Is football the next sport cut @ BGSU?

[Flipper]

No...we're not "good at this FBS thing". we've been good at being in the MAC..

The MAC is FBS. This is where we belong: In FBS and in the MAC, where we have been successful more often than not.

it's true that we've had a tough time keeping talented head coaches. We aren't alone here. This is a decades old challenge for teams across college football, and not just in the MAC. (Ask Utah or Florida, for example.)

At Miami, they try to put a good face on it with the "Cradle of Coaches" branding. It is what it is. Despite it all, Miami has a long track record of success. As do we. Miami is rebuilding. We will, too.

The MAC is not FBS because the rest of the FBS doesn't treat it like it is...we don't even treat it that way because we pay our coach a bonus for playing Power 5 teams and taking an ass kicking...although I'm not sure how those P5 ass kickings are different than the FCS and MAC ass kickings we're taking this year. Looking at it that way..we OWE Jinks money because we're not paying him for as many as 10 losses this year

[threestooges]

Our current situation points pup the futility of participating at the FBS level.

Bowling Green won two MAC titles during the past five seasons. In fact, it was just three seasons ago that the Falcons beat two different Big Ten teams on their home fields. Historically speaking Bowling Green is one of the best programs in the MAC. Only one other MAC school has more league titles than we do. No MAC school has a better record against the Big Ten than we do.

Bowling Green is actually pretty good at this FBS thing, at least compared to our peers in the MAC.

There is no doubt that this is a really bad season for us, perhaps the worst in a half century. But we will rebuild. We always do. Let's not overreact here.

I agree. Have we sucked through five games this season? Yes. Might we continue to suck over the next seven games? Maybe. Do we know if Jinks can coach at this level? No, the jury's still out on that one.

But, as someone said, Clawson went 2-10 in his second season and 4-8 in his third. I guarantee there were people on this board who were ready to escort him to the city limits & wave goodbye.

If I'm not mistaken, and I'm pretty sure I'm not, every MAC team but one has gone 3-9 or worse in the last decade, and that one (Ohio) had at least one 4-8 season in there.

Should this make anyone feel better about the 2017 BGSU team? Probably not. But, as someone who has been following MAC football for damn near close to four decades now, things are cyclical in this league. About 20 years ago, everyone thought Marshall would go undefeated every year until they left the MAC for the SEC. Five years later, we scored 56 points on them & took a knee with the ball inside their 10 yard line as the clock wound down. The teams on top in this league rarely stay there for too long.

Since BG can't afford to buy out Jinks' contract, even if they wanted to (let the record show that I do NOT want to buy it out at this point), we may as well see what the guy can do when he gets his own recruits in here. Seriously, we were due for a pretty serious fall no matter who took over for Dino. If there's no sign of progress at this time next year, maybe I'll change my tune, but I'm not willing to give up on him just yet.

[Falconfreak90]

Clawson went 5-7 in 2011...

I'm still in Jinks' corner...But he must start winning some games.

[Flipper]

Comparing today's world to what Miami had when it was "The Cradle of Coaches" is laughable...we're in completely different universes now.

We're expending $$$$ trying to stay afloat in a system that exists to keep us underwater. Taking the long view..It is completely pointless

[Schadenfreude]

Comparing today's world to what Miami had when it was "The Cradle of Coaches" is laughable...

I'm not laughing.

During its first 30 years in the MAC, Miami lost Woody Hayes to Miami, Ara Parseghian to Northwestern, John Pont to Yale, Bo Schembechler to Michigan, Bill Mallory to Colorado, and Dick Crum to North Carolina. During that time Miami was as successful as any program in the MAC, winning several bowl games and finishing nationally ranked several different times, despite playing in an aging, undersized 14,000-seat stadium in an era without an 85-scholarship limit.

You say to take the long view. I am. The challenges you describe are not new.

[Clubber]

Unfortunately we are in an era, where decisions are made on what is best for administrators' individual careers rather than what is best for the university. If the MAC were to drop out of FBS football, every AD and President's prominence and status would take a hit. It would especially hurt the ADs' career aspirations.

Real leadership from the MAC commish and AD's would be to do the right thing and A: Limit the spending on coaches salaries/budgets etc or B: drop to FCS level football. I don't see either happening until the P5 forces the MAC and other G5 conferences out, but eventually it's going to happen.

[Schadenfreude]

eventually it's going to happen.

People have been saying this for decades, and yet here we are. Bowling Green and the MAC have played at the top level of college football for decades. I expect this to continue.

[naandre]

While I love watching BG play football, the university would be smart to cut the program and I've been saying that for a couple of years. With the direction the BCS is going and the recent advancements in CTE diagnosis, at some point in the not too distant future the liability is going to be too expensive for all but the biggest programs to continue fielding football teams. I think it would make sense to take the money were spending on football and use it to become competitive in a smaller sport while we can still do it on our terms. Maybe we focus on basketball maybe we try to get ahead of a future trend and become a soccer powerhouse. Either way I don't think football is long for BG.

[gmartin]

We cannot eliminate football or even drop down to FCS level. You say by dropping down to FCS or eliminating football we could use the money saved and put that towards other athletic programs. That's not the case. Football revenue is about the only thing that is driving BGSU Athletics. BG gets profit sharing from the other 11 teams in the conference when they go to bowl games. All that money is shared. BG also gets money from the ESPN contract. If you eliminate football or drop down to FCS you would not get the money from the bowl games or from ESPN. BG needs the football program in order to pay for the coaches of the basketball, hockey and baseball programs. Eliminating football will basically kill all other athletic programs.

[Roll Along!]

For every Butler or Wichita State that is able to create a brand on the back of men's basketball without football, there's 10 schools that haven't been able to do that. If you think our administration is a bunch of bumbling idiots and has been despite many different leaders at the top (as some claim), what makes you think we'd be able to buck the system and be a Butler as opposed to a Wisconsin Milwaukee or a Howard or an IPFW or an IUPUI?

[gmartin]

If we were selling out the Stroh every game, 4500 on a regular basis and was receiving money from Nike to pay athletes and getting better recruits by hiring 'strippers' for our players and basketball was bringing in millions in revenue then maybe we could eliminate football or drop to FCS but that's not happening. We rarely draw over 1500 per game so basketball is barely making ends meet. We need football to fund our other programs. We need the ESPN contract. We need the profit sharing of the conference and we need the big money 1.2 million payout game every year so that we can fund the other sports. Until basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer can generate a profit to survive on their own you cannot eliminate football.

[naandre]

For every Butler or Wichita State that is able to create a brand on the back of men's basketball without football, there's 10 schools that haven't been able to do that. If you think our administration is a bunch of bumbling idiots and has been despite many different leaders at the top (as some claim), what makes you think we'd be able to buck the system and be a Butler as opposed to a Wisconsin 8Milwaukee or a Howard or an IPFW or an IUPUI?

It doesn't matter if I think that they could pull it off. I just know that it will be a whole lot harder to do it in the future when we're competing with a whole bunch of other programs trying to do the same thing because at some point the BCS is going to push out the mid-major teams, that ESPN money is going to dry up and CTE lawsuits are going to make running a football program exponentially more expensive.

[naandre]

If we were selling out the Stroh every game, 4500 on a regular basis and was receiving money from Nike to pay athletes and getting better recruits by hiring 'strippers' for our players and basketball was bringing in millions in revenue then maybe we could eliminate football or drop to FCS but that's not happening. We rarely draw over 1500 per game so basketball is barely making ends meet. We need football to fund our other programs. We need the ESPN contract. We need the profit sharing of the conference and we need the big money 1.2 million payout game every year so that we can fund the other sports. Until basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer can generate a profit to survive on their own you cannot eliminate football.

Football revenue barely exceeds expenses and that was before they had to drop 700K on a concussion settlement (which I'm assuming was largely covered by insurance) it's not funding other sports.

[FalconTurf]

If we were selling out the Stroh every game, 4500 on a regular basis and was receiving money from Nike to pay athletes and getting better recruits by hiring 'strippers' for our players and basketball was bringing in millions in revenue then maybe we could eliminate football or drop to FCS but that's not happening. We rarely draw over 1500 per game so basketball is barely making ends meet. We need football to fund our other programs. We need the ESPN contract. We need the profit sharing of the conference and we need the big money 1.2 million payout game every year so that we can fund the other sports. Until basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer can generate a profit to survive on their own you cannot eliminate football.

Football revenue barely exceeds expenses and that was before they had to drop 700K on a concussion settlement (which I'm assuming was largely covered by insurance) it's not funding other sports.

I would love to see these numbers. I believe every program at BG relies upon the generosity of student fees and that includes football.

[Flipper]

It's not generosity if there's a gun to your head.

The long view refers to what is in front of you...not behind. Miami was The Cradle of Coaches 40 years ago...if you can't see the fundamental differences in where we stand now vs then...I can't help you.

Schad...you go ahead and pretend we're like the Big Boys...no one with any relevance in the college football landscape agrees with you. The evidence at hand certainly doesn't support that line of thinking. The NCAA may say we're in the FBS...but the money, power, real exposure (actual broadcasts and cablecasts, not ESPN3) say otherwise. Hell, the media in our own markets treat us as an afterthought after the B1G and Notre Dame.

It is insanity ( and immoral) to extort the money we do from the students ...who clearly don't give a crap.. to participate at a level where our best hope is to somehow pull an inside straight and play in the New Year's afterthought bowl...so we can wish our HC Bon Voyage as he leaves us for real money