MWC's Thompson: Major change needed in college football

[Harry]

LAS VEGAS – The gulf between college football’s 1 percent and the proletariat is widening. In recent weeks, several of the top power brokers in the sport have proclaimed that it might be time for some major restructuring.

Big 12 Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Monday that it might be time to consider a model in which the five major conferences (Pac-12, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC) would form their own “federation” within the NCAA — because it’s no longer practical for football programs with million-dollar budgets to be governed by the same rules as programs with budgets of more than $100 million.

Tuesday afternoon, Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said he agreed with Bowlsby, but played down the idea that the “Big 5” might be considering a secession from the NCAA.

“If you read carefully, what they are saying is that there needs to be transformative change. Field hockey cannot be treated like football,” Thompson said, adding that he does not think the top 70 programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision will break away from the rest of the football-playing schools any time soon.

“It might happen; I don’t think it will happen,” Thompson said. “I think there will be a different solution for those people. If they want to give (student-athletes) cost-of-attendance stipends, we should allow them to do that. It’s not going to affect the way we perform and play.”

It won’t affect the conferences finances, either, Thompson said – at least not in the near future. The Mountain West recently signed a seven-year media rights deal with ESPN and CBS Sports Network through the 2019-20 season.

“CBS Sports Network and ESPN would have to pay us the same $18-20 million," Thompson said. "We have a contract."

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