The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(07-25-2021 06:10 PM)kdblazer Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 05:56 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 05:18 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 05:01 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I think AAC would be a far superior option regardless of who is in it. Let's say AAC loses UCF, Cincinnati and Houston.

The remaining schools will simply backfill with the best east coast options and there is not a school that would turn it down.

let's say it shakes out something like this:

SMU
Navy
Tulane
Tulsa
Memphis
Southern Miss

Temple
East Carolina
USF
UAB
Marshall
FAU, Liberty, App State, etc.

That's a 2 and sometimes 3 bid hoops league and still would get the best tv deal from the non automony conferences

if they stop at 9 or 10, UAB would be among the picks and this will actually be a pretty easy choice. Some fans wont like that but just remember their angst isnt really about who gets picked but their inability to advance.

I'm pretty sure Navy would go back to being an independent because the TV deal is going to take a very significant hit without Cincy, UCF, and Houston.

I think a lot of TV deals are about to be "re-negotiated". The AAC's current deal is gonna be close to the top of the scale for what's left of FBS football. The Elites aren't satisfied with the majority of the $, they want almost all of it.

In that case future games against SEC opponents should be renegotiated to reflect the new market. In plain speak we need more money to play tune up games against your semi-pro league.

Not gonna be any future games against SEC opponents, KD. They are literally moving to another level.

(07-25-2021 06:19 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 06:10 PM)kdblazer Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 05:56 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 05:18 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 05:01 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I think AAC would be a far superior option regardless of who is in it. Let's say AAC loses UCF, Cincinnati and Houston.

The remaining schools will simply backfill with the best east coast options and there is not a school that would turn it down.

let's say it shakes out something like this:

SMU
Navy
Tulane
Tulsa
Memphis
Southern Miss

Temple
East Carolina
USF
UAB
Marshall
FAU, Liberty, App State, etc.

That's a 2 and sometimes 3 bid hoops league and still would get the best tv deal from the non automony conferences

if they stop at 9 or 10, UAB would be among the picks and this will actually be a pretty easy choice. Some fans wont like that but just remember their angst isnt really about who gets picked but their inability to advance.

I'm pretty sure Navy would go back to being an independent because the TV deal is going to take a very significant hit without Cincy, UCF, and Houston.

I think a lot of TV deals are about to be "re-negotiated". The AAC's current deal is gonna be close to the top of the scale for what's left of FBS football. The Elites aren't satisfied with the majority of the $, they want almost all of it.

In that case future games against SEC opponents should be renegotiated to reflect the new market. In plain speak we need more money to play tune up games against your semi-pro league.

Not gonna be any future games against SEC opponents, KD. They are literally moving to another level.

I'm good with that

(07-25-2021 06:10 PM)kdblazer Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 05:56 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 05:18 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 05:01 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I think AAC would be a far superior option regardless of who is in it. Let's say AAC loses UCF, Cincinnati and Houston.

The remaining schools will simply backfill with the best east coast options and there is not a school that would turn it down.

let's say it shakes out something like this:

SMU
Navy
Tulane
Tulsa
Memphis
Southern Miss

Temple
East Carolina
USF
UAB
Marshall
FAU, Liberty, App State, etc.

That's a 2 and sometimes 3 bid hoops league and still would get the best tv deal from the non automony conferences

if they stop at 9 or 10, UAB would be among the picks and this will actually be a pretty easy choice. Some fans wont like that but just remember their angst isnt really about who gets picked but their inability to advance.

I'm pretty sure Navy would go back to being an independent because the TV deal is going to take a very significant hit without Cincy, UCF, and Houston.

I think a lot of TV deals are about to be "re-negotiated". The AAC's current deal is gonna be close to the top of the scale for what's left of FBS football. The Elites aren't satisfied with the majority of the $, they want almost all of it.

In that case future games against SEC opponents should be renegotiated to reflect the new market. In plain speak we need more money to play tune up games against your semi-pro league.

Vandy, Kansas, Kansas State and other P5 bottom-dwellers are gonna make a ton of money as the powerful P5 schools rush to schedule other "P5" schools to pad their records. They at least have some name recognition. I wonder how long before folks are complaining about their teams' mediocre records with 4 losses each year and with 2 of their wins coming against the bottom of the P5.

(07-25-2021 06:09 PM)BlazinBham Wrote:  That was simply my take and I stand by it. I know those remaining schools aren’t going to travel based on past experiences. I’d rather play Marshall, La Tech, WKU, and Southern Miss than Tulane, ECU, Temple, and Tulsa. When you talk about tv negotiations, those are some remaining schools that can’t get on tv in the current state. There’s gonna need to be some serious reshuffling of the decks, because some of these leagues don’t make sense now to be together and it gets worse when Power 5 decides to pluck away the last few draws.

So, put together a conference that you know fans are going to show up to their home games no matter the opponent and make sure that the schools remain in a respectable distance to make a short road trip out of it.

AAC tried to backfill with tv markets and blew it. CUSA, I don’t know what the heck we tried to do, but we blew it as well.

What AAC did right was market their conference as the best of the rest and 5-6 schools proved it on the field and court.

That makes a lot of sense to target schools that travel and support their teams versus the size of the television market or school. FIU has 56,000 students and FAU has 30,000 students. So what, how many of them show up to football games? Conferences should make a list of all the available G5 and independent teams and compare their home and road attendance numbers.

If the AAC picks non power 5 replacement teams (excluding Notre Dame) based on the 2019 highest average attendances, here are the top 10 home averages.

BYU - 59,547
Boise St - 32,070
Fresno St - 31,552
Army - 30,989
San Diego St - 29,896
Air Force - 27,084
Southern Miss - 24,765
UAB - 24,726
App State - 23,806
Troy - 23,499

For reference, the AAC teams with average attendances greater than Troy in 2019 are the following -

UCF - 43,788
Memphis - 38,816
Cincinnati - 35,985
ECU - 33,134
Navy - 31,970
USF - 31,823
Temple - 29,460
Houston - 25,518
SMU - 23,633

(07-25-2021 02:34 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  GA State has to share the Atlanta market with UGA just like UAB must share the B'ham market with Bama and Auburn. Putting together the financial backing to acquire and renovate the "TED" for football indicates that their negatives are probably shrinking with time. Getting a "Clark type" coach may be the missing link for them to become a major competitor for G5 teams. Metro Atlanta has enough football fans to support more than one team.

We have 6.5M people

(07-24-2021 10:19 PM)ICB Wrote:  After reading multiple conference boards, I have concluded that there is one conference that is giving us serious consideration... the Sun Belt. This is gonna be fun...

Message boards do not decide and I would call your leadership liars if they said they are not in contact with the AAC

(07-25-2021 07:41 PM)Ramblin Wreck Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 06:09 PM)BlazinBham Wrote:  That was simply my take and I stand by it. I know those remaining schools aren’t going to travel based on past experiences. I’d rather play Marshall, La Tech, WKU, and Southern Miss than Tulane, ECU, Temple, and Tulsa. When you talk about tv negotiations, those are some remaining schools that can’t get on tv in the current state. There’s gonna need to be some serious reshuffling of the decks, because some of these leagues don’t make sense now to be together and it gets worse when Power 5 decides to pluck away the last few draws.

So, put together a conference that you know fans are going to show up to their home games no matter the opponent and make sure that the schools remain in a respectable distance to make a short road trip out of it.

AAC tried to backfill with tv markets and blew it. CUSA, I don’t know what the heck we tried to do, but we blew it as well.

What AAC did right was market their conference as the best of the rest and 5-6 schools proved it on the field and court.

That makes a lot of sense to target schools that travel and support their teams versus the size of the television market or school. FIU has 56,000 students and FAU has 30,000 students. So what, how many of them show up to football games? Conferences should make a list of all the available G5 and independent teams and compare their home and road attendance numbers.

If the AAC picks non power 5 replacement teams (excluding Notre Dame) based on the 2019 highest average attendances, here are the top 10 home averages.

BYU - 59,547
Boise St - 32,070
Fresno St - 31,552
Army - 30,989
San Diego St - 29,896
Air Force - 27,084
Southern Miss - 24,765
UAB - 24,726
App State - 23,806
Troy - 23,499

For reference, the AAC teams with average attendances greater than Troy in 2019 are the following -

UCF - 43,788
Memphis - 38,816
Cincinnati - 35,985
ECU - 33,134
Navy - 31,970
USF - 31,823
Temple - 29,460
Houston - 25,518
SMU - 23,633

Pretty smart. Following that, the first two the Big 12 should look at to survive are BYU and, Boise followed by Memphis, Cincinnati, Houston and SMU. Good football programs, most would add to MBB. All could add natural rivalries and travel would be relatively easy. The eastern school could make it more attractive for WVU to stay

(07-26-2021 12:37 PM)linus Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 07:41 PM)Ramblin Wreck Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 06:09 PM)BlazinBham Wrote:  That was simply my take and I stand by it. I know those remaining schools aren’t going to travel based on past experiences. I’d rather play Marshall, La Tech, WKU, and Southern Miss than Tulane, ECU, Temple, and Tulsa. When you talk about tv negotiations, those are some remaining schools that can’t get on tv in the current state. There’s gonna need to be some serious reshuffling of the decks, because some of these leagues don’t make sense now to be together and it gets worse when Power 5 decides to pluck away the last few draws.

So, put together a conference that you know fans are going to show up to their home games no matter the opponent and make sure that the schools remain in a respectable distance to make a short road trip out of it.

AAC tried to backfill with tv markets and blew it. CUSA, I don’t know what the heck we tried to do, but we blew it as well.

What AAC did right was market their conference as the best of the rest and 5-6 schools proved it on the field and court.

That makes a lot of sense to target schools that travel and support their teams versus the size of the television market or school. FIU has 56,000 students and FAU has 30,000 students. So what, how many of them show up to football games? Conferences should make a list of all the available G5 and independent teams and compare their home and road attendance numbers.

If the AAC picks non power 5 replacement teams (excluding Notre Dame) based on the 2019 highest average attendances, here are the top 10 home averages.

BYU - 59,547
Boise St - 32,070
Fresno St - 31,552
Army - 30,989
San Diego St - 29,896
Air Force - 27,084
Southern Miss - 24,765
UAB - 24,726
App State - 23,806
Troy - 23,499

For reference, the AAC teams with average attendances greater than Troy in 2019 are the following -

UCF - 43,788
Memphis - 38,816
Cincinnati - 35,985
ECU - 33,134
Navy - 31,970
USF - 31,823
Temple - 29,460
Houston - 25,518
SMU - 23,633

Pretty smart. Following that, the first two the Big 12 should look at to survive are BYU and, Boise followed by Memphis, Cincinnati, Houston and SMU. Good football programs, most would add to MBB. All could add natural rivalries and travel would be relatively easy. The eastern school could make it more attractive for WVU to stay

The first six on this list are not going to the AAC. And the most valuable AAC programs (as determined through revenue, TV value and success) are UCF, Cincinnati and Houston, who also are unlikely to be in the AAC when the AAC needs to fill.

There are so many misconceptions as to what is happening and why. In past realignments, there were guiderails and strong leaders to reign in the most cutthroat capitalistic moves, at least to some degree. That doesn't exist this time. The NCAA leadership has never been weaker. You have well more than half the membership, from the richest P5s to the least affluent low majors, questioning why the NCAA even exists. There has been major turnover in conference leadership. Sankey at the SEC right now is even more powerful than Slive or Kramer was, in part because there isn't a counterbalance to him -- the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC all have new commissioners just settling into the job, and well, we see how the Big 12 leadership stacks up to him. With Congress and the courts as they currently are, those who have always quietly desired the "super league" model have their window to do it. Fans will get distracted by who plays whom and what divisions look like. That is noise. I think there's a very real possibility that we end up with two groupings of elite programs centered around the Big Ten and SEC, whether that is good for college sports or not, because I'm not sure there is any leadership out there capable of pulling it back once the dominoes start falling.

(07-25-2021 02:38 PM)Ramblin Wreck Wrote:  Reading other conference boards on here, the AAC Conference Talk board seems to always think more highly of themselves than they should. For example, here is a post by a Tulane fan on the possibility of the AAC inviting UAB if the Big 12 guts them -

"Oh God, the thought of being in a conference with Southern Miss and UAB again makes me sick. There is no way we would ever allow that to happen again. I would rather Tulane **** down our football program than have to be in a conference again with those D league CUSA “athletic programs”. Yea, no thanks."

Well.... I hope we all circle Sept 25 with a little darker shade of sharpie.

(07-26-2021 01:08 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  There are so many misconceptions as to what is happening and why. In past realignments, there were guiderails and strong leaders to reign in the most cutthroat capitalistic moves, at least to some degree. That doesn't exist this time. The NCAA leadership has never been weaker. You have well more than half the membership, from the richest P5s to the least affluent low majors, questioning why the NCAA even exists. There has been major turnover in conference leadership. Sankey at the SEC right now is even more powerful than Slive or Kramer was, in part because there isn't a counterbalance to him -- the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC all have new commissioners just settling into the job, and well, we see how the Big 12 leadership stacks up to him. With Congress and the courts as they currently are, those who have always quietly desired the "super league" model have their window to do it. Fans will get distracted by who plays whom and what divisions look like. That is noise. I think there's a very real possibility that we end up with two groupings of elite programs centered around the Big Ten and SEC, whether that is good for college sports or not, because I'm not sure there is any leadership out there capable of pulling it back once the dominoes start falling.

Yup. Gonna be 30-40 schools. What we're seeing is the first step (OU and Texas) that will be methodically followed by the consolidation of the Legacy Brands into an NFL-like structure. I think you've hit on a good point that no one is in a position to stop this from happening. The SEC and Big 10 only playing conference games last season was a test drive in that direction and their fans loved it. The TV networks are in on it. In the end, even some current SEC and Big 10 football programs won't be safe: Vandy, MS State, Kentucky, Purdue, Northwestern, and Indiana to name a few.

There will be a separate Elite League for basketball but all the football members will automatically be included. Perks of being in The Club.

There is already a movement to separate FBS football from the NCAA entirely, including administration of the rules.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...split-ncaa

There is a lot of support from this within the NCAA, and not just from the big brands.

(07-26-2021 01:46 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  There is already a movement to separate FBS football from the NCAA entirely, including administration of the rules.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...split-ncaa

There is a lot of support from this within the NCAA, and not just from the big brands.

Football should have never counted in the Title IX calculation. That should change and not just for the Elites.

(07-26-2021 01:08 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  There are so many misconceptions as to what is happening and why. In past realignments, there were guiderails and strong leaders to reign in the most cutthroat capitalistic moves, at least to some degree. That doesn't exist this time. The NCAA leadership has never been weaker. You have well more than half the membership, from the richest P5s to the least affluent low majors, questioning why the NCAA even exists. There has been major turnover in conference leadership. Sankey at the SEC right now is even more powerful than Slive or Kramer was, in part because there isn't a counterbalance to him -- the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC all have new commissioners just settling into the job, and well, we see how the Big 12 leadership stacks up to him. With Congress and the courts as they currently are, those who have always quietly desired the "super league" model have their window to do it. Fans will get distracted by who plays whom and what divisions look like. That is noise. I think there's a very real possibility that we end up with two groupings of elite programs centered around the Big Ten and SEC, whether that is good for college sports or not, because I'm not sure there is any leadership out there capable of pulling it back once the dominoes start falling.

Congrats. You figured it out.

The Architect of the Matrix

(07-25-2021 07:41 PM)Ramblin Wreck Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 06:09 PM)BlazinBham Wrote:  That was simply my take and I stand by it. I know those remaining schools aren’t going to travel based on past experiences. I’d rather play Marshall, La Tech, WKU, and Southern Miss than Tulane, ECU, Temple, and Tulsa. When you talk about tv negotiations, those are some remaining schools that can’t get on tv in the current state. There’s gonna need to be some serious reshuffling of the decks, because some of these leagues don’t make sense now to be together and it gets worse when Power 5 decides to pluck away the last few draws.

So, put together a conference that you know fans are going to show up to their home games no matter the opponent and make sure that the schools remain in a respectable distance to make a short road trip out of it.

AAC tried to backfill with tv markets and blew it. CUSA, I don’t know what the heck we tried to do, but we blew it as well.

What AAC did right was market their conference as the best of the rest and 5-6 schools proved it on the field and court.

That makes a lot of sense to target schools that travel and support their teams versus the size of the television market or school. FIU has 56,000 students and FAU has 30,000 students. So what, how many of them show up to football games? Conferences should make a list of all the available G5 and independent teams and compare their home and road attendance numbers.

If the AAC picks non power 5 replacement teams (excluding Notre Dame) based on the 2019 highest average attendances, here are the top 10 home averages.

BYU - 59,547
Boise St - 32,070
Fresno St - 31,552
Army - 30,989
San Diego St - 29,896
Air Force - 27,084
Southern Miss - 24,765
UAB - 24,726
App State - 23,806
Troy - 23,499

For reference, the AAC teams with average attendances greater than Troy in 2019 are the following -

UCF - 43,788
Memphis - 38,816
Cincinnati - 35,985
ECU - 33,134
Navy - 31,970
USF - 31,823
Temple - 29,460
Houston - 25,518
SMU - 23,633

Except that isnt how realignment worked last time. Won -Loss record and attendance are irrelevant or else Pitt, Rutgers, Maryland and Syracuse would not have been snatched. Every program is one good or bad hire away from success or disaster. What matters is the long term instituional support of the program and its value.

(07-26-2021 03:24 PM)panama Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 07:41 PM)Ramblin Wreck Wrote:  

(07-25-2021 06:09 PM)BlazinBham Wrote:  That was simply my take and I stand by it. I know those remaining schools aren’t going to travel based on past experiences. I’d rather play Marshall, La Tech, WKU, and Southern Miss than Tulane, ECU, Temple, and Tulsa. When you talk about tv negotiations, those are some remaining schools that can’t get on tv in the current state. There’s gonna need to be some serious reshuffling of the decks, because some of these leagues don’t make sense now to be together and it gets worse when Power 5 decides to pluck away the last few draws.

So, put together a conference that you know fans are going to show up to their home games no matter the opponent and make sure that the schools remain in a respectable distance to make a short road trip out of it.

AAC tried to backfill with tv markets and blew it. CUSA, I don’t know what the heck we tried to do, but we blew it as well.

What AAC did right was market their conference as the best of the rest and 5-6 schools proved it on the field and court.

That makes a lot of sense to target schools that travel and support their teams versus the size of the television market or school. FIU has 56,000 students and FAU has 30,000 students. So what, how many of them show up to football games? Conferences should make a list of all the available G5 and independent teams and compare their home and road attendance numbers.

If the AAC picks non power 5 replacement teams (excluding Notre Dame) based on the 2019 highest average attendances, here are the top 10 home averages.

BYU - 59,547
Boise St - 32,070
Fresno St - 31,552
Army - 30,989
San Diego St - 29,896
Air Force - 27,084
Southern Miss - 24,765
UAB - 24,726
App State - 23,806
Troy - 23,499

For reference, the AAC teams with average attendances greater than Troy in 2019 are the following -

UCF - 43,788
Memphis - 38,816
Cincinnati - 35,985
ECU - 33,134
Navy - 31,970
USF - 31,823
Temple - 29,460
Houston - 25,518
SMU - 23,633

Except that isnt how realignment worked last time. Won -Loss record and attendance are irrelevant or else Pitt, Rutgers, Maryland and Syracuse would not have been snatched. Every program is one good or bad hire away from success or disaster. What matters is the long term instituional support of the program and its value.

Exactly. Many factors. Winning/losing is always a short-sighted reason to bring someone in unless they are a proven long-term winning brand. UCF is a great example. UCF has gone winless twice and held the nation's longest losing streak and also been to BCS and Access Bowl and claimed a "national title" during this modern era of realignment. All good. The real reason UCF is attractive is 1) It has spent hundreds of millions on facilities and invested in both athletics and the university as a whole. 2) it has grown its athletics budget from A-Sun level to one of biggest in G5; 3) It has an infrastructure through enrollment to sustain competition at a higher level through the inevitable ups and downs of winning/losing.

(07-26-2021 01:08 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  There are so many misconceptions as to what is happening and why. In past realignments, there were guiderails and strong leaders to reign in the most cutthroat capitalistic moves, at least to some degree. That doesn't exist this time. The NCAA leadership has never been weaker. You have well more than half the membership, from the richest P5s to the least affluent low majors, questioning why the NCAA even exists. There has been major turnover in conference leadership. Sankey at the SEC right now is even more powerful than Slive or Kramer was, in part because there isn't a counterbalance to him -- the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC all have new commissioners just settling into the job, and well, we see how the Big 12 leadership stacks up to him. With Congress and the courts as they currently are, those who have always quietly desired the "super league" model have their window to do it. Fans will get distracted by who plays whom and what divisions look like. That is noise. I think there's a very real possibility that we end up with two groupings of elite programs centered around the Big Ten and SEC, whether that is good for college sports or not, because I'm not sure there is any leadership out there capable of pulling it back once the dominoes start falling.

If the super leagues happen that basically function like a pro league, I wonder if those university athletic departments could lose tax exempt status? If so, that could be a big obstacle.

(07-26-2021 04:19 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  

(07-26-2021 01:08 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  There are so many misconceptions as to what is happening and why. In past realignments, there were guiderails and strong leaders to reign in the most cutthroat capitalistic moves, at least to some degree. That doesn't exist this time. The NCAA leadership has never been weaker. You have well more than half the membership, from the richest P5s to the least affluent low majors, questioning why the NCAA even exists. There has been major turnover in conference leadership. Sankey at the SEC right now is even more powerful than Slive or Kramer was, in part because there isn't a counterbalance to him -- the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC all have new commissioners just settling into the job, and well, we see how the Big 12 leadership stacks up to him. With Congress and the courts as they currently are, those who have always quietly desired the "super league" model have their window to do it. Fans will get distracted by who plays whom and what divisions look like. That is noise. I think there's a very real possibility that we end up with two groupings of elite programs centered around the Big Ten and SEC, whether that is good for college sports or not, because I'm not sure there is any leadership out there capable of pulling it back once the dominoes start falling.

If the super leagues happen that basically function like a pro league, I wonder if those university athletic departments could lose tax exempt status? If so, that could be a big obstacle.

Good point, and I'm sure that point will be made loudly by some of the schools who stand to lose status. Unlike the G5s, the P5s in danger have some legislative friends. But also I'd imagine the elite schools will have a plan to address that.

The tax exempt status should’ve been gone long ago, so I have no faith it will happen in the future.

(07-26-2021 04:26 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  

(07-26-2021 04:19 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  

(07-26-2021 01:08 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  There are so many misconceptions as to what is happening and why. In past realignments, there were guiderails and strong leaders to reign in the most cutthroat capitalistic moves, at least to some degree. That doesn't exist this time. The NCAA leadership has never been weaker. You have well more than half the membership, from the richest P5s to the least affluent low majors, questioning why the NCAA even exists. There has been major turnover in conference leadership. Sankey at the SEC right now is even more powerful than Slive or Kramer was, in part because there isn't a counterbalance to him -- the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC all have new commissioners just settling into the job, and well, we see how the Big 12 leadership stacks up to him. With Congress and the courts as they currently are, those who have always quietly desired the "super league" model have their window to do it. Fans will get distracted by who plays whom and what divisions look like. That is noise. I think there's a very real possibility that we end up with two groupings of elite programs centered around the Big Ten and SEC, whether that is good for college sports or not, because I'm not sure there is any leadership out there capable of pulling it back once the dominoes start falling.

If the super leagues happen that basically function like a pro league, I wonder if those university athletic departments could lose tax exempt status? If so, that could be a big obstacle.

Good point, and I'm sure that point will be made loudly by some of the schools who stand to lose status. Unlike the G5s, the P5s in danger have some legislative friends. But also I'd imagine the elite schools will have a plan to address that.

I think the plan is to at least double their media revenues. If they lose tax exempt status, that will certainly ease the pain. Also, think of the schedules those schools will be able to sell to their fans. No more cupcake games or Vandy-like match ups. They will just transition the scholarship portion of their ticket cost to something like NFL seat licenses, then add another 20% to that and their fans will line up to pay.