Most commentators are guessing that, at a minimum, it’ll cost $6-7M per year for the pay-to-play requirement. A few questions I had:
• Is it even a guarantee that every P4 school (+ Oregon State and Washington State) can afford that number? I’d imagine we’ll see quite a few Olympic programs eliminated across the country to help offset the new expenses.
• Are there any G5 programs who can afford to compete on this level? I’d guess Memphis and South Florida for starters, especially since they’re investing big bucks on football facilities. Any chance for a schools like Temple in the east or San Diego State in the west?
• Could this lead to additional realignment? I wouldn’t be surprised if this forces some schools to return to more regionally-centric conferences; the last thing they’ll need when trying to find fund money is to have Olympic teams traveling across the country for competition. Perhaps we reach a point where football becomes separate from the rest of the athletic department in terms of conference affiliations?
In all, I’d have to imagine that no more than 60-70 schools will move up to this new level. At that point, I think the FBS and FBS would be better off merging and keeping the amount of D1 subdivisions at zero.
• Is it even a guarantee that every P4 school (+ Oregon State and Washington State) can afford that number? I’d imagine we’ll see quite a few Olympic programs eliminated across the country to help offset the new expenses.
• Are there any G5 programs who can afford to compete on this level? I’d guess Memphis and South Florida for starters, especially since they’re investing big bucks on football facilities. Any chance for a schools like Temple in the east or San Diego State in the west?
• Could this lead to additional realignment? I wouldn’t be surprised if this forces some schools to return to more regionally-centric conferences; the last thing they’ll need when trying to find fund money is to have Olympic teams traveling across the country for competition. Perhaps we reach a point where football becomes separate from the rest of the athletic department in terms of conference affiliations?
In all, I’d have to imagine that no more than 60-70 schools will move up to this new level. At that point, I think the FBS and FBS would be better off merging and keeping the amount of D1 subdivisions at zero.