Off Season random stuff 2024

[TomCat88]

Is this a really bad poll or is the FCS watered down?

A little bit of Column A and a little bit of Column B?

I don't think this poll is bad at all. Hero follows FCS better than any sports media outlet. With JMU, SHSU and Jacksonville State gone, the BSC and MVFC are almost always going to have 5-6 teams in the top 25 at all times. Both have 6 in this poll, as they should being they are the two best conferences in the FCS, by far. The CAA has 5 (too many in my opinion these days), the Southern has 3. That's 20 teams from the 4 best conferences in FCS, not a whole lot different than the FBS polls.

If JMU, SHSU and Jacksonville State are still in the FCS, Youngstown, IL St. and Eastern IL are off the poll. The BSC still has 6 teams, the MVFC has 4 and the CAA has 6.

The CAA is getting waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much respect still, but who else takes their spots? Albany is the only team to make the Semis outside JMU (not counting spring '21) since the 2018 season when Maine made it to the SFs. In the last 5 season, besides Albany beating Idaho, the top ranked CAA teams have been waxed when meeting top 8 seeds. That 2018 Maine team lost 50-19 in the semis to EWU. With Delaware and Richmond leaving after this season, the CAA may be the 5th best conference in 2025 behind the BSC, MVF, SoCon and United.

I just don’t see Idaho or SAC as top ten teams. We shall see.

I think Sac is up there because of Kaiden Bennett. Idaho because of Eck, and McCoy's backup up playing pretty damn well late in the year. Do I think they are both top 10 though? No. But I don't think numbers 6 on are top 10 teams. Somebody has to be there though.

Here’s the truth: if you win 4-5 Big Sky games, you likely just put up more quality wins than all but about 15 FCS teams. You win 5-6, you’re getting a playoff seed. The Big Sky is down, but not nearly as much as the FCS. Apples to oranges at this point when comparing Big Sky and Missouri Valley to all the other auto bid conferences in the FCS…

Quality win? What’s that? Pretty sure I haven’t had one since the 90s.

[Cataholic]

G5 schools will never be able to compete with these new rules. Players getting paid directly by the school, NIL money on top of that and no limits on scholarships basically just put 70% of FBS teams into a lower category of program. There is no level playing field moving froward. Wont be surprised to see the P4 break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body.

[CodyCat]

G5 schools will never be able to compete with these new rules. Players getting paid directly by the school, NIL money on top of that and no limits on scholarships basically just put 70% of FBS teams into a lower category of program. There is no level playing field moving froward. Wont be surprised to see the P4 break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body.

They have tried and when the ADs voted, it wasn’t close. After these rulings, why would they need to break away?

[Hi-Line Bobcat]

G5 schools will never be able to compete with these new rules. Players getting paid directly by the school, NIL money on top of that and no limits on scholarships basically just put 70% of FBS teams into a lower category of program. There is no level playing field moving froward. Wont be surprised to see the P4 break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body.

They have tried and when the ADs voted, it wasn’t close. After these rulings, why would they need to break away?

What a mess. I predict in 5-10 years I will not renew my tailgates or season tickets, it will be all out semi pro football at the FCS level, and I already feel myself losing interest in college sports because of these things. There will be no parity, because the smaller schools in the football sense, won’t be able to keep up. I could be completely wrong and it might make the FCS and the P4 schools combine and make things more interesting, but I just don’t think that can happen due to all the other sports and women sports schools have. I just wonder how any of the higher ups thought this was a good idea to start any of this? In my mind media is a big driver in this. I know schools, ADs, and coaches were afraid to speak out against any of it, because they didn’t want to get canceled by the snowflakes. Saban and other high profiled wealthy coaches have spoken out against it, but in my mind that is like a rich person telling someone who just lost their job, “things will be fine”.

[Hawks86]

Just a different form of corporate greed. The media and/or snowflakes don't give out the huge TV contracts.

[Cataholic]

G5 schools will never be able to compete with these new rules. Players getting paid directly by the school, NIL money on top of that and no limits on scholarships basically just put 70% of FBS teams into a lower category of program. There is no level playing field moving froward. Wont be surprised to see the P4 break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body.

They have tried and when the ADs voted, it wasn’t close. After these rulings, why would they need to break away?

Greed. P4 won’t want to share money with the G5. Only a matter of time before the Alabama’s of the world object to sharing money with the Wyoming’s of the world.

[BleedingBLue]

G5 schools will never be able to compete with these new rules. Players getting paid directly by the school, NIL money on top of that and no limits on scholarships basically just put 70% of FBS teams into a lower category of program. There is no level playing field moving froward. Wont be surprised to see the P4 break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body.

They have tried and when the ADs voted, it wasn’t close. After these rulings, why would they need to break away?

What a mess. I predict in 5-10 years I will not renew my tailgates or season tickets, it will be all out semi pro football at the FCS level, and I already feel myself losing interest in college sports because of these things. There will be no parity, because the smaller schools in the football sense, won’t be able to keep up. I could be completely wrong and it might make the FCS and the P4 schools combine and make things more interesting, but I just don’t think that can happen due to all the other sports and women sports schools have. I just wonder how any of the higher ups thought this was a good idea to start any of this? In my mind media is a big driver in this. I know schools, ADs, and coaches were afraid to speak out against any of it, because they didn’t want to get canceled by the snowflakes. Saban and other high profiled wealthy coaches have spoken out against it, but in my mind that is like a rich person telling someone who just lost their job, “things will be fine”.

I agree with this sentiment. I'm excited for the upcoming season, but I will be watching a lot less college football this year at both the FCS and FBS levels. I'll watch my teams, and maybe some of the bigger games, but won't be watching throughout the day Saturday.

I actually contemplated keeping our season tickets this year, until early February. Not because I don't love the team, but because I'm not sure I'm interested in watching and investing in a pseudo JC team. Obviously it's not to that point yet, but if we lose guys like Valdez, Reimer etc. every year and the best guys leave regularly, it's going to be tough.

[catatac]

G5 schools will never be able to compete with these new rules. Players getting paid directly by the school, NIL money on top of that and no limits on scholarships basically just put 70% of FBS teams into a lower category of program. There is no level playing field moving froward. Wont be surprised to see the P4 break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body.

They have tried and when the ADs voted, it wasn’t close. After these rulings, why would they need to break away?

What a mess. I predict in 5-10 years I will not renew my tailgates or season tickets, it will be all out semi pro football at the FCS level, and I already feel myself losing interest in college sports because of these things. There will be no parity, because the smaller schools in the football sense, won’t be able to keep up. I could be completely wrong and it might make the FCS and the P4 schools combine and make things more interesting, but I just don’t think that can happen due to all the other sports and women sports schools have. I just wonder how any of the higher ups thought this was a good idea to start any of this? In my mind media is a big driver in this. I know schools, ADs, and coaches were afraid to speak out against any of it, because they didn’t want to get canceled by the snowflakes. Saban and other high profiled wealthy coaches have spoken out against it, but in my mind that is like a rich person telling someone who just lost their job, “things will be fine”.

Ya, it was just such a challenging situation all the way around. As you state, I think the media, and to a lesser extent us fans actually created this mess..... but being such huge fans, needing to watch all the games, buying all the gear, spending all the money on the team, etc. So because college football became such a monster, billions and billions of $$ rolling in - why should the coaches and admins and everyone else get rich but the star players that make it all happen get nothing? I think this mess was inevitable.

[tetoncat]

G5 schools will never be able to compete with these new rules. Players getting paid directly by the school, NIL money on top of that and no limits on scholarships basically just put 70% of FBS teams into a lower category of program. There is no level playing field moving froward. Wont be surprised to see the P4 break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body.

They have tried and when the ADs voted, it wasn’t close. After these rulings, why would they need to break away?

What a mess. I predict in 5-10 years I will not renew my tailgates or season tickets, it will be all out semi pro football at the FCS level, and I already feel myself losing interest in college sports because of these things. There will be no parity, because the smaller schools in the football sense, won’t be able to keep up. I could be completely wrong and it might make the FCS and the P4 schools combine and make things more interesting, but I just don’t think that can happen due to all the other sports and women sports schools have. I just wonder how any of the higher ups thought this was a good idea to start any of this? In my mind media is a big driver in this. I know schools, ADs, and coaches were afraid to speak out against any of it, because they didn’t want to get canceled by the snowflakes. Saban and other high profiled wealthy coaches have spoken out against it, but in my mind that is like a rich person telling someone who just lost their job, “things will be fine”.

Ya, it was just such a challenging situation all the way around. As you state, I think the media, and to a lesser extent us fans actually created this mess..... but being such huge fans, needing to watch all the games, buying all the gear, spending all the money on the team, etc. So because college football became such a monster, billions and billions of $$ rolling in - why should the coaches and admins and everyone else get rich but the star players that make it all happen get nothing? I think this mess was inevitable.

I agree with overall sentiment of the revenue sharing of some kind, and some NIL benefit. But there are kids now getting huge NIL just to show up at the best power 5 conferences. I don't think that was inent of NIL lawsuits and it has created Chaos along with the unlimited transfer portal.

[MSU01]

If we're going to allow schools to pay players directly, I'd also like to see them be able to sign players to multi-year contracts in order to mitigate the effects of the transfer portal somewhat. We'll sign you for $50K or 100K/year, but it's a 2/3/4 year contract. We're guaranteeing your money but you also can't enter the transfer portal during that time.

[catatac]

G5 schools will never be able to compete with these new rules. Players getting paid directly by the school, NIL money on top of that and no limits on scholarships basically just put 70% of FBS teams into a lower category of program. There is no level playing field moving froward. Wont be surprised to see the P4 break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body.

They have tried and when the ADs voted, it wasn’t close. After these rulings, why would they need to break away?

What a mess. I predict in 5-10 years I will not renew my tailgates or season tickets, it will be all out semi pro football at the FCS level, and I already feel myself losing interest in college sports because of these things. There will be no parity, because the smaller schools in the football sense, won’t be able to keep up. I could be completely wrong and it might make the FCS and the P4 schools combine and make things more interesting, but I just don’t think that can happen due to all the other sports and women sports schools have. I just wonder how any of the higher ups thought this was a good idea to start any of this? In my mind media is a big driver in this. I know schools, ADs, and coaches were afraid to speak out against any of it, because they didn’t want to get canceled by the snowflakes. Saban and other high profiled wealthy coaches have spoken out against it, but in my mind that is like a rich person telling someone who just lost their job, “things will be fine”.

Ya, it was just such a challenging situation all the way around. As you state, I think the media, and to a lesser extent us fans actually created this mess..... but being such huge fans, needing to watch all the games, buying all the gear, spending all the money on the team, etc. So because college football became such a monster, billions and billions of $$ rolling in - why should the coaches and admins and everyone else get rich but the star players that make it all happen get nothing? I think this mess was inevitable.

I agree with overall sentiment of the revenue sharing of some kind, and some NIL benefit. But there are kids now getting huge NIL just to show up at the best power 5 conferences. I don't think that was inent of NIL lawsuits and it has created Chaos along with the unlimited transfer portal.

Ahh, gotchya. I was just commenting on the overall decision to allow college players to get paid NIL money.

[lutecat]

I see the other athletes losing. No longer will you be able to get a track scholly. That money is going to have to go to pay football and basketball players.

[RockyBearCat]

interesting and I wonder how it filters to FCS. Thanks for the link Colter.

[TomCat88]

interesting and I wonder how it filters to FCS. Thanks for the link Colter.

Maybe this is why there's not much talk about UM and MSU moving up. Maybe teams will be dropping down to FCS.

[AFCAT]

interesting and I wonder how it filters to FCS. Thanks for the link Colter.

Maybe this is why there's not much talk about UM and MSU moving up. Maybe teams will be dropping down to FCS.

I'm curious about how many FBS teams/athletic programs are losing money every year. I know Reno football has lost millions every year for the past few years at least.

[coloradocat]

If we're going to allow schools to pay players directly, I'd also like to see them be able to sign players to multi-year contracts in order to mitigate the effects of the transfer portal somewhat. We'll sign you for $50K or 100K/year, but it's a 2/3/4 year contract. We're guaranteeing your money but you also can't enter the transfer portal during that time.

I don't think teams will be able to lock players into multi-year contracts but they could probably structure them like they do with coaches where there is a buyout/exit fee. The downside of that would likely be that if a team cut a player they'd be liable for the balance of their contract minus what the new team pays. All of this is going to require more athletic department resources which also costs more money.

[coloradocat]

interesting and I wonder how it filters to FCS. Thanks for the link Colter.

Maybe this is why there's not much talk about UM and MSU moving up. Maybe teams will be dropping down to FCS.

I'm curious about how many FBS teams/athletic programs are losing money every year. I know Reno football has lost millions every year for the past few years at least.

Before the giant tv contracts didn't essentially all teams lose money? It's only in the last decade that they started turning a profit, or at least one that they couldn't hide with accounting tricks.

Even in the article it mentioned that Georgia Tech barely made money last year in one of their best financial years. This latest round of legal losses will greatly accelerate the divide between the top 50 and everyone else.

As far as MSU and Missoula moving up, I don't think the latest events change anything. The quality of the teams has nothing to do with getting an invite and may actually be detrimental. Why would the G5 invite teams that bring next to nothing financially to the table but could beat the teams that do?

[AFCAT]

interesting and I wonder how it filters to FCS. Thanks for the link Colter.

Maybe this is why there's not much talk about UM and MSU moving up. Maybe teams will be dropping down to FCS.

I'm curious about how many FBS teams/athletic programs are losing money every year. I know Reno football has lost millions every year for the past few years at least.

Before the giant tv contracts didn't essentially all teams lose money? It's only in the last decade that they started turning a profit, or at least one that they couldn't hide with accounting tricks.

Even in the article it mentioned that Georgia Tech barely made money last year in one of their best financial years. This latest round of legal losses will greatly accelerate the divide between the top 50 and everyone else.

As far as MSU and Missoula moving up, I don't think the latest events change anything. The quality of the teams has nothing to do with getting an invite and may actually be detrimental. Why would the G5 invite teams that bring next to nothing financially to the table but could beat the teams that do?

Here is an interesting recent article.

“The majority of universities in the nation's top athletic conferences lost money through their sports programs to the tune of approximately $16 million each.”

https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analy ... ake-money/

[mslacatfan]

[BobcatDel]

interesting and I wonder how it filters to FCS. Thanks for the link Colter.

Maybe this is why there's not much talk about UM and MSU moving up. Maybe teams will be dropping down to FCS.

I'm curious about how many FBS teams/athletic programs are losing money every year. I know Reno football has lost millions every year for the past few years at least.

Before the giant tv contracts didn't essentially all teams lose money? It's only in the last decade that they started turning a profit, or at least one that they couldn't hide with accounting tricks.

Even in the article it mentioned that Georgia Tech barely made money last year in one of their best financial years. This latest round of legal losses will greatly accelerate the divide between the top 50 and everyone else.

As far as MSU and Missoula moving up, I don't think the latest events change anything. The quality of the teams has nothing to do with getting an invite and may actually be detrimental. Why would the G5 invite teams that bring next to nothing financially to the table but could beat the teams that do?

Here is an interesting recent article.

“The majority of universities in the nation's top athletic conferences lost money through their sports programs to the tune of approximately $16 million each.”

https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analy ... ake-money/

A bit more discussion on how the multibillion settlement will be split between power conferences 40% and everyone else 60%. As well as some discussion on revenue caps, etc. Needless to say, buckle your seat belt because this show ain’t over….and the future vision is unclear to me. Still not clear to me how the lower revenue schools sports programs can survive and how women sports may be impacted.

https://apple.news/AknDP6ZyeRGGqSrrEYZdQ1g