To the "Sad Day for College Sports" people

[El Paso Eagle]

Screw You!

For years as G5, FCS, D2, and D3 have been left without funding, you have never been worried about the state of college football. Now that a historic Power 5 conference is being impacted, all these national pundits are suddenly concerned about the state of the college football game. Many of you same national journalists have been the ones that went out of the way to raise up power five teams and act like everyone else in college sports does not exist. You have repeatedly championed this monster, and now that it's starting to come about, some of you act like it's not something you expected. Just about as ignorant as those of you who did not know that the transfer portal and, more so, NIL would end up being pay-for-play.

Edited August 5, 2023 by El Paso Eagle

[TIgreen01]

Preach!

Anyone who thinks these monstrosity 20+ team conferences (seems like that’s where SEC & Big are headed) are going to produce the tv matchups that ESPN and fox so covet is kidding themselves.  This is only going to keep shrinking and consolidating until some group of leaders finally figures out a way to evenly spread the money.

[UNT86]

I feel zero sadness for Cal, Stanford, Washington State, and Oregon State joining the MWC and getting their $4 million payout.  They have had a "let them eat cake" attitude toward the rest of us from the beginning.  Now, they just don't know how they will make it hosting Boise State and San Diego State.  How will their fan base get excited?  How will their Olympic sports get by? Lots of pearl clutching and hand wringing along the coast right now.

I say thoughts and prayers boys.  And welcome to the world all the rest of us live in.

 

[wardly]

Stanford supports 36 athletic teams. I think UT supports about 18.  As a result of bad decisions and poor management by the PAC 12 , Stanford will probably have to drop some and a number of athletes will lose their scholarships . College football and basketball tote the note for all other sports.

[El Paso Eagle]

Stanford is the one school of the three that could go independent. The question is, what happens to all of the Olympic sports that they have dominated for the last 20 years?

[UNT86]

Maybe some of those sports could become club sports?  That is what the rest of us do.  Maybe they could drop some men's sports so they can remain Title IX compliant? 

It will all be fine.  Maybe some day you can bring those sports back....

[Green Otaku]

Yup. Maybe if they hadn't spent decades trying to take as much of the pie and keeping the other half of college football down maybe I'd feel different. Welcome to what we've been living with for years. 

[GMG_Dallas]

The only frustrating part for me is seeing how close all of this is to completely collapsing on all fronts. ESPN and FOX decides who lives and who dies. What happens when at renewal, ESPN decides the AAC is no longer worth the $83 million per year and neither one of the big 2 wants to enter a bidding war? Same with the MWC, CUSA, and the others. I say ESPN and FOX decides who lives and dies but the major programs are also responsible. They don't care who's starving as long as they get to eat. They never have. Eventually, they may decide to cut off everybody outside the power 3. What happens to all the student athletes whose programs can longer afford their sports? I've already seen posts from Oregon softball players and a student media member from a former PAC12 school and they're not happy. They will now regularly need to travel across the country for games while maintaining grades and sanity. One softball player said she committed to Oregon so her local family could watch her play, not so she could go play Rutgers. None of the student athletes are being considered.

 

Too long, didn't read. Enjoy this gem.

 

 

[Cougar King]

16 hours ago, wardly said:

Stanford supports 36 athletic teams. I think UT supports about 18.  As a result of bad decisions and poor management by the PAC 12 , Stanford will probably have to drop some and a number of athletes will lose their scholarships . College football and basketball tote the note for all other sports.

Stanford has $36 billion. They can afford independence, park their Olympic sports in the WCC or Big West and recruit nationally.

Edited August 6, 2023 by Cougar King

[wardly]

1 hour ago, Cougar King said:

Stanford has $36 billion. They can afford independence, park their Olympic sports in the WCC or Big West and recruit nationally.

Correct. Cal might want to do the same but I don't know if they can afford to.

[GMG_Dallas]

3 hours ago, wardly said:

Correct. Cal might want to do the same but I don't know if they can afford to.

They can't. I believe they carry more debt than any athletic department in the country. I'll try to find the numbers I saw yesterday but Cal carries over $420 million in athletic debt. The second most in debt in the country is around $370 million I believe.

[El Paso Eagle]

4 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

They can't. I believe they carry more debt than any athletic department in the country. I'll try to find the numbers I saw yesterday but Cal carries over $420 million in athletic debt. The second most in debt in the country is around $370 million I believe.

 

 

[GMG_Dallas]

54 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

 

 

Thanks. Didn't realize number 2 was SDSU and that the difference between the two of them was that large.

Edit to add the following screen shot with us at number 45.

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by GMG_Dallas

[wardly]

I think that the BIG 12 had an opportunity to absorb all or most of PAC 12 after UCLA and USC left but the financial numbers didn't work.

[GrayEagle]

On 8/6/2023 at 12:21 PM, El Paso Eagle said:

 

 

I'll admit that I'm shocked to see the huge debt of these colleges.  I struggle to understand why some of these debts are so large.  The only one that I partially understand is San Diego State, who abandoned a large stadium; played at a small stadium about 100 miles away; and is building a smaller stadium near campus (I think).  

My other point is how do you know that Stanford, or any other private university, doesn't have a large amount of debt?  We don't.  Private universities don't publicly announce their income and expenses.  Most have huge endowments so we don't worry about their ability to pay their debt but that will remain a mystery.