The World of College Football

[kreed5120]

13 hours ago, GP1 said:

It isn't supply and demand. It's a simple question. How much are P4 schools willing to pay for one tune up game a year that almost guarantees a win?  

 

$5 million is a lot to Akron, but considering TV money it's a drop in the bucket for P5 schools. I would bet schools like Alabama and OSU could get a sponsor to pay the $5 million. 

 

What they can afford is irrelevant to the conversation. Why pay Akron $5 million when they can just pay Youngstown State $500k? They can still get that $5 million sponsorship you speak of, but instead pocket the $4.5 million difference. Perhaps use it to sign a heisman contending QB.

[GP1]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

 

What they can afford is irrelevant to the conversation. Why pay Akron $5 million when they can just pay Youngstown State $500k? They can still get that $5 million sponsorship you speak of, but instead pocket the $4.5 million difference. Perhaps use it to sign a heisman contending QB.

If G5 schools started their own division, even OSU wouldn't be shameless enough to schedule a school two divisions below them. 

 

But then again, I did see the Surviving Ohio State documentary. There seems to be no limit to their shamelessness. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

https://x.com/TheMSCPodcast/status/1943078884183818703?t=70iC9uGdjWgk3X6gtu6xCA&s=19

 

https://x.com/Shane_DNRSports/status/1943038481942327426?s=19

 

[clarkwgriswold]

OU in conversations with the Sun Belt Conference?

 

Reports: Ohio Bobcats have “preliminary” discussions with Sun Belt Conference regarding affiliation - Hustle Belt https://share.google/rs23RD6neeiniYjVq

[Spin]

5 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

OU in conversations with the Sun Belt Conference?

 

Reports: Ohio Bobcats have “preliminary” discussions with Sun Belt Conference regarding affiliation - Hustle Belt https://share.google/rs23RD6neeiniYjVq

We’re in the wrong business. We should be driving team busses to away games. 

[GP1]

OU's reasoning is sound. Weeknight games are killing the MAC. I hope the other schools reach out to see if there is room for the rest of the league. Maybe this is the start of a meaningful run towards sanity. 

[clarkwgriswold]

OU in the Sun Belt Conference sounds almost as bad as Cal and Stanford in the Atlantic Coast Conference!

[egregiousbob]

Zero truth to this rumor. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

2 hours ago, clarkwgriswold said:

OU in the Sun Belt Conference sounds almost as bad as Cal and Stanford in the Atlantic Coast Conference!

 

My dad and I were talking about this earlier today. The Sun Belt's footprint actually isn't bad for OU with Marshall, App State, JMU, ODU, etc. With the MAC adding UMass, the MAC's footprint is no longer as friendly to OU, and I'd imagine the MAC is looking to expand around UMass a bit more as well. The next TV deal will probably see the Sun Belt jump the MAC in value, so I wouldn't be surprised if Ohio is indeed exploring the Sun Belt.

 

20 minutes ago, egregiousbob said:

Zero truth to this rumor. 

 

Wasn't the same said about NIU to the MW initially?

[kreed5120]

The MAC added UMass, which is an 11 hour drive from Athens, but lost NIU which is an 8 hour drive. It's further travel, but not enough to validate leaving a conference for. Especially considering they would have to fly to most of the SunBelt conference schools. The TV deal would need to be substantially better than the MAC's for them to make that move.

[egregiousbob]

OU's faculty senate wields a lot of power. They fight every new investment in intercollegiate athletics. Heads would explode. 

[egregiousbob]

Ohio already flies to NIU and Buffalo.  Flying to UMASS might be less expensive than flying to NIU.

 

 

[ZippyRulz]

6 hours ago, egregiousbob said:

OU's faculty senate wields a lot of power. They fight every new investment in intercollegiate athletics. Heads would explode. 

 

Not gonna lie, that warms my heart a little..

 

[Let'sGoZips94]

 

Inaccurate probably means the exploration is true. 

[GP1]

11 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Inaccurate probably means the exploration is true. 

I'd be interested to know if they were only exploring for themselves. 

[ZipCat]

Having a little fun with the LLM today. Why it picked this, have no idea. I laughed though.

 

 

[72 Roo]

Love it!

 

[Hilltopper]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/07/08/cody-campbell-college-sports-texas-tech-donald-trump/84408951007/

[72 Roo]

Typical solution article on problems facing college sports i.e. fixit for the P4 and no mention of the G5 whatsoever.

[GP1]

10 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/07/08/cody-campbell-college-sports-texas-tech-donald-trump/84408951007/

This is worthwhile read. Thanks for posting. I would have some questions then comment. 

 

First, why would the Big Ten and SEC share their revenue? They could create a super conference on steroids. At this point they don't need the ACC or Big 12. 

 

Second, wouldn't it be better if schools outside of the P4 engage in problem solving that doesn't focus on money as the primary driver of the problem? NonP4 schools have been chasing money for decades.  It isn't working. I know we need money, but the pursuit of it while excluding everything else has been a fools errand. 

 

I've been saying it for years. NonP4 schools need to focus on making their athletic departments benefit the athletes students alumni fans and the general community around their schools. If they can do this, they could garner more public support for the athletic departments the taxpayers are basically supporting. Do we really need Tuesday night football so bad that we forego any benefit to the greater society that should benefit from public universities? If we do, the failure is truly complete. 

 

There were a couple of paragraphs in the article where the man from Texas Tech looks back on his time in college. Those paragraphs really stood out to me. His experience was one that many experience and I think is badly missing today. College athletics used to be a means to an end. It was  where young adults went to college to matriculate through a university, meet some lifelong friends, create a book of memories to share at reunions, maybe meet a spouse, get a degree and move into young adulthood as a productive citizen. Now, it's the end and a job. It's all so gross now. 

[MangoZip]

Akron and Kent AD’s discuss out of conference scheduling 

https://www.crainscleveland.com/sports-recreation/kent-state-akron-may-cut-back-football-money-games

[ZipCat]

19 hours ago, MangoZip said:

Akron and Kent AD’s discuss out of conference scheduling 

https://www.crainscleveland.com/sports-recreation/kent-state-akron-may-cut-back-football-money-games

 

It's behind a paywall, but how does this make any sense? The Football Program doesn't cover costs, so if you're cutting "money games" you're cutting the ability to fund the program, and the University is in a debt crisis. How does this make ANY sense?

[zippy5]

43 minutes ago, ZipCat said:

 

It's behind a paywall, but how does this make any sense? The Football Program doesn't cover costs, so if you're cutting "money games" you're cutting the ability to fund the program, and the University is in a debt crisis. How does this make ANY sense?

maybe they can try to win games and build a fanbase - we've tried the money game route for a long time and it appears it might not actually work

[kreed5120]

42 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

maybe they can try to win games and build a fanbase - we've tried the money game route for a long time and it appears it might not actually work

 

Define long time because its only been relatively recent (the last 6-8 years) that we started scheduling more than 1 of those games a year. It's not like we were exactly thriving before that.

Edited 4 hours ago by kreed5120

[zippy5]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

 

Define long time because its only been relatively recent (the last 6-8 years) that we started scheduling more than 1 of those games a year. It's not like we were exactly thriving before that.

We are at the low point imo