I think that you are really hung up on the "equal" thing. Schools that have $50,000,000 budgets and schools that have $25,000,000 budgets are not equal. Schools that average 20,000 fans and schools that average 50,000 fans are not equals. It is obvious to me that a division of the haves and have nots has taken place and the gap is widening. That gap is based on economic reality and history, not corruption and criminal activity that you keep referring to. When the P5 became essentially a separate division-autonomous - within the FBS, the rest of the FBS teams allowed that because it was obvious that they had no choice if they wanted any piece of that cash cow. The teams are not equals. What part of autonomous do you not understand? If the P5 wants to do something, they can do it. They are autonomous. Calling these teams and conferences equals over and over doesn't make them equals in reality. The market place has separated these teams. The MAC is relegated to weekdays in November because that is the only way they can be nationally relevant, and that is only minimally true at best. They are a filler in the football world. Almost nobody outside of MAC fans and diehard football fans are watching.

I agree that the system is now rigged so that a G5 team cannot win a championship now, but that's been true , more or less, under the old systems in place for what 40 years.

As for discussions about the NFL, there are a limited number of teams nationally, mostly supported by fans from large metropolitan areas with large fan bases regionally in many cases. Those teams have much more in common than the 128 or so FBS teams that have very different economic realities. The richer teams also have local media payouts that enhance their budgets so they end up a lot of extra income apart from NFL payouts.

Then NFL teams worth $3.2B and $900M are not equal.



Then NFL teams that average 52K fans and NFL teams that average 90K fans are not equals.



The cities of Detroit, Buffalo and Green Bay are economic have nots and the gap is widening, based on history. At what point should the NFL stop giving them an equal revenue share?



What part of equal do YOU not understand? Ohio State and Northwestern are equals. Florida State and Wake Forrest are equals. USC and Washington State are equals. When TCU joined the Big XII were they told that because historically they weren't a P5 school that going forward they would only get 27% of conference revenue share? No, of course not, because the historical argument is nonsense. The P5 is not a separate division. The P5 is not autonomous. The P5 is not in the same league as the G5 because they are charitable. Nothing they do is for charity. They are in the same league because its a rigged system that pads their win totals. The SEC played 112 games last year, 44 of those were against non-P5 competition and they won nearly all of them. That's 40% of all games played. Its a scam. And once again I need to point out- equality means equal in opportunity, not equal in resources or results. All teams in a league deserve equality of opportunity.



and why is that? stop pretending that there isn't a cause and effect.



Oh, if its been like that historically then that makes it ok. 'Cause history is so important and all.



And none of that has to do with equality of opportunity guaranteed by the league they're in? None? Keep burying your head in the sand.

What will cause sustainable, consistent revenue (which I take to also mean increased/increasing revenue)?

+1 Though I would have probably worded it differently, and I don't think all of our fans think this way, there is a certain segment of our fan base that to take a phrase out of another arena, suffer from "the soft bigotry of low expectations." I think that this is less so since Frank has been here, but it's still prevalent. However, for me “I dream things that never were and say, why not?” Remember our old friend, DumpTheMACNow (or something like that). Perhaps he was a prophet ahead his time. Certainly our league-jumping options are limited, but they are not non-existent. C-USA, which in some ways would be a lateral move, would have two advantages: No damn icy cold mid-week games, and it would allow us a little separation from those Ohio teams that would still be in the MAC. Also, once UC bolts from the AAC, there just might be a slot open up that Ohio could fill. That league would provide more revenue and a better image, even without UC. And, we would get to renew our rivalry with Temple, which was a lot more fun while it lasted that Miami has been recently. Those Temple dudes really didn't like us at all -- but they respected us.

I have no desire to leave the MAC. The MAC isn't the problem, FBS is the problem.

The MAC is a conference made up of universities with similar demographics in a reasonable geographic footprint with the majority of its members sharing decades of shared history. The MAC is exactly what every conference should be.

Wanting to leave the MAC to move to a stepping stone to nowhere like the AAC does nothing to address the root problems that make FBS the worst sports league on earth. Conference Realignment Insanity Syndrome is just another awful bi-product of FBS's corruption.

Let me try to draw analogy to the civil rights movement. The NCAAP came before Brown vs. Board of Education and MLK's I had a dream speech came after that. During the civil right struggle some co-opted African American business leaders accepted the status quo believing like that plumber story they were along for the ride. Taking this back to the path to the national championship struggle up until the 90's it was hushed up completely that some schools had no chance. The NCAA management council after BCS began was formed with all 6 BCS conferences having 3 votes and so did the WAC and CUSA with 3 votes. The MAC only had 1 vote, the red headed step child that would't even get its scores reported on the sports ticker. The WAC and CUSA were co-opted by the BCS in thinking they were part of the big boys so refused to play the poor MAC in any bowl games. Then the WAC split and its 3 votes were split evenly to 1.5 a piece both WAC and MWC. The MAC was bumped up to 1.5 and same with SBC. 2004-2010 the MWC was using creative math to prove they belonged as the 7th BCS conference. It forced the BCS to set up a performance based standard that if the performance was within a certain threshold of the Top 5 conferences the 6th or 7th best conference would be considered worthy of an automatic bid. The MWC thinking they would be in the club didn't care about the other non-AQ conferences. Then realignment hit, a new post season system and a restructured management council with 3 votes P5, 2 votes G5. An automatic bid to a major bowl shared among the G5. For the first time the MAC, MWC, AAC, CUSA and SBC were treated as true equals and they are now coordinating bowls together like never before. From the MAC's perspective there is progress. Its getting to the point in this evolution where there is enough schools with a common plight that united to fight not having equal footing with the P5. Its not that I don't agree that the system is unfair its that like any power struggle there have been setbacks and trickery to maintain power. IMO, its at least fair to wait to see the impact of all the new NCAA legislation and a few years of the new system to understand the next plan of attack. The schools at this point that are reliant on the P5 are the Purdue's and Pittsburgh's of the world that are overpaid because they are in the right conference. G5's have built up their own value and have in many cases unique markets to work with. My point with the Florida recruiting is that its wide open now to recruit against AAC schools and with ESPN coverage against many ACC schools that don't get many broadcast windows. The downside of going to 14 team power conferences is that some schools are getting pushed even further down the priority list. The bottom 15 P5 schools have no chance to win their conference and go to a major bowl game. The non-traditional football schools in our region Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia have all done it by recruiting the Sunshine State effectively. Marshall loads up on non-qualifiers and once in a while it works. With Ohio's location it can be done. That is harder to say for CMU located way up north in Michigan. I could understand if Ohio was located in the middle of Wisconsin that it wouldn't be reasonable to expect to hit Florida hard but its not the case.

We are recruiting the hell out of British Columbia! ;-) Those kids will play well in what passes for winter in these parts. To heck with Florida, think Canada. It's a really untapped area. Someone else said we need to recruit players who fit our system. I say recruit players who will love our weather on cold November evenings and be able to play without their longjohns.

Agreed.

valid point.

It's almost impressive to see just how ruthless the P5 conferences really are. In the final year of the BCS era the P5 received 80.0% of the total revenue while the Big East + the 5 Non-BCS conferences received 20%. Most of that 20% went to the Big East as they got a share equal to each of the P5.

In the first year of the CFP era the P5 received 79.9% of the total revenue, they didn't sacrifice an inch of ground. But more importantly, they were able to eliminate a competitor all together. FBS went from 6 Haves and and 5 Have Nots in the BCS era to 5 Haves and 5 Have-Nots in the CFP era.

By killing one of their brothers and spreading his earnings out over the 5 Little Sisters of the Poor the P5 consolidated their power, eliminated a threat, and appeased the 5 LSotP by offering them "huge" increases in their revenue percentages. Brilliant. Vile and contemptible, but brilliant.

Very interesting. Looking at the per team averages:
Big 12/10 - $6.470
PAC 12 - $5.777
SE - $4.686
Big 10/14 - $4.569
ACC - $4.161
Notre Dame - $2.321
MWC - $1.955 each
CUSA - $1.257 each
Sunbelt - $1.088 each
MAC - $1.084 each
BYU, Army, Navy - $.308 each

I'd say that all the independents are taking a hit here. Of course, maybe ND would do really, really well if they actually made the playoff, I don't know.

I have followed recruiting for a great many years. The Ohio State's and Alabama's are loaded with 4/5 star recruits. Another 5-10 schools have that talent level but didn't have the coaching that Meyer and Saban bring. The average power conference school is loaded with 3/4 star recruits. They are at a talent disadvantage with the very elite schools but on a good day they have enough talent to pull an upset. There are some G5 schools, Cincinnati and Boise State come to mind that have built their programs to the point where they are equivalent to an average P5 and so they too are loaded with 3/4 star recruits with Top 50-Top 60 rated classes. Ohio's class this past year was its best overall at Top 75 and the IPF I'm sure played a huge part in that. I don't expect Ohio to match UC in talent but in the future it will be able to take recruiting up even a notch from the last couple of seasons with some very good classes. A Top 65 class with a few more 3/4 star players that is good enough to dominate the MAC sounds possible. The old BCS system had 68 schools in a BCS conference and the new P5 system has 65 so that is another 250+ 3/4 star recruits available for the G5. 20 years ago there was no reason for anyone to travel far to play at Ohio as there was nothing to offer in the way of facilities. With the IPF, Weight Room, Meeting Rooms, Therapy Pools, Updated Locker Rooms the school has some football facilities to work with. Other campus improvements like the new student center and remodeled library catch a few eyes on tour. Facilities are now respectable and are worth a look by the recruits with the academic center and new videoboard making it even more so. Facilities I do believe have accumulative value. No school for example has 2 IPF's or 2 academic centers. Its rare for there to be enough difference in locker rooms for a recruit to select one school or another because of it. Possibly weight rooms as Alabama has the largest in the country. Ohio's weight room could use a second level but is one of the largest in the MAC.

UF spent 28 mil on a freaking weight room? Sorry, but that's just disgraceful. In so many ways.