I am interested to see how this poll goes since so many want to defend the decisions of the coaching staff on this site.

Agree. On seeing the 3 poll choices, my first thought was, What about rural, isolated location?

Can that hindrance be overcome? To some extent it has.

Some of the things that are "controllable, changeable" are symptoms, not the core problems. In trying to overcome them, you have to recognize how they came to be in the first place. Rural location can't be changed, but that doesn't mean that you can dismiss the effects that it has, and will continue to have.

In a way, Monroe, the location has been changing - for the better. Athens is much more easily accessible than in years past. And on-field success and improved facilities are enhancing the strengthened accessibility.

No. It does mean that I can dismiss them. Why stew about small stadium capacity or remoteness...things that cannot be changed!? As Mike notes, remoteness has been somewhat alleviated, but it's still significant.

Things that can change include such as recruitment, play-calling, scheme, uniform design, etc, etc. Not all of these will have marked impact but if I'm AD/President, I look at what I can change/conrol/fix.








Stop. The hue and cry for me to become AD/President is overwhelming. Please; just stop.

Right on, Man. Fight the good fight!

Sounds to me like the G5 should break off and see what the market will pay them for televising their games. Sarcasm alert.

His point, I think, is that if the G5 had a clear path to the championship, even if the chance was remote, the G5 would have more fan interest, and better recruiting, and be on a more even footing. He would prefer if the model were more like March madness, where even the smaller conferences could conceivably win it all.

No, it wouldn't be an even footing because the P5 would still have more fans, and more money, and a better chance, and the P5 would still always win, but it would be more "fair".

All true, but football is not exactly like BB where 1-2 great players can make a team competitive. When was the last time a lower level team win a championship -BYU? And the divide between the top and lower tier teams has expanded since then I think. I think that the divide will continue to expand, but I'm not sure that it's just due to corruption of the system.
The author of this poll gives 3 choices, not of which are according to him, why we are being held back from succeeding. It's mainly out terrible scheduling, others think it's because of lousy play selection or whatever. Neither would be in my top 5 or so reasons. Same old story by the complainers, just dressed up in a different disguise.
It's kind of amazing to read of the stuff people come up with to "prove " their point. Fascinating reading.

In 2008 a plumber from Toledo named Joe Wurzelbacher became instantly famous for challenging presidential candidate Barack Obama for his position on wanting to allow a 3% tax cut to expire that had been given to the top income bracket under Pres Bush. Allowing the tax cut to expire would raise the tax rate from 35% to 38%, as it was under Pres Clinton and Joe was against allowing it to expire.

Joe's argument was that by raising the tax rate by 3% on income over $250K it would discourage Joe from fulfilling his dream of owning his own plumbing business. At 35% it was a dream worth having, but at 38% it wasn't worth his time. Here is a guy that is probably making $40K-$50K a year saying that an opportunity to increase his personal incoming by a life changing $200K/yr wasn't worth if it in the end he would have to pay an additional $7,500 (3%) in taxes. In a follow up interview he was told that under Obama's tax plan Joe would actually pay less taxes with his current salary and he said he didn't care, he thought the rich should get the tax break instead of him. And many Americans agree with him.

This is the interesting side effect of America's unbreakable, unstoppable, ever enduring Optimism. When we see a broken system, even when we are on the losing side of it, we don't say "that's not right, we should fix that" we say "that's not right, I want to be one of the few that reaps the reward". Joe knew the system was rigged for the rich but didn't want to fix it because he thought he'd be rich one day and wanted the chips to be stacked in his favor when he got there.

To be clear, when I talk about equity I am not talking about equity in result, I am talking about equity in opportunity. In the NFL every single team receives an equal amount of league revenue, in addition every single team is held to a salary cap. By doing this the NFL insures every member of its league has EQUITY OF OPPORTUNITY. It is worth noting that neither of these actions prevent individual teams from earning as much money as they possibly can. In spite of equity of league revenue sharing the Dallas Cowboys are still worth $3.2 Billion and the St Louis Rams are worth just $930 million.

Along with providing EQUITY OF OPPORTUNITY in terms of financial resources the NFL also provides it through its direct path to a championship. There are 2 conferences with 4 divisions each and all 8 divisions get a representative in the playoffs. That means on the field the St Louis Rams and the Dallas Cowboys each have an EQUITY OF OPPORTUNITY to win a national championship.

Why is it that nobody criticizes the NFL for not distributing revenue in a way that rewards the teams that "deserve it" and punishes the teams that don't? Why is it that nobody complains that the playoff spots are given to teams from every conference and not awarded by a selection committee? Isn't a selection committee the best way to have Guardians Of The League protect the playoffs by ensuring only the teams that really, truly deserve it get to play while keeping out the riff raff that don't deserve it because they don't have as large of a fan base and might be bad for ratings? How can this equity be good for professional football but be terrible for college football?

To summarize my rant- the FBS is corrupt, it keeps rich teams rich and poor teams poor based on some good 'ol boys notion of who deserves it and who doesn't. Its awful and it needs to change. It is our Biggest Challenge, and not an easy one to address.

Universities act on their own agenda. Decisions to expand enrollment because they can or compete for research dollars redirects money that was going to one school to a different school. When that 27% cut was offered to the G5, the G5 administrators were surprised by the generosity and just accepted it. They were expecting 10% and to trot the lawyers out to push for more. They thought it was a fair deal since they only supplied 10% of the schools over the last decade to the post season. Why doesn't a college grad right out of college who receives an offer of 40,000 demand 80,000? After all they are in the same company working along side people making 80,000. That is because they are just happy to be there. Then they have to stay at that job 4-5 years before they can think of hopping for more. The G5 is relatively new to the game because before the couple of conferences outside of the BCS were not collectively organized. There are more schools now outside the power structure with collective interests, none of which have any hope of becoming power conferences ever.

Do you really expect me to believe that the reason the G5 only played in 10% of the bowl games is because the G5 didn't have more teams to qualify? You cannot be serious. You think that the reason a 10-2 NIU team didn't go to a bowl game in 2003 is because they didn't earn it, but a 6-6 Northwestern team did? Are you serious?



Your analogy doesn't work on several levels. A salary is based on many things, including experience and job function. That's not what this is about. I don't give a rat's rear end about how "new" the G5 conferences are or not. The CFP contract in question began in 2014, in 2014 there were 10 EQUAL conferences in FBS. They should be treated equally.

And spare me this "we is so grateful to be here, ah thank you good sir for allowing us to eat your crumbs". Its humiliating. We are Division 1 FBS members and deserve fair and equitable treatment. This excuse making for a corrupt system that has no equivalent in the sports world has got to stop.

The "Rim of the World Highway" begins in Athens County, so how could we be isolated from the rest of humanity? ;-)