Which Teams Could Afford to Be in a College Football Super Division?

[Harry]

Imagine you get the news that the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Pac-12 and the Southeastern Conference are breaking away from the NCAA to form a new top division of college football—what happens next?

After the shock and awe subsides, the nation will try and figure out which programs are in the new “super division” and which are left out in the cold. This will not be decided by tradition, prestige or on-field performance—no, instead membership will be limited to those programs with the deepest pockets.

Think about it this way: Why are the power-five conferences threatening to split with the NCAA if it does not agree to restructure?

What they want is autonomy, or enough control to make their own decisions. Here’s what SEC commissioner Mike Slive had to say about it to Paul Myerberg from USA Today:

We seek to support the educational needs of our student-athletes through the provisions of scholarships linked to the cost of attendance rather than the historic model of tuition, room and board, fees and books.

Read more: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2144497-which-teams-could-afford-to-be-in-a-college-football-super-division

[DallasGreen]

Beginning of the end for college football as we have known it. P5 pay super stipends to fire off new arms race among the haves. G5 is the new FCS.

[Censored by Laurie]

there's gonna be a lot of market capitalism vs. good old day syndrome existential hand-wringing in this thread, I can just feel it.

[Cerebus]

The non-power-five conference with the most solvent football members is Conference USA, with Marshall, FAU, UTEP and North Texas all reporting an excess in 2012-13.

Rice could find the money to fund these extra expenses with the spare change found in the sofas of the faculty lounge. Their endowment is 4.8 BILLION. They could spend at P5 levels by taking the fraction of a penny from each transaction in their endowment, exactly like Super Man III.

[Coffee and TV]

This could be like a soccer thing with promotion and relegation....

right?

right????

Please???

[forevereagle]

This could be like a soccer thing with promotion and relegation....

right?

right????

Please???

While the idea could certainly work, I would be very doubtful that it would be desirable from the POV of the people making the rules.

[GrayEagle]

I hope that the expenses doesn't get out of hand but there are more than the 74 listed that could withstand the additional expenses. For those already in power conferences there should be increases in distribution from the NCAA. There could be additional revenue from alcohol sales. Some non-revenue sports could be dropped as long as they didn't fall below the minimum. I often think that some of those programs are terribly mismanaged and a little more diligence in spending would allow their revenue to exceed expenses.

Some of the near-miss programs could benefit from some of the above plus add additional seating for more attendance revenue. Those that do not own their stadiums could renegotiate stadium rental fees.

It seems doubtful that the addition of living expenses will cause many (maybe none) to drop from the FBS. However, if the SEC/power conferences keep raising the bar it will eventually force some teams to drop back to a more workable budget.