2 for 1. National champion Pitt bought one game, Louisville and played Miami (FL) 2 for 1.
1976 MAC champion Ball State did not play any "power" school and everything was home/home. Memphis played several "power" schools part of contracts that brought them to Memphis.
It was the schools having to keep up with USC, Arizona State, BYU, Texas who were selling out to get a check. The poor folk mostly played each other.
Someone posted on Facebook an article from around 1975 talking of how the rich schools might break away. Article noted that at the low end you had A-State spending $750,000 on athletics while up top you had Penn State spending $3.2 million.
The multiplier more in spending is still pretty close to what it was then, what has changed is that to get that ratio now requires greater reliance on game guarantees, university money, and student fees by the poor folks.
Hey some G5 now spend $2 million on a football coach and every P5 pays more so it starts to smell like a big spend not to retain talent but to market the idea the school "is serious" about football.
Arkansas paid Frank Broyles twice as much as A-State paid Bill Davidson and Broyles was doing double duty as AD, now Arkansas pays Sam Pittman 6 times as much as A-State pays Butch Jones. That feels like a loss for Arkansas vs the golden era.
With NIL or without NIL there are going to 11,390 FBS scholarship players. NIL, like brand names, facilities, etc., before will determine how that talent is allocated but doesn't change the pool. About half those spots are going to be with the wealthy schools and the G5 mostly is picking from what's left.
In the golden era, university leaders understood that equation and didn't spend crazy money. There's probably not a school out there that can't run their program on less guarantee money and less university money and less student money but as long as the hope of climbing the ladder exists, few will have the courage to do so.
Once SEC and Big Ten extract the useful value from ACC and ACC has done its backfill, one would hope that common sense might poke its head back up again from it's long vacation and people will gather that there are no more golden tickets to SEC and Big Ten and then it will dawn on people there are no more silver tickets to Big XII and ACC and spending beyond reasonable amounts to get those tickets no longer makes sense and we settle into a new period of stability.
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Outkick Proposed CFB Football 70-Team Super League
