Is there any thoughts about being permanently in the second division of a P5 conference and the lack of exposure it gives you?

(09-04-2017 09:26 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Is there any thoughts about being permanently in the second division of a P5 conference and the lack of exposure it gives you?

They are all making more money than ever before and every conference that has a network either virtually, or literally, has every game broadcast. There is no stigma for being 2nd tier in terms of exposure. This is a non issue for the vast majority of the P5 programs with possible exceptions in the Big 12, but then only in terms of national telecasts, not regional ones.

Better ask your guys what it's like to be buried in the second tier of conferences that are not constantly broadcast. And I'm not being flippant. It's a non issue as to exposure. Reputation on the other hand might be a topic to discuss. How hard is it to compete with the Alabama's, Ohio State's, Florida State's, and Oklahoma's of the world would be a worthier topic. Their reputations recruit kids. So how difficult is it for a Vanderbilt, or Wake Forest, or Northwestern or Purdue to recruit against those brands? But you aren't going to here their officials whine about it. Associations with those brands pay their bills in spades.

Yeah, obviously it's far better to be Purdue than Ball State, or whatever other similar contrast you want to make, even if you only consider football. And if you consider the entire athletic department, it becomes even more of a no-brainer, if that's possible.

The story for a lot of the second tier programs is they had a period of dominance in the pre-P5 era, played many big home games against the elite on national TV which allowed them to build up to 50k-60k seats.

There was regional broadcast windows in the past instead of national. You couldn't watch UCLA vs. TAMU on the east coast. It was the regional conference that fans were exposed to.

Today its a couple big games OTA then more on cable channels in the second tier. The system has made the big games for Alabama and Ohio State a huge deal but reduced everything else to peanuts.

The peanuts are spreading evenly in FBS with plenty of G5 broadcasts. G5's that play conference championship level football are seeing a boost in attendance/contributions/interest level from the TV broadcasts. Meanwhile the P5 second tier is losing a lot of games, having their coach replaced every 3-4 years and generally having their fans tune out.

(09-04-2017 10:39 AM)Wedge Wrote:  Yeah, obviously it's far better to be Purdue than Ball State, or whatever other similar contrast you want to make, even if you only consider football. And if you consider the entire athletic department, it becomes even more of a no-brainer, if that's possible.

The B1G is also an academic league so I get that. Rutgers move to the B1G was about an upgrade for their faculty.

From an academic standpoint it's better to be a Cal or an Illinois than an Ohio State or Alabama where the football program is omnipresent. Illinois has the cred of the B1G without the football school image. Cal is part of the University of California system which is designed to be the elite educational system of California.

(09-04-2017 10:55 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(09-04-2017 10:39 AM)Wedge Wrote:  Yeah, obviously it's far better to be Purdue than Ball State, or whatever other similar contrast you want to make, even if you only consider football. And if you consider the entire athletic department, it becomes even more of a no-brainer, if that's possible.

The B1G is also an academic league so I get that. Rutgers move to the B1G was about an upgrade for their faculty.

From an academic standpoint it's better to be a Cal or an Illinois than an Ohio State or Alabama where the football program is omnipresent. Illinois has the cred of the B1G without the football school image. Cal is part of the University of California system which is designed to be the elite educational system of California.

And none of that has a damned thing to do with your OP! There is no exposure problem in an omnipresent media world of the P conferences. As for the Rutgers of the world everything was upgraded. Facilities, income, profile, academic associations, etc.

The lowest average attendance figures for any P5 conference is the ACC where Duke, Wake, and some of the landlocked public schools do not have large stadium capacities and yet they average 49,900 in attendance. And now that Miami has some energy that average will go higher.

As for Illinois it is a strong academic school but not the elite of the Big 10. Northwestern and Michigan fit that bill well enough and lately Northwestern is even better on the gridiron.

Pardon me for being frank but this thread seems to me to have a trollish nature to it.

There is no substance to the OP and your subsequent statement tries to redirect to another specious claim. I think this thread is done.