Thats a good question.
I think if Rice or Boston or another G5 school does it it might kick start it at the G5 level, but if a school like Stanford or Northwestern an academics first P4 school do it then I think it could be a cascade. To really have impact I think it has to be a bigger brand that the G5 level.
That is a part of realignment I think we havent given enough credence to - a school just tapping out and starting a wave.
There have been rumors that some of the college presidents at these higher profile schools are not happy with the direction of college athletics and might opt out of this mess as it is so contrary to their mission.
I think that is what’s going to kickoff the realignment cascade - not necessarily the TV deals around 2030. Putting these payments to players on the backs of students OR siphoning off donations that might have otherwise gone to the school for academics and necessary capital expenditures might be the final straw.
If enough schools say “that’s enough” I think we and the rest of classic college sports will be fine. Let the dozen or two schools that want to play pro sports go do that with the blessings of their myopic state legislatures.
clt says the drop in funding for research will certainly have a bigly, huge impact
How long do states say this is ok? Not enough money to pay teachers more or bring down colleges costs but we can subsidize professional college athletics??
And on top of that, this about ASU:
If a school like Stanford dips out. All the other presidents that care about academics will be secretly jealous. And some may take action.
Also have to consider the politics and optics with some of this. It sure seems like if citizens in a state are seeing tax payer dollars funding some of this there will be blow back. Could provide the cover some presidents need to drop down.
Seems like it would depend upon the intitution as to whether the president can arbitrarily make such a move. In most cases, there’s a board that would have to sign off, as well as a student body, alums, donors, etc, that would need to be polled and considered. And, of course, public vs private which, in the case of the former, the state legislature may have the final say so.
My recollection is that the U of Hartford president pretty much dictatorialy made the decision to downgrade to D3. That’s probably the exception.
Anyway, between the ability to sustain rev share, plus larger issues facing higher ed, a number of schools are going to have some difficult decisions to make and not just about sports.
Yeah I guess it would really vary state to state adn school to school and some places might actually have legislative voice to either drive it or chime in.
Think about it - our BoG that is run by Chapel Hill folks could basically direct all in state schools to drop down and clear the path for Chapel Hill to be the sole big time sports program in the state.
What a mess.
FYI - alma maters of the UNC BoG members. Definitely leans UNC-CH (10) and then NC State (4).
NOTE: 8 members are alums of multiple institutions w/undergrad listed first)
App State and Duke (1)
App State and Western Carolina (1)
Calcutta + Jadavpur [India] and NCSU (1)
Campbell (1)
Cartaret CC [NC] (1)
East Carolina and UNC-CH (1)
Florida A&M (1)
Georgia and Duke (1)
NC A&T (1)
NC State (2)
NC State and Wake Forest (1)
Southern Adventist and UNC-CH (1)
Tennessee and UNC-CH (1)
UNC-CH (4)
UNC-CH and Duke (1)
UNC-CH and NC Central (1)
UNC-CH and Pfeiffer (1 - Board Secretary)
UNC Pembroke (1 - Board Vice Chair)
UNC Wilmington (1 - Board Chair)
Western Carolina (1)
Wyoming (1)
Once again a university with over 30,000 students has zero representation.
clt says Charlotte needs to be its own state. tired of sending tax money to the triangle to never see it return
lol no shot to compete nationally….
https://x.com/wintersportslaw/status/1900288074602426535?s=46