It seems not all that long ago, Boise State became the banner for all mid major teams. Teams like Toledo dreamed of being the next Boise. Now it seems that dream is over. TCU and Utah will be free to pursue Division 1 glory after being accepted by power conferences. Teams like Toledo and Boise are being left in the cold. The playoff system is in place, which will prevent a MID Major from ever qualifying for a major bowl game again. The Toledo's of the world will be left to look at the FCS ranks for coaches. Assistant coaches will no longer be coming from power conferences, when they already make more money than MAC head coaches. The NCAA professor's committee, recently stated college football players in power conferences have needs that are unique and different of those of mid major conferences, and that those needs must be addressed. Those "needs" refer to paying college athletes. Something mid major schools will be unable to do. This could make recruiting more difficult. It seems to be the end of an era, the anticipation of making the top 25 will be over.

Yup. The things we loved about college athletics are being destroyed. I don't imagine there is a thing we as fans can do about it. But, FWIW, here is what I am going to do.

I will not watch their games. I will not have anything constructive to say about their games or their programs. At every opportunity I will explain to people what the NCAA has permitted to happen to college sports. I will b!tch to the local networks about being force-fed events that are not in "our market." And, for god's sakes, I will not buy or wear ANY of their apparel!

That's all I got for now...

(01-28-2014 10:21 PM)Toledo Football 1st Wrote:  Yup. The things we loved about college athletics are being destroyed. I don't imagine there is a thing we as fans can do about it. But, FWIW, here is what I am going to do.

I will not watch their games. I will not have anything constructive to say about their games or their programs. At every opportunity I will explain to people what the NCAA has permitted to happen to college sports. I will b!tch to the local networks about being force-fed events that are not in "our market." And, for god's sakes, I will not buy or wear ANY of their apparel!

That's all I got for now...

I am with you 100%. It is truly sad that greed has taken over the sport we all loved.

(01-28-2014 11:01 PM)DSV27 Wrote:  I am with you 100%. It is truly sad that greed has taken over the sport we all loved.

That's not new. College Football has been about Greed since thie inception of the BCS. They never thought a "little guy" could reach the biggest games. Then Boise, Utah, Hawaii, TCU and on up to NIU, UCF......even Louisville to an extent, started making regular appearances. Once it was no longer "exclusive", there had to be another way. I mean if schools like Boise, UCF, NIU can't make it to the "big games", then why would a recruit play there? Better that that recruit go to a bottom-feeder of a big conference than to a top-tier team in a "small" conference. (not my POV, I'd rather see them play in the MAC than play for Minnesota, Purdue, Indiana, etc...)

Nothing new, true. But, things are about to get worse in a big way.

Good points. I don't disagree with most of what you have stated, they would probably cast us into FCS status if the powers that be could get away with it But, is this one point really going to be true in the new system?

(01-28-2014 09:44 PM)falconplucker Wrote:  The playoff system is in place, which will prevent a MID Major from ever qualifying for a major bowl game again.

Is it really much different than before? If we stay with a 4 team playoff for long, the future looks bleak for sure. But, what if it expands to 8 or 16? It seems like it won't be much different than it is now in this respect and, if we can field a really good team, then we could have a better shot than we do today should we make it in.

In the end, I guess it comes down to who and how these choices are made by the committee, and how fair it will be. This is the part that pisses me off. I don't have a lot of faith in this committee process they have adopted and how folks will be selected to sit on it. They should have left the BCS ranking in place to seed the teams for the playoffs. For example, the year that Boise beat OK, most folks I knew didn't think Boise had a prayer to win. I actually thought they they had a decent chance to win. Would the committee have seen it the same way as the polls and computer rankings? Likely not...

I pulled up these related articles that I had read not too long ago. Figured some would find them interesting if not seen before.

http://sportsunbiased.com/ncaa/college-f...r-new-era/

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football...ee-members

Wish I could find it again, but I read an article that detailed all the turmoil of the NCAA meetings, the issues of what aid players can get and the rising influence of big money and the top schools.

The hook was, the article was written in the 50's.

It isn't just the playoff system in-of-itself, it's the money.

Check out this STORY

It's been difficult enough to do more with less and compete on the field with those bigger programs. Things are about to get much, much more difficult with the flood of money and the preferential changes about to be made that will favor those conferences. They will be able to offer players, coaches, and staff so much more it will be ridiculous.

(01-30-2014 10:53 AM)Toledo Football 1st Wrote:  It isn't just the playoff system in-of-itself, it's the money.

Check out this STORY

It's been difficult enough to do more with less and compete on the field with those bigger programs. Things are about to get much, much more difficult with the flood of money and the preferential changes about to be made that will favor those conferences. They will be able to offer players, coaches, and staff so much more it will be ridiculous.

This is disturbing, but not surprising. Just like our govt/society...the golden rule...those with the gold make all the rules. I would love to be a fly on the wall in these meetings and be able to grab some telling video to post for the masses. These folks are protecting their brand at any cost and are basically picking the winners and losers in collegiate football. Even fans I know from power conferences don't support this heavy handed BS. These institutions and commissioners leading the way on this need to be exposed for their greed.

(01-30-2014 10:53 AM)Toledo Football 1st Wrote:  Check out this STORY

Quote: "We've got the resources," Delany said. "We want to provide more and better full experiences, whether it's lifetime educational assurance or support. We need the autonomy to do that. Right now it's probably a little bit imbalanced. There's an awful lot of voting that occurs on the basis of a level playing field, rather than what's right for the student-athlete in a high-resource environment."

"We have to be careful," Delany said. "We have to do the right thing for the college community, but we also have to do the right thing for ourselves."

This is not college athletics anymore.
Students used to be able to relate to players at least in the common bonds of being enrolled in classes and living in dorms.
But now they are talking about paychecks.
They are talking about retirement plans.
Lifetime support.
I don't watch NFL and I think they are about to ruin NCAA for me forever too.