It will take a new generation if fans to get excited about the NIL/Portal age of college football. Most players are now mercenaries, playing to earn a bigger paycheck for the next season. I miss having our players being our players forever. Monday Night Football should just forget about announcing where players attended college. Many are going to have 4 or 5 different schools before their done playing college ball.
I'll give you some other names that are scared to death of that reality--everyone in the Big 12, everyone else in the ACC besides UNC, UVa, VT, FSU, Clemson, and Miami.
No, if basketball actually can and does help, Duke, Kansas, and Arizona will probably be included, since they're also AAU members for academics, too.
There will be some serious names left behind. Could you imagine a scenario where the top whatever for football was this list of 32 schools: Penn State, Virginia, Va Tech, UNC, Clemson, FSU, Miami, Florida, Georgia, Bama, Auburn, Tennessee, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, LSU, Texas, A&M, OU, Mizzou, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon
The left behinds would be a ridiculous list of names we would die to be included with in a conference/division setup.
My guess has always been 48-54 teams, which would give you 6 regional conferences of 8-9 teams. And cover all of the states that the NCAA and networks know they'll need for legal purposes.
Yes, I can think of a few that need kicked out of the Top League, or whatever it will be called, if we are talking about Power. Most of these middling programs bring markets, or academics, more than substance in Athletics.
Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Illinois, Miss St, and Rutgers to start.
Here is a site for attendance numbers for all FBS programs> 2024, 2023, 5-year average, etc.
https://www.d1ticker.com/2024-fbs-attendance-trends/
As you mentioned: UNT: 2024 = 23,022 , 2023 = 17,761... +29.62%... 5-year average = 19,634
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