Enough Already with the Little Guy

Harry · January 1, 2012

Here's the thing about the plucky, upstart schools clambering up the ladder of college football's highest echelon: Their time has come. That is, it's time to peel back their fingers and let them fall.

For major-college football leaders to acknowledge the sport's modern reality—not only the money pouring in, but the desperate, destabilizing conference-jumping it's sparked—they must deal with the leeches in their midst. Football's leaders must confront the schools that Ohio State president Gordon Gee derided in a deliciously candid 2010 interview as the "Little Sisters of the Poor."

The Akron-Ohio State game in September. Do these two programs belong on the same level?

The NCAA's members must do the same thing they did in 1978 when the ranks of Division I got unwieldy. They need to create a new tier for football schools with means—Texas, Florida, Notre Dame—and a lower one for wannabes. Sorry, South Alabama. Too bad, Troy.

The nation's poorer programs need to drop down because they drain money from their schools, keep bigger programs from reforming rules and often limp along academically—all while having no real shot at winning it all.

The gulf between rich and poor has widened with the influx of money through the Bowl Championship Series, the system that selects two teams to play for the national title. In 1993, the year that BCS-precursor Bowl Coalition began, football revenues in the NCAA's top division ranged from less than $1 million to $20 million, according to Daniel Fulks, who compiles an annual report on NCAA schools. By 2010 that range had balooned: $1 million to $94 million.

Even in the mighty, 120-team Football Bowl Subdivision, 43 percent of teams lose money—some of them as much as $10 million a year. They're falling behind despite enjoying BCS windfalls: In the current season of BCS games, the five lowest-level conferences will rake in $13 million without having one team suit up.

Read More: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204720204577130893202202710.html?google_editors_picks=true

meangreendork · January 2, 2012

The article would be great if the bowls weren't rife with some of the corruption talked about in an article in a previous post here. Sounds like a lot of "let the greedy be greedy and lock off the big time from any competition" and, "see what the little guys did, they messed it up for everyone else."

Edited January 2, 2012 by meangreendork

untjim1995 · January 2, 2012

Here's the thing about the plucky, upstart schools clambering up the ladder of college football's highest echelon: Their time has come. That is, it's time to peel back their fingers and let them fall.

For major-college football leaders to acknowledge the sport's modern reality—not only the money pouring in, but the desperate, destabilizing conference-jumping it's sparked—they must deal with the leeches in their midst. Football's leaders must confront the schools that Ohio State president Gordon Gee derided in a deliciously candid 2010 interview as the "Little Sisters of the Poor."

The Akron-Ohio State game in September. Do these two programs belong on the same level?

The NCAA's members must do the same thing they did in 1978 when the ranks of Division I got unwieldy. They need to create a new tier for football schools with means—Texas, Florida, Notre Dame—and a lower one for wannabes. Sorry, South Alabama. Too bad, Troy.

The nation's poorer programs need to drop down because they drain money from their schools, keep bigger programs from reforming rules and often limp along academically—all while having no real shot at winning it all.

The gulf between rich and poor has widened with the influx of money through the Bowl Championship Series, the system that selects two teams to play for the national title. In 1993, the year that BCS-precursor Bowl Coalition began, football revenues in the NCAA's top division ranged from less than $1 million to $20 million, according to Daniel Fulks, who compiles an annual report on NCAA schools. By 2010 that range had balooned: $1 million to $94 million.

Even in the mighty, 120-team Football Bowl Subdivision, 43 percent of teams lose money—some of them as much as $10 million a year. They're falling behind despite enjoying BCS windfalls: In the current season of BCS games, the five lowest-level conferences will rake in $13 million without having one team suit up.

Read More: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204720204577130893202202710.html?google_editors_picks=true

I am going to start this off by simply saying that the NCAA Basketball Tournament is the best sporting playoff in the country and its not close. I particulary love the College World Series, as well, since it follows the same pattern as college basketball. Unfortunately, football will never work like this because of the money (and media coverage) involved. But both of those sports are much different animals than football--and its why a new separation will occur again. I still think that if your school plays in front of an average of 50k then you shouldn't be on the same level as schools that average 25k or less. There are about 40-50 programs in the country that really should just get a classification of NFL-Lite, based on resources and fanbase, as well as tradition. They already get all of the attention from fans and media on a national level. Somehow, I imagine that 50k line in attendance (or at least 40K) will somehow become a new line in the sand.

GrandGreen · January 2, 2012

What none of these pundits seem to realize is that the "big guys" need the "little guys" because without them; they are no longer "big guys". It is much easier I guess to pontificate the elimination of the "little guys" than to come up with a system that actual works and fosters competition. The upper tier schools could not play the lower tier schools now. Just don't schedule them and fill your oc slots with other upper tier schools. Funny, they rather pay for the guarantee games than face equal competition every week.

The scenario of eliminating. all non-big conference teams is easy to plot. A new underclass of schools is established and someone down the line come up with the bright idea of getting rid of them too. This continues until you are left with an NFL equivalent of a couple dozen teams that finally establish rules to increase competition because there are still teams that can't compete with the mega budgets universities.