More Trouble Ahead for the G5?

[Flipper]

If the "power schools" want to continue to ruin college football by turning it into NFL lite, there isn't much we can do about it. We'll still be playing college football here...student athletes...reasonable geographic alignment...ticket prices at a level that a family of four can attend for less than a car payment. Sure we won't be "big time"....wait...when were we big time? We may have been in the same division as the Michigan's, the Oregon's and the Alabama's of the world and when the stars aligned correctly every ten years or so we could beat those teams...sometimes. Given the $$$ and facilities they have, it was purely fiction on our part to think we were in their league....the system was never set up to allow us to do that.

Truthfully...I 've lost interest in following college football beyond the MAC and the B1G any way. I still follow the B1G because I grew up on OSU/UM/MSU...going to divisions and expanding the the east coast and Nebraska has kinda diminished that interest, but I still pay attention to an extent. The realignments that make no sense geographically, the move to mid week games, the arms race to add coaches and facilities....it's become one big reach for the $$$$ and it's killed my interest. Do I care if we wind up playing teams like Indiana State instead of Indiana? No..not really.

[footballguy51]

Yep there are so many teams from these conferences that only get to 5,6 or 7 wins because they play an FCS team and 2-3 teams from conferences like the MAC. When they start going 2-10 or 4-8 every year they'll have nobody to blame but themselves.

A lot of these teams use FCS games as an additional "bye" every year. Every year both Alabama and Auburn play an FCS team before the Iron Bowl. I think they're kidding themselves if they want to get rid of some of these get healthy games.

What I can see happening are those schools in the P5 that will end up going 2-10 or 4-8 being kicked out, and the P5 becoming just a small grouping of power schools. Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, and Northwestern will not be able to stay up there. Neither will 90% of the ACC or Pac-##. The Big 12, or whatever they are now, will be down to just a handful of schools, as will the SEC and the B1G. There will probably be 20 schools left over.

Sadly, the coaches that voted for this coach for the schools that will ultimately be kicked out for not being worthy competition. And trust me, there will be no way to bump your way into that elite group, unless you're willing to fork over millions and millions that they already do.

[hammb]

Yep there are so many teams from these conferences that only get to 5,6 or 7 wins because they play an FCS team and 2-3 teams from conferences like the MAC. When they start going 2-10 or 4-8 every year they'll have nobody to blame but themselves.

A lot of these teams use FCS games as an additional "bye" every year. Every year both Alabama and Auburn play an FCS team before the Iron Bowl. I think they're kidding themselves if they want to get rid of some of these get healthy games.

What I can see happening are those schools in the P5 that will end up going 2-10 or 4-8 being kicked out, and the P5 becoming just a small grouping of power schools. Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, and Northwestern will not be able to stay up there. Neither will 90% of the ACC or Pac-##. The Big 12, or whatever they are now, will be down to just a handful of schools, as will the SEC and the B1G. There will probably be 20 schools left over.

Sadly, the coaches that voted for this coach for the schools that will ultimately be kicked out for not being worthy competition. And trust me, there will be no way to bump your way into that elite group, unless you're willing to fork over millions and millions that they already do.

This is exactly the road that I see it going down as well.

Right now the "have nots" of the power conferences are voting to kick us out, so they get a larger percentage of the overall revenue. Think about it. Schools like Indiana, Minnesota, stand to benefit quite a bit by nobody being allowed to play against the MAC or Mountain West. Suddenly they're never going on the road to a "lesser" conference school, and suddenly THEY are getting more of those "payday" games against the big boys OOC. But then how long before the upper echelon of those conferences start to realize how much money they're losing out on by playing @ Minnesota or Cal? The best way for them to maximize revenue (realistically) is to kick all THOSE teams out as well.

The end result is that the biggest of the big ends up in a pseudo NFL minor league and the rest of college football is left in the wake. Since schools like BG got kicked out of the party first, will they welcome the 2nd tier of the big conferences in when THEY get kicked out? Not sure...I probably would just to make the product better, but I could see that 2nd tier never wanting to admit it and starting their OWN league. Then all of a sudden there are 4 levels of Division 1 college football...

Seriously I could easily see things shaping out this way...

To echo Flip's comments, I have lost any and all interest in the sport of college football beyond Bowling Green/MAC. I grew up watching OSU and the Big 10 but the rest of OSU fan nation has pretty much made me a massive OSU hater. The "everyone else cheats so it's okay for us to" mentality of those big boys has ruined the sport for me as a whole. Not only that, but all the money hoarding has devolved the college landscape to where the divide I spoke of above is pretty much already there, just not in writing yet. We cannot really hope to compete with the big boys (if we ever could), but more shockingly the Northwesterns ,Purdues, etc cannot compete either. The result is that on any given week there really are no more than 1 or 2 games worth watching on the entire schedule, because most games end up as a have vs a have-not.

I watch BG and root for them. Other than that the only college football I really care about is watching the teams that have NFL prospects playing. I love the draft and love the NFL, and it's fun to play amateur scout and watch them. But as to who wins the pseudo national title? Couldn't possibly care less.

College football has always been about the dollar, but ESPN and television in general have greatly increased the revenue potential and as the upper teams show off their greed it has ruined what was once, by far, my favorite sport.

[kdog27]

Something will give eventually if this happens. The Minnesota, Iowa States, Texas Tech Syracuse etc of the world may not have the fan bases of your Texas, Alabama OSUs of the world but they still make up a large portion of the college football fan base. When they get squeezed out, many of them will lose interest.

I have never pretended BG was on the same level as those schools. But on a given day BG can and has proved they can play with them. It's fun to see where the MAC stacks up and the thought of an upset keeps it fun for me. The thought or remote chance of going 13-0 and crashing the party makes it fun for me. I imagine I'm going lose a lot of the interest I have when the MAC can no longer come close to offering recruits the same perks. Sadly that and the phasing out of games against the power 5 will about kill all of the for interest for me.

[Falconfreak90]

If this all happens, like others, I will follow the non power conferences and down...FCS, Div II and Div III. The "power 5" can kiss my orange and brown ass. They can have their semi pro league and go pound salt.

[Schadenfreude]

Do I care if we wind up playing teams like Indiana State instead of Indiana? No..not really.

I care. If we ever reach that point, I'll probably lose interest.

[ZuluWarrior]

I'm coming in for Indiana this year. If it was Indiana State I couldn't care less and there is no way I would drive in for Indiana State. I also plan to come in for a MAC game too, but this would devastate my interest. I think BG has the potential for an undefeated season at some point and make a major bowl. If they didn't have a chance I really would only care about Basketball and Hockey because they could compete on the national stage. It matters to me.

[kdog27]

Do I care if we wind up playing teams like Indiana State instead of Indiana? No..not really.

I care. If we ever reach that point, I'll probably lose interest.

Same here

[FalconTurf]

It will hurt BG and the rest of the MAC initially until a new financial model is developed. Purdue, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Duke, Indiana, NC State and the rest of the lower tier Big 5 Conference schools are the ones who will lose out most dramatically. Let them have at it but I don't think there is any turning back when it fails. They will ruin college football making it a 30 team NFL-like Saturday operation if that many can survive at the top tier. At that point do Northwestern, Purdue and Indiana apply for football-only status with the MAC?

[Siborg]

I agree with a lot of what many or you are saying..........The short sightedness of the lower third or half of P5 schools amaze me. Right now the MAC, Sun Belt etc... are the only thing preventing them from being on the chopping block. If they stopped to think about long term impact, they might realize they need to support us for no other reason than to defend themsleves against the top echelon programs.

I also grew up an OSU backer. I lived and died with each win and loss. Now if OSU loses, I laugh. They are part of the problem.

I often wonder if the NFL and College Football would stop colluding to force kids into college before they can become professionals, what would happen then? Would the NFL suddenly realize it needs a farm system or semi pro league and then kids who have no desire to go to college but want to enter the business of pro football take that alternative? Then maybe college football could gradually transform into "student athelete" programs again.

[Globetrotter]

It will hurt BG and the rest of the MAC initially until a new financial model is developed. Purdue, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Duke, Indiana, NC State and the rest of the lower tier Big 5 Conference schools are the ones who will lose out most dramatically. Let them have at it but I don't think there is any turning back when it fails. They will ruin college football making it a 30 team NFL-like Saturday operation if that many can survive at the top tier. At that point do Northwestern, Purdue and Indiana apply for football-only status with the MAC?

Those teams will be fine because of the TV money.

This is the middle (I can't say beginning because that was a while ago) of the end for the non power 5. We needed to show that we were necessary somehow, that balance and fairness and developing programs were good things for the power 5. They made the sport more interesting and more appealing to a wider fan base. I don't know truthfully if there is anything we could have done but we did nothing and we will soon be being what I will call Professional College Football division.

[mmisbg]

This conversation happens every year or two. I will admit that it appears more likely than ever. However, I think that if the gavel was ever to be coming down for real, many of the largest backers would start to change their tune.

Many of the fans of the usual suspects thrive on the ambiguity of the system. Their base has so many fans because almost every year they can cling to the idea that they would have been in the title game if they hadn't been screwed.

Every time they "overhaul" the system, it boils down to another band-aid. This 4 team playoff is another example. Teams 5-10 will all be making their case for having deserved a shot.

If the P5 separate from the mid-majors, and dump the teams that shouldn't have been P5 anyway, sheer mathematics will destroy the illusion seen by their fan base. Gone will be the days of 8-4 records being a disappointment. The 'Kevin Bacon Game' played with 'who beat who' won't be effective. The foundation of ignorant college football banter will dissolve as fans will have to accept their team losing 3 to 4 times as often.

In some ways, I say bring it on. I've said for a long time that the bulk of the school down south's fans wouldn't last 3 seasons of that team finishing 7-5. Maybe then, fewer people would run off the graduation stage straight to Goodwill and then to the buckeye/wolverine shop.

[lookimrory]

In short, the thing that makes college football so magical for me is the whole David vs Goliath thing. You can't get that in the NFL, and even if, say, Purdue beats ohio state, that's nothing compared to BG beating Wisconsin in week 3. If that is no longer possible in college football, I will be very upset.

[lookimrory]

Oops. Week 4.

[Globetrotter]

For me it's all been David and Goliath and the illusion at if my team strung together some great seasons maybe we could get more butts in seats pay coaches more and be a legit contender. I don't have that belief any more I assume my care for bg football will dwindle more and more.

What I am more concerned about now is that basketball, where it can be a more level field you now will have some teams paying players and some not. It's all crumbling.