+1 think it’s weird that some posters want this for us. It’s a step down and people aren’t going to care about a D2 national championship anymore than a bowl game. This is bad for all football and anti competition. It’s similar to a business industry where a few companies have a monopoly. These big schools want no competition to their power. They don’t want other schools rising up to challenge them. Even if they have a better product. They will buy out the product through nil and the environment that created it will be destroyed. The result is there will be less innovation in the game and less competition and the product will suffer. The big schools are Walmart. The small schools your friendly local small business.

This also hurts other sports where we do compete for titles. Mens Basketball, womens volleyball and I’m sure other sports have competed for national titles. Let’s hope they don’t also get regulated to the same fate.

Clearly you don't see the distinction between a championship and a bowl game. In the MAC, you would first play for a league championship which would then qualify /position you for a national tournament. That's a whole lot different and more important than a convention and visitor's bureau gimic in places many of us don't even have on our bucket list to visit. No offense to any of the "bowl" towns but come on, Myrtle Beach for a vacation in December. I guarantee you that these 24 schools were/are excited to actually be playing for a title.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/football/fcs/2023

I think what you're describing with Texas-Oklahoma State is a separate argument compared to bowl games that Ohio finds itself in. You want to see power football whether or not Ohio is involved? You can absolutely still watch that. That's gonna be around. But look at who Ohio is playing in bowl games:

West Texas A&M
Richmond
Southern Miss
Marshall
Troy
Utah State
Louisiana Monroe
East Carolina
Appalachian State
Troy
UAB
San Diego State
Nevada
Wyoming
Georgia Southern

Each one of these schools, save maybe San Diego State here in the near future, would be in the same weight class as Ohio in a new division. Wouldn't a chance to advance to a 2nd round be more appealing than a participation trophy for the Cheez It Bowl? Ya'll act like we play Florida or Wisconsin in bowl games.

I still would think the Power conferences would need to fill their regular season schedule out though, similar to how they do now with FCS and G5 schools. We'd still get the paycheck games. Some of those programs want easier wins.

Bobcat Bandit, it's not D2. There already exists an NCAA D2. This would be a division consisting of current D1 schools in between FBS and FCS. I think we'd be better off joining up with the current FCS than starting a new division in between. But a new division might end up being the answer.

Yeah, you say it a lot. And every time I say the same thing: the reason I support players being paid has nothing to do with what's best for the MAC, or what's best for competitive balance in college athletics. I think talented people shouldn't be restricted from earning money from their talents. It's a moral issue. I don't care about the MAC, and these weren't unintended consequences.

The NCAA put their head in the sand and ignored the obvious for decades. This is their fault, not the fault of people who think a multi-billion dollar industry am can figure out a way to share upside with the labor.

So what would you call it division 1.5? I think right now while the G5 has an at large in the tourney it’s the worst time possible for this. A few years from now maybe but should see how the new 12 team playoff fairs in my opinion. Also maybe most importantly how does this affect other sports. could see competing for a a title would be more exciting than a bowl game at least initially but after a few years might feel the same way about it we do about bowl games now.

Sorry for spam posting 3 in a row am posting at work but another hypothetical. Remember when WMU went undefeated. They drew a huge crowd at the MAC title against us. If we are part of a sub division 1.5 as I called it. Do they still draw that crowd? Would the fans care as much about being unbeaten and in the top 25 if they weren’t competing for a bcs bowl. I don’t think they would. The crowd would be a fraction of the size IMO

It suggested something that’s literally the definition of hypothetical. It hasn’t passed anything. While we have a at large slot I don’t see why we would go along with this. Is it inevitable probably but ultimately is bad for us and puts us on a lower level then we are currently. Would rather fight this then have a losers mentality about it and lose out on a bunch of money if we or another mac school has a great year.

It’s the equivalent of getting relegated in soccer. The lower divisions get less interest less fans and less money even if they win their division. At least they in that case get boosted up to the top division. We are stuck in a lower division forever. Maybe would support this with some promotion relegation system

From my vantage point, it's much more of a loser's mentality to sit at the P5s side begging for scraps and pretending we're the same as them.

The G5 needs to grow some balls and try and build something on their own.

The best case scenario you're outlining is that if everything breaks right NIU or WMU gets to lose a tournament game. That's the best case. Congrats, I guess? What do the other 70 G5 teams play for?

If a team won the second league in the premier league and was promoted to the first. Most fans would think it would be inevitable that the next year they would go back down. Yet I’m sure they would still want their team to fight and do everything in their power to stay up. They wouldn’t be happy or wanting to go down a division and make less money and compete for a second tier trophy. Idk why you or others seem to want this. I agree it’s probably inevitable but not even fighting it is why I say it’s a losers mentality. If we could get some sort of playoff with every conference championship or some sort of promotion regulation system with this new division would fight for that instead of giving up and bowing down to being regulated. It’s just been proposed at this point so making some noise about it now and playing well getting and getting an upset in the CFP could change things. Better off fighting now while you can then giving in and years down the line wishing you could’ve fought when you had the chance.

It's not clear to me what you mean by "let's fight this." Be unhappy? Post on message boards?

College sports are rapidly changing. I know your view is that the expanded playoff is good news for the G5. The problem is that the whole landscape and entire framework we have is wrong, and is changing. Conferences are changing, the notion of what it is to be P5 is changing, and the dividing line is about money. We don't have that, and need to be proactive about defining our place in the landscape. Just sitting idly by and hoping the big schools take pity on us is not fighting. It's denial.

It's only cost prohibitive if schools like Ohio University pay the cost. But they don't have to and shouldn't.

Baker's proposal lets schools opt into the school funded NIL. Schools who can afford it do it, those who can't, don't. That's a market taking shape. And it's the path that was always inevitable: a tiered college sports landscape where large programs -- those who generate the lion's share of the revenue -- will be able to share that revenue with athletes, and the rest of college sports will continue via amateurism.

There's a huge segment of college sports fans who insist that what they love about the product is the purity of amateurism, and that paying players ruins it for them. There's absolutely nothing stopping programs like OU, that lose money every single year, from leaning into that amateurism and continuing as is. If you believe college sports fans, it'd be a popular stance to take. Were I magically commissioner of whatever ends up as that second tier, that's exactly what I'd do. I'd lean into the amateurism, implement a true playoff, and market it as sports in its purest form. People playing football because they love it, not because some booster is giving them 300k from their car dealership.

The G5 (or what's left of it) along with the FCS need to chart their own path and take ownership over what they are. They're not able to compete financially with big programs, and there's no longer any incentive for the P5 to bring them along for the ride and feed them scraps every now and again.