Kirby Jackson

We are talking power 5 and obviously no English departments was hyperbole. In 2019 college football’s 25 most valuable programs made a profit of $1.5B. Football is subsidizing the other sports (not kidding this time) and is the catalyst for their biggest donors. There are plenty of small D 3 schools that manage without the football revenue. At the same time do you think the University or Texas is better off or not with the $223M generates by their athletic program. They aren’t looking to become SUNYAB. The highest paid public employee in 40 states is a college coach!! That should tell you all that you need to know. This isn’t some ancillary benefit that is nice for the students. This is where the universities directly and indirectly generate the majority of their revenue. T Boone Pickens wasn’t sending what he did to OSU without athletics. As a side story that I think will resonate the larger donor at Auburn had pledged like a $50M donation. $7M of it was earmarked for Gus Malzahn’s buyout. His donation to the University, the largest in it’s history, was contingent on the football coach getting fired. It was all or nothing. He didn’t get fired and now it costs $33M to dump Gus and his staff. This is BIG business. This is one of those things that’s probably difficult to comprehend unless you are in that environment. I used to go to every BC game when I was in college but clearly didn’t get it. It’s not something I really grasped until I started attending big time college football games. When LSU played Bama 7 or 8 years ago they estimated 300,000 people were on the LSU campus. The population of Baton Rouge is 216,000. The point being that big time college sports aren’t an extra. They are driving revenue and entire economies in some places. Auburn is a perfect example. The entire economy from restaurants, to bars, stores, hotels, etc... are completely dependent on these games being played.

The Power 5 conferences generated $2.9B last year. There is no English Department at these massive institutions without that revenue. Football subsidizes these universities not the other way around.

I’m so disappointed. Just feel defeated. The PAC 12 just followed suit

Yes, Wade still counts outside of the normal allotment.

If college football is pushed to the spring this is what the NFL will look like:

I think that the drought years jaded us. The goal isn’t “get to the playoffs.” The goal is “compete for a championship.” Every decision that is made should be done with that in mind. Everything else is a waste of time. The Bills should want the playoffs this year as they are constructed. The Jets or Jags should be hoping for the 1st pick and a chance to change their future.

Certainly but there have still been 15 Super Bowls (I think) won by QBs picked first overall. The worst thing that you can be in sports in mediocre. Not everyone that makes the playoffs can win it all. That 2017 Bills team was a lot of fun but they weren’t winning the Super Bowl. I said about 95% of the time it’s the playoffs but it’s not an absolute. A team can change its entire future some drafts. Sometimes you have to be bad to be good.

I think the answer is it depends on your team and the draft. It is normally playoffs but if you’re like a .500ish team with little upside maybe not. That holds especially true in a draft with a generational talent at a crucial position. As an example, if I’m a Jags fan this year, I’d rather get Lawrence than be 9-7 and get crushed in the playoffs. I’d say that it’s playoffs 95% of the time but there are exceptions. In the NBA that number can drop as low as 50% depending on the top of the draft.

That’s why the spring isn’t an option IMO. You’ll have 100+ opt outs.

Yep, imagine even an injury like Feliciano’s happening in May? In normal circumstances that guy would be back in 2 months. In this case they wouldn’t have medical clearance until after the draft. That guy could fall 2, 3, 4 rounds for something that won’t ever cause him to miss a game. Guys will be jumping ship left and right.

You know what’s wild is that it is sort of the last American sport left to the fans. If you want to go to a Super Bowl it’s easy. You just have to spend the money. At least half the stadium is filled with corporate sponsors and people like that. The same for a NBA All-Star Game. It’s not hard to get there either. It’s played in a major American city with a whole lot of ancillary activities and parties attached to it. College Football is different. I went to the Iron Bowl in 2017. It was #1 vs. #6 with playoff implications on the line. It was the biggest game of the year. It was held in Auburn, Alabama. That’s just under 100 miles from the Atlanta Airport. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere. There was no Jay-Z, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Hart, etc... It was a bunch of rich alumni and students from both schools that looked forward to this day for 364 days (including Charles Barkley). The entire town from the moment you arrived to the moment you left spoke of nothing but the game. They talked match-ups, implications, parties, etc... It was a portion of the city that cared. It was every, single, person!! It’s just different and always will be. Exactly In some ways college football is like boxing. There are a series of governing bodies and then they try to come together on unification of championships.

This is insane

I’m not really sure why that warrants a “wow?” To each his own I guess. I live in SEC country and am an Ohio State fan so my college football experience is spent with the elite. There aren’t many/any sporting experiences that compare to a Saturday Night in Death Valley and I don’t even like LSU. The passion, crowd, and overall effort is unmatched. It’s the closest thing that the US has to European Soccer. Every game played by those teams could be the end of their chances. If you get sniped by Mississippi State, or Michigan State, or whomever, you’re cooked. There’s no margin for error. That drama makes Saturday infinitely more interesting. There’s no, “we will get them next week” after laying an egg vs. Miami. The Bills are my favorite team in sports. I prefer a Bills game over everything but I find the NFL just okay after that. I’m not excited about Seattle - SF on Sunday Night despite the fact that it may have playoff implications. The reality is that the loser of that game can still bounce back when it matters, in the playoffs. When LSU plays Alabama it’s winner take all for all intents and purposes.

Just an example

One of my closest friends used to be in charge of sales at Auburn. We talked last week and he had just talked to his old boss there. He was saying that the hard thing with it is the amateur nature of the players. If you are at Auburn (or wherever) on a biology scholarship and they deem the campus “unsafe for students” you’re at home. They can’t say that the campus isn’t safe for the biology student but is safe for Bo Nix. Apparently that’s a huge issue for the schools.

My guess is that if the power 5 cancels the NFL will play at least 3 games every Saturday and likely more.

College Football is my favorite sport so it’s disappointing for me. I’ll watch college teams that I don’t care about way more often than NFL teams that I don’t care about. The games just mean more. With that being said, if the power 5 end up cancelling the NFL should definitely backfill those slots. There’s no reason to not have football all day Saturday.

I really feel like this year the talent gap vs. the rest of the MAC was significant. I could have seen a win at K State to start the year and then some momentum. They could have beaten everyone but Ohio State. If they had gotten to 7-1, 8-1 or whatever they would have been very much in the mix to be ranked. They could have been viewed like App State or someone like that.

I’m optimistic about Jefferson and think that Butler will be a solid role player (especially with no Star). I think Addison is going to disappoint and Klein is just not very good.

Can the season please just start already...

Certainly the case

They’re going to hang 77 on them and TTUN will take it as a moral victory ??