There have been several articles discussing setting up the new Pac 8,10,12, in partnership with the Mountain West and setting up a relegation type system. We have talked about this in the past, I guess getting in front of this is one position to take. The biggest issue with this is athletic budgets and having a huge decrease if relegated. Unfortunately, I do believe it is the direction of College Football.
USC and UCLA left because they had to share money with schools like WSU and OSU, and the perception was that USC and UCLA contributed a lot more, because they were in a large media market, so they should receive more. Well, if you look at the current situation, 8 of 12 teams from the Pac are in the top 25 in football, and all these teams earn less revenue from their TV contract than most of the teams in the top 25. If money was the sole answer, the Texas A&M should win a NC, but they haven't. Revenue sharing saved baseball and football, and other major leagues sports by creating parity, and fan interest, and keeping franchises in cities. Well you aren't moving universities, but you are losing fans interest by putting schools at a disadvantage or shutting them out of leagues.
College Football, or the networks, depending on who you see as running the show, seem to think differently. Do you actually think in 5 years that Northwestern, or Purdue, or any of the bottom teams in the Big will continue to receive as much revenue as Michigan. Look at the SEC, Alabama and Georgia won't continue to support Vandy and South Carolina. If your ratings suck, just like any other TV show, you're gone. Nick Saban has mentioned he is in favor of some form or relegation, so you know they have discussed it in the SEC.
The fact we are even talking about relegation is hard to comprehend, but who would have thought 5 years ago that a college football player could be paid millions per year to stay in school, (they say the Colorado QB Sanders is worth 10 million a year) or that one could transfer to another school because he didn't like it, or because someone came in and offered him a couple 100K to move. No Caps on NIL, almost unlimited transfer rules, and next up is relegation. There is a lot of money that goes to schools that under perform, the networks won't continue pay those schools. They won't even pay two schools that are performing right now and have performed much better than many schools in the Big, Big 12, and SEC over the past 25 years.
USC and UCLA left because they had to share money with schools like WSU and OSU, and the perception was that USC and UCLA contributed a lot more, because they were in a large media market, so they should receive more. Well, if you look at the current situation, 8 of 12 teams from the Pac are in the top 25 in football, and all these teams earn less revenue from their TV contract than most of the teams in the top 25. If money was the sole answer, the Texas A&M should win a NC, but they haven't. Revenue sharing saved baseball and football, and other major leagues sports by creating parity, and fan interest, and keeping franchises in cities. Well you aren't moving universities, but you are losing fans interest by putting schools at a disadvantage or shutting them out of leagues.
College Football, or the networks, depending on who you see as running the show, seem to think differently. Do you actually think in 5 years that Northwestern, or Purdue, or any of the bottom teams in the Big will continue to receive as much revenue as Michigan. Look at the SEC, Alabama and Georgia won't continue to support Vandy and South Carolina. If your ratings suck, just like any other TV show, you're gone. Nick Saban has mentioned he is in favor of some form or relegation, so you know they have discussed it in the SEC.
The fact we are even talking about relegation is hard to comprehend, but who would have thought 5 years ago that a college football player could be paid millions per year to stay in school, (they say the Colorado QB Sanders is worth 10 million a year) or that one could transfer to another school because he didn't like it, or because someone came in and offered him a couple 100K to move. No Caps on NIL, almost unlimited transfer rules, and next up is relegation. There is a lot of money that goes to schools that under perform, the networks won't continue pay those schools. They won't even pay two schools that are performing right now and have performed much better than many schools in the Big, Big 12, and SEC over the past 25 years.
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