(07-01-2019 10:34 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(07-01-2019 10:05 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(07-01-2019 09:40 AM)usffan Wrote:  Even two years ago, UConn was the most subsidized athletic program among all reporting schools (almost exclusively public schools - private schools are not required to report this) - to the tune of >$42MM and roughly 50% of their total athletic budget. Only 5 other schools were subsidized > $30MM. Makes a pretty compelling case that something needed to stop.

By the way, let's not fool ourselves into thinking that being in the P5 is some magical path to making these go away.

Two points:

1) I think UConn's deficit has been under-appreciated as a cause of its Big East move. Sure, it's been mentioned, but not so prominently.

Bigger picture, it makes you wonder if other G5 schools will reach a "breaking point" about their athletics, and football in particular. UConn was different, in that they were among perhaps a handful of such schools that did have an "out" in the form of the Big East - arguably maybe the only one.

But, what are other G5s going to do when they reach their breaking point? They don't have a Big East to go to, so the result might be a collapse of the athletic program as it is currently known - abolishment of football, movement down to FCS, etc.

2) While it is true that being in a P5 isn't 100% proof against relying on subsidies, it obviously makes a dramatic difference. Only a handful of P5s have big subsidies, while all G5 do.

In fact, UCF's subsidy of $27 million, which is also about 50% of its total "revenue" is greater than the sum-total of the top 20 revenue schools in that USA today list. And many of them, like Alabama and Georgia, which each have $3m subsidies, obviously don't need them.

So P5 may not be a literal panacea, but it comes awfully close to being one.

Quo, I'd like to highlight this point you made. UConn is, arguably, the other current G5 program with a legitimate alternative to its present conference affiliation. This point has been made since 2013, and was referenced repeatedly by fans and members of the media. It was always a strong possibility, especially since UConn's AAC membership simply was not sustainable.

For the rest of the G5, I do not think dropping down to FCS is the likely "course correction" either; instead, I think we have already entered into a second separate division within FBS (we casually refer to it as the P5/G5 today). Many on here like to refer to a potential "split" in college football due to the growing disparities in revenues and payouts over the years; that time has already come, but many just haven't realized it. When Big East Football was plucked apart, that was the top-tier of college football snatching the last available value adds to add to their collective. The G5 has had not one, but two, undefeated G5 programs that did not come close to sniffing an opportunity for a CFP bid (UCF/WMU); the 2015 Houston Cougars, had they not lost to UConn and gone undefeated, would not have in the CFP either. Next year's bowl games, unless I am miscounting, only guarantees five P5/G5 match-ups. The TV revenue is its own topic, but that is a glaring disparity as well.

The biggest question is how G5 programs will continue supporting football, given it is not part of the top division and the resources are simply not there to continue funding and treating it as one. I'm sure that there are many that will continue sponsoring it at their highest capabilities against other like-minded programs, but would not be shocked to see interest/support weaken for others (especially the longer term programs that are used to being in the top-tier and expect to be treated as such).

I've been thinking about this very thing for a while. Schools have been disbanding football teams for a long time (see Pacific, Wichita State, Long Beach State, Santa Clara...). So this isn't something new. And schools have been competing at "the highest level" for decades without having a realistic chance at winning a national championship for a long time as well. This notion that only only a handful of teams have a realistic chance at making the CFP is nothing new - the last real upstarts to get into this discussion were Miami and BYU in the mid-80's, and only the former has a realistic shot today. That certainly didn't stop most of the schools in the current G5 from competing.

But back in the day, those schools were sustained in part because the only way to watch college football was largely by going to the games. That prompted alumni to trek back to campus to see their alma maters play and reconnect with old classmates. In 2019, all those games are on TV, and people are connected by social media, so there's no pressing need to go to the games any more. And you aren't required to root for the local team/alma mater, since you can watch Bama and Clemson play every week. So I do think that this time it's different. I'm not sure there will be any official split between P5 and G5, but the gap is only going to get wider. And some schools, presumably starting in states where populations/enrollments are dropping, will almost certainly opt out of this unending game of playing catch-up.

USFFan