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FOOTBALL G5 Needs A Collective Ultimatum

MTFAN61

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Aug 11, 2022
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Everything in college athletics has been organized & created recently to financially benefit the university elites. The P4's are gobbling up money & talent while laughing at the slow dissolution of the G5 schools & conferences.
While the NCAA power schools get richer & richer they continue to maintain successful seasons by throwing crumbs to the 2-3 G5 schools they play annually. Individually they will gladly toss out $750k - $1.5 mill a few games a year to get their 8,9, or 10 win plateau they desire each year.
If it wasn't for schools like MT, WKU, or Georgia Southern per se their end of year records would also be 5-7 to 7-5 at best annually & they know it. It's only with our benefit those same schools get a comfortable end of year resume.
The G5's should come together in its own collective. We should say "yes" we will continue to be your sacrificial lambs so you can gloat your early season 50 point victories, but going forward it's going to cost you.
G5 schools should collectively come together & agree not to play a P4 school for under $3 million/game. Or an alternative of $1.5 million received for a 2 year home & home contract.
They would balk at first, but I guarantee you those same schools who have been used to fattening up their win/loss ledgers at G5 expense would come around in no time when they have to confront the realities of a 12 game P4 schedule.
 
If wanting more money from the P4 schools is "dumb" I suppose the super smart thing to do would be to charge even less.
 
We need them more than they need us.
This is sad, but true. They know it, we know it.
But if we piss them off, they will kick us to the curb. And both parties know this.

I still think a split will happen sometime in the next decade. If the cases don't get settled and go to trial, it could be sooner. But when it does, we will still have a place in a fine group. Not all current P4 schools will make it and will be lumped in with us.

Even if a split doesn't happen, I still think we will have a seat at the table, just a small one as we do now. One CFP spot, probably with an even smaller money piece. I used to think the G5 should just split themselves, but I no longer think that. We all are FBS and should fight.

Me personally, I would get all the G5 conferences & schools together and revamp though. Possibly restructure based on geography to save costs and kill one of the conferences.
It is stupid to have 1800 miles between teams in a G5. That is major money spent. From Army to TX St or Liberty to NMSU.

I'd make the current 64 G5 teams 4 conferences, each with 16 teams with 4 pods each.
8 conf games/4 out
3 vs your pod
4 vs another pod that rotates each year
8th game is pod 1 vs pod 2 / pod 3 vs pod 4
Those champs play for conf champ.

Then have a 4 team G5 "play-in" where the champ gets the CFP spot.

It would create more revenue with each conference having its own "playoff" and then the G4s having a "play-in" all while still not voluntarily shutting ourselves out. People would watch to see who gets in.

The G5 peeps have got to think outside the box to create their own revenue sources and to grow their brand. Remember, we are only contractually guaranteed a CFP spot this year and next. After that, nothing is finalized but a TV deal.
 
It is what it is.

I just watched NCST get absolutely annihilated in every facet of the game vs UT. Now, NCSU is not a dog program - Doeren is a solid coach, they have an above average level of talent, a QB that killed the Sunbelt for 3 years - and it looked like the NFL vs high school. UT is a program that is entirely built on NIL (nothing wrong with that, if you have that leverage, use it). But that's going to be the demarcation line between the haves and the have nots.

And NC State - They're just a F****d as we are when it comes to being nationally competitive and they are upper-ish level ACC program.

Football is going to stratify - there's going to be about 20-30 programs, tops, that are going to be competitive on the playoff/national level. The rest of us are going to have to find a new way to make college football have meaning. That's not impossible. I still think the portal will giveth as much as it will taketh away. Few of our peers at our level will have more than we can offer.

I think eventually, someone will come up with something - either a mid-level league/playoff/poll/whatever, or something like that. I just wish we'd hurry up and get there.
 
I worry about the future of college football & specifically for us. Seems like not long ago Brent Stockstill had us beating SEC Mizzou, and even dating back to last season when the Mizzou game was a one possession ball game all the way up to the final play of the game & that mizzou team went on to be a top ten team. Then you see the difference just a year makes, a 49 point loss to an SEC power. CFB landscape changes fast. These competitive G5 v P5 matchups are going to be sorely missed, part of what makes college football what it is. I am hoping last Saturday's result was moreso chalked up to misses in the portal/mass roster turnover & not an indication of the future for schools like us. I think we can definitely stay competitive because Coach Stock's 4 win team last year had Mizzou on the ropes, surely we can get back to that at least with new facilities coming & the new staff. I believe in this staff but we have to be better, there are other teams who got hit by the portal hard but have been better than we have been through two games.
 
There will always be a place for G5 vs P4 games - not every P4 program wants to play 12 straight titanic matchups. Ohio State can do it. But what does someone like Ole Miss's program look like long term if they had to play 12 Ohio State's every season?

As for the G5 holding out for more dough - It's the prisoner's dilemma. If we hold out with our G5 buddies, we all win. But if one guy gives in, he gets the windfall and you get zilch. I highly doubt there's that much fanatic zeal in the G5 (and even FCS teams to this because they get those paycheck games too) to hold strong there.

I think the biggest road block to a revolution is our own administrators at the conference and school level. No one wants to be that administrator that says "hey, this might not be the best path for us". In the short term, it's surely going to lead to consolidation, angry alums, bad publicity, and pink slips for a whole lot of people on the college athletics gravy train.

I'm convinced it's inevitable that us middle tier program (not P4, but not FCS) end up in a middle tier of college football, I just don't know when or who will have the cojones to start it.
 
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NIU just beat ND. College football is the same it always has been in terms of upsets. Most P4 teams will beat up on teams at our level and occasionally one of the G5 will knock off a big dog. It is what it is.
 
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Which I feel like has been the way since we moved to 1-A/FCS. It will just have a name associated with it.

I'm convinced it's inevitable that us middle tier program (not P4, but not FCS) end up in a middle tier of college football, I just don't know when or who will have the cojones to start it.
 
Which I feel like has been the way since we moved to 1-A/FCS. It will just have a name associated with it.
When we jumped to 1-A, it wasn't like that at all. 114 teams our first year in '99. Now there are 134.
Marshall was in the MAC and ranked in the top 10. S Miss in CUSA was ranked. The year before Tulane was in the top 10. There were legit reasons and opportunity to move up.
It's been several years (Cincy) since a team like that sniffed the top 20, much less the top 10. And longer since multiple teams like that were ranked.

Budgets were closer, you didn't have full Saturdays of TV, and it was a big deal when a game was broadcast.

The media started the whole G5 thing and it has just grown and the G5 schools accepted it. Between giving the bigger conferences Autonomy back in the BCS days to accepting one NY6 bowl.

When we jumped, it was worth it. A real chance to compete. I honestly don't know if it is worth it for schools nowadays.
 

Wins like NIU's over Notre Dame will be especially rare with how transactional college football has become. Loyalty is out, money is in. And the G5 might be be...
 
I worry about the future of college football & specifically for us. Seems like not long ago Brent Stockstill had us beating SEC Mizzou, and even dating back to last season when the Mizzou game was a one possession ball game all the way up to the final play of the game & that mizzou team went on to be a top ten team. Then you see the difference just a year makes, a 49 point loss to an SEC power. CFB landscape changes fast. These competitive G5 v P5 matchups are going to be sorely missed, part of what makes college football what it is. I am hoping last Saturday's result was moreso chalked up to misses in the portal/mass roster turnover & not an indication of the future for schools like us. I think we can definitely stay competitive because Coach Stock's 4 win team last year had Mizzou on the ropes, surely we can get back to that at least with new facilities coming & the new staff. I believe in this staff but we have to be better, there are other teams who got hit by the portal hard but have been better than we have been through two games.
Welcome to the board!
 
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And here it is. I'm gonna say the split will happen after this CFP contract is up after 2031-32 season.

"Sources in both leagues told ESPN on Monday they would prefer to have potentially four automatic bids each to the playoff when the next contract begins in 2026. CFP leaders haven't determined yet what the playoff will look like beyond this season and next. Some said they need to know that before making any decisions about future scheduling partnerships."

 
And here it is. I'm gonna say the split will happen after this CFP contract is up after 2031-32 season.

"Sources in both leagues told ESPN on Monday they would prefer to have potentially four automatic bids each to the playoff when the next contract begins in 2026. CFP leaders haven't determined yet what the playoff will look like beyond this season and next. Some said they need to know that before making any decisions about future scheduling partnerships."

I do not like two conferences having all the power. Once they got the autonomy to do what they want, college football took a downhill turn.
 
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They really have no shame don’t they? 4 bids each for their conferences then let the rest of the country split 4 amongst the other 100ish schools?

Who do these mother Fers think they are ? Can take their “sport” and shove it as far as I’m concerned.
 
The only people who can't see where this is going are the G5 conference commish's and the G5 school admins.

Or they see where it's going, but don't have the brains or the balls to get us all out of this doom spiral and into a framework that works.
 
The only people who can't see where this is going are the G5 conference commish's and the G5 school admins.

Or they see where it's going, but don't have the brains or the balls to get us all out of this doom spiral and into a framework that works.
They 100% don't have the cojones. Afraid to rock the boat and lose what money they do get, which keeps dwindling down. There are many options out there to grow the G5 revenue and status, they just are afraid to do it.
 
We are on track (really already are) to be bonafied farm teams for the P4. It wouldn't surprise me if at some point they are allowed to buy/steal our players mid-season if they are desperate for a QB or something.
 
One solution would be multiyear contracts with players with a buyout clause if they transfer out. For example you sign a guy out of high school for 2 years $50k each year and if he wants to leave after one year he pays $50-$75K. Something to compensate the development school and give room for pause for the athlete.

I would still really like to see the restatement of sitting out a year if you transfer. That’s the only way to slow this down, give some stability and make it more fair for the broader group. Right now, just one transfer has the potential to cause a domino of more transfers on multiple teams.
 
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