MAC Supports Full Cost of Attendance

[Falcon137]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... attendance" target="_blank

Pretty huge news for the conference and member institutions. I'm assuming the ESPN deal and playoff money will be paying for this.

[jpfalcon09]

The only way for the MAC to be relevant in Division 1 football was to accept this. No doubt the new ESPN deal is helping to offset this.

[MacGuy]

So the ESPN money might allow MAC schools to pay $2,000 per athlete while Texas is talking about $10,000.

[Mr_Sweets]

Break out your wallets ALUM!

[hammb]

It'll likely be the death of the conference (football especially) but the only way to even hope to remain competitive was to follow suit.

[jpfalcon09]

It'll likely be the death of the conference (football especially) but the only way to even hope to remain competitive was to follow suit.

The mid majors aren't going anywhere despite everyone's doom and gloom predictions. The sports networks will always be willing to pay for content to fill whether it's online or TV. The P5 is destroying the sport anyways.

[hammb]

Sure espn or the like will continue to pay something if we keep playing on weeknights, but it's not enough to fund the programs. Programs that are already very heavily subsidized by student fees.

We have no business giving athletes more than we already do (nor really do the power conferences).

If this plays out as I suspect with mid majors providing small subsidies while the big guys provide huge ones it only further expands the gap. The gap that has gotten massive even within the power five.

[Falcon137]

Nothing is going to change in terms of football. There are to many sports networks now that need content for D1 conferences to start falling by the wayside.

The group of 5 conferences are doing this to separate themselves from FCS football, there has and always be a clear divide between Alabama and N. Illinois, BG and Nebraska. The recruiting battles will still be the same, BG vs Marshall vs Toledo vs FIU. the other small conferences aren't going to be dishing out double what the MAC does, they can't afford to. They will have roughly the same TV contract while paying for trips like, the women's tennis team to go from Huntington to El Paso. Granted, things change when you start talking about recruiting battles between BG and Purdue for instance. But, it's not like they don't already have big recruiting advantages.

I have no problem with athletes finally getting a cut. The question will be, who gets paid? Football and basketball? Football, basketball, and hockey at BG? Everyone? And do schools start cutting sports to get to the bare minimum to stay D1? IE - Goodbye men's and women's cross country, men's soccer, and women's gymnastics.

The real fun starts when the titans of college football start getting fed up with the bottom dwellers in their own conferences. Is Ohio State going to be happy when they want to offer their football players $10,000 because that's what the SEC is doing and the Big10 tells them they can only do 5k because of Purdue, Illinois, and Indiana? Or vice - versa, how happy will those schools be if their conference comes out and says the schools can give whatever they feel is necessary.

[MacGuy]

I have no problem with athletes finally getting a cut. The question will be, who gets paid? Football and basketball? Football, basketball, and hockey at BG? Everyone? And do schools start cutting sports to get to the bare minimum to stay D1? IE - Goodbye men's and women's cross country, men's soccer, and women's gymnastics.


Because of Title IX every athlete will have to be paid.

[Flipper]

Yep..Title IX says equal treatment accros the board. IIRC...there's never been a succssful challenge to Title IX on the basis of revenue vs non revenue sports, so you would not be able to limit the $$ to the teams that can pay for themselves.

[hammb]

Nothing is going to change in terms of football. There are to many sports networks now that need content for D1 conferences to start falling by the wayside.

The group of 5 conferences are doing this to separate themselves from FCS football, there has and always be a clear divide between Alabama and N. Illinois, BG and Nebraska. The recruiting battles will still be the same, BG vs Marshall vs Toledo vs FIU. the other small conferences aren't going to be dishing out double what the MAC does, they can't afford to. They will have roughly the same TV contract while paying for trips like, the women's tennis team to go from Huntington to El Paso. Granted, things change when you start talking about recruiting battles between BG and Purdue for instance. But, it's not like they don't already have big recruiting advantages.

I have no problem with athletes finally getting a cut. The question will be, who gets paid? Football and basketball? Football, basketball, and hockey at BG? Everyone? And do schools start cutting sports to get to the bare minimum to stay D1? IE - Goodbye men's and women's cross country, men's soccer, and women's gymnastics.

The real fun starts when the titans of college football start getting fed up with the bottom dwellers in their own conferences. Is Ohio State going to be happy when they want to offer their football players $10,000 because that's what the SEC is doing and the Big10 tells them they can only do 5k because of Purdue, Illinois, and Indiana? Or vice - versa, how happy will those schools be if their conference comes out and says the schools can give whatever they feel is necessary.

The players start getting a cut of what!? Football at BG and the MAC level operates at a loss. A large loss in most seasons. Are the players going to cover the debt?

As I said, we have no business giving money to our football players when we have a hard enough time balancing the budget as is. The same goes for all of our student athletes.

And really outside of football/basketball the same is true at nearly every other school in the NCAA as well. There are very few athletic departments that operate at a profit or break even, and all of them that do are doing it with football/basketball subsidizing the entire department. A small handful of those teams can afford to pay their players extra and still make a profit/break even.

As you mentioned, I see this as the first step towards the OSU and Alabamas of the world kicking the Purdue and Vanderbilts to the curb.

The top teams are ruining college football (and college sports in general), in the name of the almighty dollar. It's really quite sad.

[Schadenfreude]

The top teams are ruining college football (and college sports in general), in the name of the almighty dollar. It's really quite sad.

Agreed. I fear the gap is growing here.

[mscarn]

In addition to ruining the sport they're also ruining our games. We don't need to see the freaking playoff bracket (which will change about 30 times anyway) at the top of the broadcast before the teams playing in the game are discussed. Most people presumably tuned in to see Bowling Green against Akron, not a 15 minute exegesis on the differences between the #7 and #8 teams or fourteen OSU/MSU Saturday game plugs.

[bgsufalcon24]

In addition to ruining the sport they're also ruining our games. We don't need to see the freaking playoff bracket (which will change about 30 times anyway) at the top of the broadcast before the teams playing in the game are discussed. Most people presumably tuned in to see Bowling Green against Akron, not a 15 minute exegesis on the differences between the #7 and #8 teams or fourteen OSU/MSU Saturday game plugs.

C'mon...they've been doing the same thing for years with the BCS...it just has a different name and format now. That's never going to change.