Your argument is about the survival of college athletics. It’ll survive one way or the other. It doesn’t really matter if the SEC and BIG are involved or not. Club sports still exist as well, our club hockey team is going to play outside at Truist Field this weekend to prove that point.
But if you’re saying it’ll get better without the SEC and BIG then you’re mistaken. It won’t make a difference. The biggest brands that everyone knows the logos of or has heard the name in passing will now play in a separate league. Now any and every game that would otherwise be played against some unknown school (Sam Houston, FAU, whatever else) are permanently blocked from the view of the casual viewing audience. Not to say they’re particularly marketed well as is.
When I was on here posting about how we should do a three-way basketball rivalry with Davidson and Queens, it was met with heavy resistance from most everyone here. Why? Because we’re ‘better’ than that and have ‘everything to lose and nothing to gain.’ There is too much pride, at least here, to ever do something like what you’re suggesting. No school is going to self-relegate themselves to a lower league unless it’s the only financially viable thing to do.
It wouldn’t fix college sports, it wouldn’t make anything particularly better for the viewer or the fan. Because you don’t change the fact that the top teams are the top teams and the lower are the lower. Did you know that JCSU won the CIAA tournament last week and it’s their first time doing so since before the D2 playoffs existed? Probably not. Their school and their fans are incredibly excited about it, but it works no different than a typical club sport besides the scholarships given to students.
The top schools would still pay the best players from the lower leagues, there would still be heavy turnover, now on an even tighter budget than before.
What is the impact of those brands leaving and basically playing professional sports. Personally I think the the audience for the big brands isnt as big as they think it is. I have quit watching the top programs because it really no longer impacts us. If they shed all but 30-40 programs is the audience really that big - I mean I know it is big but they are going to lose fans. I think they are banking on an NFL like fandom where all of NC will follow Chapel Hill in this new league - which is a significant lack of understanding of college sports.
It might be semantics - but if the other schools leave then the branding is we are college sports - they are professional sports. That’s a pretty big distinction. We arent a lower division. We are playing college sports, they are not. That is why IMO how this happens is so critical.
If we retain the NC States and VTs then those a nationally recognized brands that don’t drive the audiences like Clemson and Chapel Hill - they would be a money drain for the new league, but they would be a money driver for the new college sports grouping. They COULD go try to build their own league out of whatever is left, but the fact is without the power brands they are closer to us than they are to them.
The new entity could draw some new rules around eligibility and pay. Even the playing field with pooled resources across the board. Redrawing alignments so schools are once again grouped based on regions and rivals. If they do this they may find a legal standing to keep things in check to some degree. Maybe a no more than 2 schools in a 5 year period or something. And if once their time in this division is done they can go tot the NFL or the Super League or whatever. I would bet if they can work with athletes and the schools they would create a system that drives significant interest.
Not to mention, if it there is a spinoff and those schools are relegated from the top league, and if our new division is successful as some predict, why wouldn’t that top league expand immediately. They’re not going to do anything to put themselves in a weaker position than DII.
Agreed. We already have a large amount of our fanbase that pulls for a different school. A new division without Charlotte will make that number even larger.
Regional matchups would be a lot of fun. But I think that lends itself more to scheduling the already D1 local schools all around us. Clemson, UNC, NC State, Wake Forest, Duke, Western Carolina, Gardner-Webb, Davidson, William & Mary, App State, Campbell, and many many more.
There isn’t anything stopping us from scheduling any of those teams for OOC games. The schools we play today are all the same schools we played against 25 years ago. Was anyone complaining about conference locality then?
in 2000 We were playing in CUSA 1.0. Since then we have been in a North east based conference and a Texas based conference. And we are still in a league that takes us from Texas to Florida to NY.
Yes - but a new division could broker better rules. Even revenue sharing, pooled payments, caps and maintaining the importance to college vs the direction of the Super League Power Brands that are quickly moving to their athletes just being employees, unlimited eligibility, year to year free agency and no school.
One of those can still position itself as college sports - the other clearly isn’t.
I don’t think it will rise to the level of the power brands league - but I think it can generate enough interest to stand on its own and succeed.
Some of that will continue - but will NC State Fans and Duke fans become Chapel Hill fans? Will Texas Tech fans become Texas fans? I just don’t see it.
More than anything we clearly can’t play the game the power brands are. And we never will with these new rules. Not only that but a school like Nc State or GA Tech cant either. If FSU is having trouble keeping up thats a big red flag. There is absolutely no point in continuing the charade of trying to participate at that level at this point.
I know we have disagreed on this for years, but at this point you have to agree we are moving in the direction of the power brand schools leaving. They aren’t hiding their desires and neither are their network partners.
I would be happy with a new division minus the top 30 to 40 brands. As long as the breakaway stays below 40 I think it would be good for us. I’m just dreaming here but a new television deal that pays out equally across the division with a portion of that payout being revenue sharing directly with the players. Make it where that rev share is the only way they get paid unless they get other legitimate endorsement deals. There needs to be guard rails on this stuff and a new division may be the only way to do that. If the television deal pays the players then the schools don’t have to worry about raising money for that and the playing field is much more level. I know it’s probably not realistic, but I can dream.
That’s what I’ve been hoping we get for years. I think it would be an enjoyable product as long as the league has a media partner that doesn’t back burner the new division.
I think to be able to claim that we are actually playing college sports would be a huge deal.
If we can manage the compensation part the right way and keep it sensible I think there is a window for this. Have the kids sign 3 year contracts and if when that’s done they want to play for UGA or the NFL I don’t really care.
That’s exactly how it should work. Revenue sharing (remove the massive $ advantages between schools), 3 year contracts, more regional alignment, and if you wanna make it even more interesting split the 90-100 teams into 2 college divisions and do promotion / relegation. That might sell the concept to the higher end programs that get left behind and also get them to agree to regional leagues.
That product IMHO would be so much better than NFL Lite - I think a lot of fans would gravitate towards it.
Didn’t the Virginia legislature force UVA to vote to invite VT into the ACC when Virginia wanted to be the only ACC college in their state? This type scenario could force the breakaway top league to be bigger than we want.
Legislative branches have tried that with Oregon and Washington legislative branches said the same thing. Yet when push came to shove they didn’t force it. At the end of the day b10 doesn’t need UVA so if they try to force VT the B10 walks away so the state govt has to decide what’s better 1 program in the super league or none.
If they did prom/rel they would really differentiate things. Could tie cap size of something not division. Wood be a big division so not sure how it would work, but I love the concept. Maybe 3 levels? With top 6 teams going up?/down?
Oh I’ve never denied that. I’ve said we’re f’d. What we’ve diagreed on is the # in the new division, on whether it will be successful, who’s calling the shots…
Also, I don’t think it’s as much the power brands leaving as it is the SEC and B10 winning the conferences battle. There’s not a clear definition of what is a power brand. The tv deals have inflated/blurried who is a power brand.
BTW, Indiana is currently #2 in the country, Ole Miss is 6, Vandy 14, GT 16. All are ahead of Mich, Tenn, Texas, PSU, LSU, FSU, USC and UF. Unless there is a salary cap and revenue sharing, there will be ebbs and flows amongst the “power brands” and a hierachy within the “power” brands. Trust me, UGA is saying they can’t compete with Oregon, OSU and Texas/T A&M money.