GP1

You have touched upon the central question nobody has asked for years at Universities. Are universities in existence to make discoveries in the various fields of science in their colleges and then educate the future leaders of our country about those discoveries. Or, are they in existence to provide young adults a place to go play for a few years while they get degrees in fields that aren't much use in the real world? Or, are they places where administrators can mask their incompetence and lack of ability to see the future by building one open air building after another (looks great from the outside, but there is nothing inside)? I guess it is a lot of things. The problem is, the focus on the building process and not the discovery/education process.

These questions are easy to answer. No and no. The money made by the NCAA Basketball Tournament is the vast majority of the revenue the NCAA uses to operate the NCAA. The schools can take that money and put it in their own pockets while at the same time funding a much less bloated bureaucracy to manage their own division.

There is another way to look at it. Is it the number of home games or the amount of money they can make? More games could equal more money. Fewer games could also equal more money depending on price points for items sold. What if they did have a 14 game season with 7 home games in lieu of 8 home games AND they only played each other? They could easily make up the difference in revenue in increased prices for tickets, concessions, parking, alumni donation for ticket reservations, etc. In my opinion, the amount of home games teams like OSU and others play has to do with more than money. Does it make more money? Yes. It is also a method whereby they are able to stack up easy wins and create the illusion of greatness and most importantly, stay in the conversation for the BCS Championship. Unless you are an SEC team, you more or less have to go undefeated to make the BCS Championship. Current scheduling is done with that in mind. When the BCS teams separate, a playoff will take effect. With a playoff, there is less of a need to go undefeated and more of a need to just make the playoffs, so early season losses are not as important.

There is a difference between what you call yourself and what you are willing to spend. The non bcs schools have a lot bigger problems than whether or not they are on the ESPNU Tuesday night game (which I believe is a disaster for those teams, but we can argue that on another thread). Non BCS schools tend to get non bcs talent regardless of their exposure on espn. Again, the espn argument falls into the "exposure" category. Other than "in theory", is there any evidence that playing on Tuesday night espn games is good for recruiting at the non bcs level or does it increase the quality of player? My evidence saying it doesn't would be that the Zips played in their share of those games in recent years and we just finished 1-11 two years in a row. How did that "exposure" work out for us?

Back to the topic. I'm going with Can't losing 28-17.

Replays are making games last forever. In addition, they take all excitement out of the game when obvious TDs have to be replayed. BTW, why do the refs say, "The previous play is under further review."...... It's, "The previous play is under review."

It's a matter of finding lightning in a bottle. There isn't a school that can't find high level of success for at least a year or two. Can't did it and NIU did it this year. The structure that STZ keeps writing about is real. From alumni support to TV contracts to financial support, etc., the BCS conferences have a huge advantage. The BCS schools aren't going to willingly give away their money so the non BCS schools can waste it. The more someone gets, they more they want. What more can the BCS schools get out of the non BCS schools that they aren't already getting? They use the non BCS schools for money making home games and preparation for their conference schedules. They can't possibly schedule more games against non BCS schools than they already do, so what's the answer? When the well runs dry, you abandon the well. The only thing the BCS schools can do at this point to make more money to fund their bloated building process is to play each other exclusively, charge enormous amounts for tickets which people will pay willingly, charge enormous amounts for television rights which networks will willingly pay and have a playoff that will rake in more cash than the ncaa basketball tournament which will get better ratings than the basketball tournament. We are living in sort of an old science fiction movie. You guys remember the type. Aliens come to Earth to kill everyone and use up our resources. When they are used up, they go to another planet and do the same thing. The BCS schools have just about used up everything they can use from the non BCS schools and they are going to move on. It's very logical in many ways.

I don't have the link, but I saw it discussed on television and a couple of business journals as well. It isn't a new idea. 6-7 years ago, I was pretty close with a guy from the Athletic Department, and he was the first to bring this idea up to me. It isn't a new idea and has been kicked around in those circles for a number of years. I think the changes we are seeing in conferences now are those ideas that were kicked around 6-7 years ago slowly coming to life. As a die hard fan of Zips soccer, you should be very worried. There are some very good midwest hockey programs that are now going to suffer because the Big Ten now has enough teams to have a hockey league. Typically, schools like OSU and Michigan have played in the CCHA, which is a very good hockey league. Without those schools, it could hurt the Miami/BG/Ferris States of the world. The same could happen to soccer as well but slightly difference. The Big Ten currently has seven schools playing soccer based upon me looking at the Big Ten website. With the Big Ten Network and bringing in other schools that have soccer, there would be less of a need to play schools like Akron. Those larger schools could draw more attention to themselves and create a recruiting advantage with the opportunity to play on national television a few times a year. It doesn't happen overnight, but slowly it does happen. Once, San Francisco, Holy Cross and Loyola Chicago won national championships in basketball only to be swallowed up by the finances of big time college athletics. Don't think it cannot happen to Zips soccer.

Thanks Dave. I didn't know that and will keep it in mind. JZ84's CNN link also links to this website so it is probably safe to use.

http://localleaks.blogs.ru/2013/01/01/steubenvillefiles/ More

Your spirited debate has some good points, but this is a terrible idea and terrible reasoning. When we jumped in 1987, there was no conference that wanted to come near us for a lot of reasons. Finally, the MAC held its nose and let us in. To make another move on our own would be a disaster. Right or wrong, we are in the MAC. As the MAC goes when the non-BCS teams have their own division, so will we go.

A little trouble with the hyper link function, but I pulled it off....

Deadspin

The destruction of the Death Star in a battle you call a victory? Not until Luke learned to control his recklessness did he defeat the entire Empire and brought balance to the Force.

Just them?

Absolutely it is the smart thing to do and not just because it matches my thought. Right now, it is important for a school to have a home. Strength in numbers. People shook their heads at WVU joining the Big 12, but they needed a home at least for a few years so they joined the first conference they could get in to. Of all the movement, WVU probably made the smartest move that will pay off long term. If they don't do what they did, they are Cincy and Connecticut right now. If only 25+ years ago now, our AD would have listened to the words of Yoda, we wouldn't have this problem. "Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless. " We acted recklessly without taking a serious look at what it really took to be D1A. We need to be patient with our next move, not reckless just so we can make a move.

Deadspin covered it today as well. A pretty ugly scene. Girl gets raped...moron of a high school football coach defends the rapists...large moron population in a community come to the backing of a moron high school football coach...local law enforcement not willing to do their job correctly. Sort of a mini Penn State. Anyone with half a brain who has ever met the coach of Steubenville would know he is so stupid he could throw himself at the ground and miss.

Schools have to protect themselves from their ADs and set up a structure where there can't be any cross games between divisions. I was watching the NFL with the luckiest woman in the world, Mrs. GP1, last weekend and New England was on. I mentioned it seems as if they play every game at home and she said they are like OSU in that respect. But no, OSU can put on their big boys pants in September along with all of the other Big 64 teams and play a meaningful schedule in September. Don't tell an OSU fan they play a soft schedule because they will tell you they play Oklahoma in 2016.

No breaks for these guys. No demotions, no nothing. They want it all, let's give them what they want and watch most of the schools get crushed under the weight of their greed. They will want a quasi professional league.... Let's see how they do with it. My guess is they will screw up any structure designed to create an equal playing field, like the NFL does, and there will be only a handful of teams within ten years that have any shot at winning a championship. Let the bubble grow and stay out of the bubble.

Nice. I don't think it would take six months of putting together cause and effect tables together to figure this one out.

They did attack in other ways. They ran a couple of jet sweeps that went nowhere. NIU's WRs rushed the ball last night four times for -10 yards. Take away a -20 yard loss on one play, and they rush 3 times for 10 yards. They ran some pass plays that resulted in poorly thrown passes or drops. I would have like to have seen more option, but NIU just didn't have the talent on offense to compete with a great defense like that. If nothing is working, you go with your best guy and hope for the best. It didn't work out. NIU had to play a perfect game. When the QB displays little ability to throw with the accuracy necessary to win in a BCS game (15/41, 175 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) and the receivers display MAClike catching ability (something I complain about on this site all the time) it doesn't matter what is called. Short of using a catapult to launch players over the FSU d-line into the end zone (only if the game could have been that exciting), they weren't going to move the ball well.

I thought NIU played a pretty good game against a BCS conference champion. If those two teams played ten times, FSU would win 9 of the 10, if not 10 of ten. I don't have a problem with their play calling. NIU went in the game and played their game. It wasn't enough. I thought the players could have played better, but that wouldn't have closed the gap in talent enough to produce a win. FSU beat Wake, BC, Duke and Maryland by larger margins this season.

Upward trends in offensive statistics are good. The explanation of the variance is the calling of a true Jedi.

Screw the big 64. They only play themselves and we only play our division. Only conference winners make the playoffs based on a conference and nonconference record like the nfl. Tie breakers consist of conference record. All first place teams have to play each other the following year. Second place plays second place. Third place plays third place, etc,,it is a method of keeping teams from dominating the division like team like Mt Union do in other divisions with a playoff. Shall we now have the discussion as to why this division should be played in the spring to take advantage of the American love of football?

A national division of these schools excites me. Throw in a playoff and a national championship in that division and what isn't there to get excited about? Does a playoff game or two at the Big Dialer sound like fun? Do meaningful game in September sound fun? All of these things are on their way. It is only a matter of time. I look forward to the future of college football because I think it will free the non bcs schools from the reigns of the bcs schools.