The answer is obvious. Nobody wants to acknowledge it, though.

The Ohio football team could do everything right. They could schedule tough P5 teams. They could go 12-0. And they still have no guarantee of being eligible for the national championship. OU is, for all intents and purposes, in a different sub-division than school like OSU, Alabama, Florida, etc. It makes very little financial sense to keep subsidizing FBS football to occasionally win a trip to Detroit or Shreveport or Boise.

It's time to just drop down to FCS while the getting's good. Find the right conference fit and focus on becoming an FCS contender while saving the money on additional scholarships.

Yesterday was one of those days that made me think just drop the program. Yes, I was in a sour mood watching us perform, and I still am. But it's obvious the program will never be what we want. I have no interest in rooting for another team, I just don't see the benefit anymore. And frankly I can completely live without college football. that was the l o o o ngest day ever. The fans on the tower side are like 3000 rotting corpses glued to their seats. Yeah, some of them actually stood and cheered when we took the lead with :30 left. Who gives a rats ass. The students? What can I say... they gave some effort in the first half on 3rd down, but that was one of the more embarrassing mass exoduses that I can remember. ... but can you blame them? The teams first half performance was the only thing more embarrassing. drops, penalties, overthrows, and unfortunately injuries. If you bore people to death, they are going to leave. And yesterday's first half made the idea of watching grass grow seem exciting. I thought several times yesterday how I'd rather be at Jackie O's. Yes, the game certainly got interesting in the 4th quarter, but a whole new set of problems emerged. If that is our secondary, this season is over. I don't know what to make of it from an x's and o'x perspective, but how many 10 yard sideline patterns can they throw, completely uncovered? It reminded me of Tim Kish's defense in Knorr's first year. We gave 15 yard cushions and teams just picked us apart through the air.

Yesterday was just a terribly costly day for the athletic department. Chance to show the freshmen a good time and make them fans for life? Gone. We'll be lucky to have half that crowd when - oh boy! - gardner webb comes to town in three weeks and we could well be 0-3. It's so much easier to lose a customer than to gain one back. And we just lost a shitload of them yesterday. Short of upsetting Tennessee, it will take at least a year to recover from yesterday's debacle. Was this a disaster of biblical proportion for this program? Or, maybe worse, did it just expose what we already knew... how fleeting and precarious any real success is at this level?

So, rant over... Beat Kansas.

I agree with your point DFC about losing people after yesterday's fiasco. That is what I meant when stating that I hope Frank and Company did not set the program back. We could be 0-3 going into the G-W game. If not for Parent's Weekend, I could see Peden being half full at best. As it is, if we play G-W like we did yesterday, I can see a mass exodus occurring right after the 110's halftime performance. Quite frankly, if all this comes to pass, I too will be tempted to leave. You build a fan base by offering a product people want to come and watch. Had yesterday been Frank's first game ever here I could be more forgiving. I cannot when it is year 12 of the same old crap!

Here are two reasons why your vision will not happen:

1) Programs would be loath to segregate themselves from 3 and sometimes 4 wins per season against low level opponents that could make the difference between winning seasons that keep alumni pocketbooks open and losing seasons that get people fired.

2) No incentive exists to construct a wage paying structure and assume the liabilities therein.

I can remember for years people clamoring for play-offs, while I steadfastly stated that OHIO and the like would be worse off in such a system. Even an expanded system will work against the MAC's of the world.

It's actually not my vision, just something I have heard and read about. Cost of attendance is just the beginning and they will end up packaging "pay" in a way that works. It will happen.