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(01-28-2021 09:46 AM)ODUalum78 Wrote:  The A10 would be great.
I am still unsure what we offer them beyond dilution of their NCAAT payout - unless VCU is pushing this - which is a good possibility.

I am skeptical of football being able to survive as an Indy though.

1. Very problematic scheduling, which could still cause travel issues.

2. No media contract - even the paltry CUSA media distribution money is better than nothing, AND, we do get on TV some. We will be at the mercy of our opponent, and if we schedule indy vs indy we may not get on TV at all, and that could be as many as 3 games in a season. Lessening our exposure, even if just a little, could cause a ripple effect with recruiting, donations, and potential future scheduling.

3. No CFP payout. The Group of Five got $86 million from the College Football Playoff in 2019 - 70 million of which was divided evenly amount the five leagues

4. No bowl tie-ins. We will likely need to be really good to get a bowl invite.

5. No path to the NY6. And while that seems like an unrealistic goal, it should nevertheless be something we ultimately aspire to. Coastal and Liberty were both close to that level this season and they were not even our peers just a few seasons ago. Additionally, any expansion of the playoffs, or the creation of a G5 playoff, could leave us out in the cold.

UMass is hemorrhaging money in it's football program. With more overall resources than we have there is still talk of falling back to FCS or dropping FB entirely.

Well yes but no somewhat.

1) This is a good point, and something that would need to be discussed. I would say ODU is in a better position than UMass when it comes to scheduling, since we're near a larger amount of G5 and P5 schools, and we have already demonstrated an ability to host P5 games, something that UMass has a really hard time with. But Indy scheduling is more of the wild west and getting 6 home games would be a tough out every year.

2) We would get a media contract through the A10 though, and we would (even if we didn't receive any past NCAAT credits) get more money through NCAAT credits than we could dream with at C-USA if the A10 continues being really good at basketball. We also only get 200K from the conference, we could make 7x that by doing one extra buy game, which we would have much more room for with an Indy schedule. (ODU at South Carolina will net ODU a cool $1.5 Million for example)

3) 70 Million divided by 5 divided by 14 = $1 Million. So an extra buy game like the South Carolina one would cover both the CFP payout and the loss of media revenue.

4) This is a legitimate issue and one that would need to be addressed. I think maybe the Indy Alliance could secure 1 bid to a friendly bowl, but maybe not. If we could get some sort of guarantee then I'd be fine with it.

5) This is a legitimate issue, and one I don't really see a remedy to. I doubt the contract would be changed to give Indy's more access than they already have, and only way I see this changing is if similar moves caused a cascade of schools to go for independence, which is waaaaaaaaaaaay unlikely in my opinion.