Arkstfan

Cajuns didn't take on the NCAA they qualified. Remember things were WILDLY different back then. While not common, it was not unheard of for I-A schools to play at I-AA. There were 137 I-A schools and only 16 bowl games. There were only 8 slots committed in the bowls the the 24 bowl slots were at-large, even the ACC had no guarantee of a bowl berth. TV money was peanuts. Lou Holtz as head coach made just a bit more than double what Larry Lacewell made as head coach at Arkansas State. Sam Pittman makes more than six times what Butch Jones makes now. Being I-A vs being I-AA wasn't a huge deal and don't forget UNT was coming off a 2-9 season and had played only four home games and two of those at the Cotton Bowl. Per Wikipedia, Mean Green drew 17,500 for Oklahoma State at the Cotton Bowl and 13,500 for NMSU at Fouts. 15,800 for UTA at the Cotton Bowl and 3,200 for USM at Fouts. That USM team was 5-0-1 the tie at Alabama was #6. The year before UNT had played TWO home games. Road games to Irving for SMU and Arlington for UTA helped some I'm sure. The year before Irving twice (SMU and UTA) and three in Fouts (UTEP, West Texas A&M and NMSU). The program was a road whore when the change came. Looking at that it's not at all a surprise there was no interest in fighting and plenty of interest in joining the Southland. Had a path to home games. THE WHOLE DEAL WAS DIRTY. The NCAA had setup criteria to be I-A based basically on schedule and sports sponsored but had created exceptions. Average 17,000 over four years or once in 4 years in a 17,000 seat stadium. Averages 20,000 over all games over four years or in four with a 17,000 seat stadium, Be a member of a conference where a majority of members meet I-A criteria. What happened was to try to keep "the big boys" from breaking the TV contract they shrunk I-A to cut the number of fingers in the pie. To do that, the loophole to being I-A based on attendance became mandatory instead of a loophole to stay in. Thing is, it wasn't the MONEY. Hard as that is to believe, the schools actually took a cut in money when the NCAA contract was blown up. Because suddenly so many games were on your TV set that had four channels the cost of an ad on the old ABC telecasts under the NCAA contract was $57,000 for a 30 second spot, under the multiplex of the CFA, Big 10 and Pac-10 making their own TV deals, ads went for $15,000. Ratings went down because no longer was there only one game on in a time slot. The schools took a 60% cut in TV revenue. They got what they wanted. An end to the limit of only five telecasts over two years. Imagine being Texas Tech and having a great year. Your game against Texas that could determine the SWC won't be on TV, ABC already used up their limit of Texas games by carrying them against OU twice, once against Arkansas, one TAMU game and a Houston game. They wanted more games on. They wanted to tell recruits watch our game. Come here you'll be on TV. The added exposure was worth losing a whopping $600,000. Cincinnati, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Miami, and Western Michigan all fought (only Cincinnati sued) but McNeese State, Yale, and someone I've forgotten opted to go down. Again it wasn't a bad deal, win your conference and you were guaranteed postseason play, that wasn't the case in I-A for everyone. WHAT MADE I-AA SUCK When the TV deal was busted, there was no longer I-AA games (mostly playoff) included. Then the kick in the nuts. They adopted bowl eligibility standards. Before then bowls could invite anyone losing season, winning season, didn't matter. Under the new rule, to be bowl eligible you had to beat six I-A teams. No counting I-AA. THAT was what caused Arkansas State to move. We played Ole Miss and Memphis nearly every year and neither would schedule us because of the change. Then the NCAA starts certifying bowls left and right. Every team with six wins is playing in one, a handful of 5-7 will go, last year 20 playoff eligible teams (not counting Ivy) stayed home.

Florida State and Clemson seem to be the main agitators but people who tend to know what they are talking about say North Carolina is the top prize that SEC and Big Ten most covet. Neither Clemson nor Florida State adds another dime in carriage fees for the SEC Network. Big Ten has never admitted a member not in the AAU (though Nebraska lost its membership) and neither Florida State or Clemson is AAU. I suppose for enough dollars B1G might change its mind. North Carolina is AAU. Competent in football and a national basketball brand which matters in driving viewers to the conference network with games more days than just Saturday. Virginia would be Big Ten's second choice most likely. SEC might opt for VPI over UVA.

Let's say AAC split into two equal divisions. Top division gets 50% more than the current distribution, the relegation division gets 50% less. Would you want UNT to vote for a pro/rel model? Let's say bottom two of top division go down each year and top two of the regulation division go up. Would not take long for the better teams with the added money to become significantly stronger. The teams coming up get a cash infusion but odds are they'll get relegated. Going up, you can do some decent business in the portal but if you get relegated, you get picked over like an apple tree at harvest. In the last 20 years only six clubs have won the Premier League and four of those won 18 of the titles. Power concentrates.

It is unless your team gets relegated and the loss of income forces selling off the stars and then you suck for real and go down another level. 24 Premier league teams relegated ended up falling two steps, seven of those going down three steps, and one going down four steps. Very common for relegated teams to end up going into administration (bankruptcy court) to reorganize their finances. Some smaller clubs have been folded, one relocated. Portsmouth FC barely escaped being folded.

That's not EXACTLY true. The Pacific Coast Conference cracked up after the 1958 season with Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington leaving and over the next few years let the other three back in and they really only let them back in because the proposed Airplane Conference that would include those five didn't get off the ground. So three of the five who formed the second big time western conference in hopes of joining a cross-national conference in 1959 got their wish this year in joining Big 10 along with Oregon and the other two got their wish by joining ACC. Meanwhile Arizona and Arizona State get rejoin their old Border Conference foes Texas Tech. Old Skyline members Utah, BYU and Colorado get back together as well. Sometimes you break up and get back together.

ULM is now 5 games ahead of you on consecutive loses to AState 😜

Conference membership is like getting married, most folks go in thinking this is till death do us part, and Lord help those hitchin' up till something better comes along. Do you really want to marry Army because they have a really good 56 year old coach who will either eventually retire or catch the attention of an AD with a much fatter budget? 10 of the 13 schools who got together in 1933 to form the SEC are still there. Six of the eight who kicked off the MWC 25 years ago are still there. Army makes a lot of sense because there's just no one who might be willing to join in the eastern and central time zones who brings more TV value or helps home gate more. Land Army and who knows, maybe AFA becomes willing to defect if the whole Oregon State / Washington State thing doesn't go well and someone like Colorado State is willing to come along. Just never know which stop is going to be the last stop.

1997-2015 had one winning season. In that stretch had a winless season and two seasons with one win.

Army isn’t about raising power ratings, they are about TV ratings. With the US not engaged in any major conflicts, recruiting may get easier for them.

🙂 In the last six years their worst loss to a P5 was 7 points to Penn State in OT and went 7-0 vs the schools currently in AAC. Get about 5 games a year picked up for linear TV. Really curious what about that makes them a NO 🙂

Now if we are just insistent on keeping amateur(ish) football the idea situation is kill the NCAA and have different governing bodies for the various sports. Men’s college soccer is less relevant to MLS than it once was because of the NCAA practice and development rules and NCAA has some rules differences though nothing dramatic. Simpler rules for playing in summer leagues like NPSL and USL2 would help as well as making things easier to be in academy play without fretting over losing eligibility. Rules that work for soccer might not work as well for golf where USGA can provide a good framework. Basketball? Can work under USA Basketball or take hoops to the AAU where the colleges with their billion dollar tournament become the beast of AAU hoops and can use that influence to get AAU club basketball under control.

I’ve said before that dropping football and licensing the operation of football to private operators is probably the best way forward for FBS football. Say you have some millions you can afford to lose on a speculative investment. You don’t have NFL money, not even MLS money. Would you rather buy into XFL or USFL or North Texas football? Brand is established. Facilities are in place. Have an established ticket buying base and sponsorship agreements. You are seeking profit and your licensing deal to use the school facilities and intellectual property involves some upfront cash and a percentage of gross so you are looking to slash expenses. You want a union, College Football Players Association to get a salary cap and smaller rosters. It’s professional player development, maybe you cut deals so players can attend college, but that’s not going to be a requirement. Maybe you work out housing and meals as part of the player contract and licensing requirement. Million dollar coaches? Not hardly, think more like the half million of XFL. You can end up with a nice little business. College is rid of its biggest Title IX headache and gets out from under a monster that has a tendency to suck up every available dollar that could fund other sports

Think network wanted some assurances before bumping their money.

CUSA did. Sun Belt has not.

If TV folks believe they can gain audience in DFW, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston not just for the local team's games but get that audience to watch Oregon State at Nevada because it's a conference game then there are deals to be made. The question is are the deals large enough to convince the members to put up with the hassles.

It is usually the only college game available to watch. Move it to say Thanksgiving and let's see how it does.

Army is the ONLY football brand of significance east of the Great Plains left in play. If it ain't Army the pool is a bunch of programs that are median AAC quality or worse. Sun Belt has Georgia State and ODU and hold your head right you can put Texas State in the pool. CUSA has FIU and can good faith argue MTSU/Nashville. Liberty is the biggest brand though not an urban(ish) state school like most of the league. MAC has Buffalo (who is in the AAU), Toledo and well sure NIU is technically in the Chicago TV market. Can sort of claim Indianapolis with Ball State or Ann Arbor/Detroit with Eastern Michigan but yeah it's Buffalo and Toledo that actually fit the model. No one in the is anything more than a spot filler and question is the spot in the middle or somewhere down at the bottom.

It's gut check time for Washington State and Oregon State fans. Pullman is so freaking remote, I'm not sure it has a huge impact. They are 4 1/2 hours from any major pro team, yeah 8 miles to Idaho who is now FCS and 90 minutes to Gonzaga the nearest highly successful athletic program. Not sure that fans don't just go ahead and show up because there's nothing else to do.

Well yeah UTEP would love to be back with New Mexico but the money so far doesn't work. Texas State? Yeah you can squint and look at the San Antonio and Austin sprawl starting to move into San Marcos take the fact that they are in the Austin market per the TV folks but they gotta have more Saturdays like last Saturday.

Realignment has two streams. Make us better. There is cold calculation done and no one is in a hurry. The numbers get crunched and everyone looks at what the added team(s) do to their expenses and compare that to what it does to the revenue stream. ACC has been toying with going after Pac-12 schools since the USC and UCLA announcement and even then struggled to get to a 3/4ths vote because the headache and expense vs revenue differential didn't make it a no-brainer. Survival. Weird stuff happens when a conference goes into survival mode. CUSA presidents get together to debate UNT vs UNT+FIU and come out with six new members. Sun Belt authorizes a committee to issue binding invites thinking they will be talking to WAC schools who are in crisis and instead the committee invites Georgia State. Big East presidents get together and invite Tulane without consulting the AD's who find out and throw fits and show the presidents photos of the facilities the school they just admitted helping fuel the Catholic schism that broke the league.

I don't buy this. The money just isn't there to make it work, besides if the money DID work, who would MWC poach? Charlotte? FAU? Give me a break. If they could make the money to work coming east, first place they are coming is Texas.

It's fun to watch when it doesn't impact you 🙂

Rules give them a two year grace period. They can play 2024-25 and 2025-26 as an FBS league then they have to comply in 2026-27.

1998 Sun Belt. UTPA (at the time) had gotten off probation and was hit again. They were death eligible. The administration in responding to the NCAA admitted the violations. The coach was believed to be wrapped all up in it but they couldn't prove the head coach was guilty so had a weak "for cause" case. For suggested penalty UTPA told the NCAA death. The NCAA was like, no you aren't getting off that easy. No death penalty. Presidents around the conference hit the roof. First was because they had broken the rules very clearly twice in five years and second was because UTPA asked for death. Sun Belt rules at the time allowed expulsion by unanimous vote with of course the school subject to the vote not getting a vote. UTPA was told the votes were in place and given the opportunity to withdraw membership before the vote and they opted to withdraw. UALR and UTA withdrew but the votes were there. Well technically speaking, UALR expulsion needed only need a 50-50 vote. They were below the Sun Belt required minimum sports sponsored and to keep their waiver needed a majority vote (50% plus one). UTA required 3/4ths vote. The league had adopted guidelines for membership long before that said no non-football would be added but Benson boo hoo'd to convince the members to ignore that and UTA. Marshall was once kicked out of MAC. AState, Northern Illinois, Louisiana and Louisiana Tech were kicked out of Big West football when they laughed at full membership to make room for some twerps in Texas. UMass was expelled by rule (think UALR situation) from MAC football when UMass rejected full membership triggering automatic expulsion. Temple out of Big East was super crazy. Big East had gotten tired of Temple and adopted minimum membership standards. Each year Temple had to meet with the commissioner, show what they had done (which was not meet the standard) and what they were doing to address it (most fun was if you had a group of 30 or something like that within some distance of the stadium, they'd send a bus to pick you up, take you to the game and the tickets were free). Temple had a president who wanted to drop football and had dropped football at his previous stop at a Division II school. Rolls into the meeting says we didn't meet the standards, nothing we do will ever meet the standards, we can't possibly meet them. Commissioner is stunned, then pissed that they won't even play along and pretend to try. Per the league rules they get booted. He heads home thinking OK now I can dump this money pit football program. Trustees find out, flip out, go to the conference and get a deal to have four years to phase out. Join the MAC and then get called back up when Big East is collapsing

If I remember the numbers right they currently spend $17 million on debt service with the school paying like $9.5 million and athletics $8.5 million with that doubling in about a decade. They will survive