Post by Bornthrilla on May 26, 2020 17:23:54 GMT -5
Briggs: Why Toledo and BG football dropping to FCS is an 'absolute non-starter'
DAVID BRIGGS
The Blade
dbriggs@theblade.com
Given the foreboding drip, drip, drip of news coming out of the Mid-American Conference — Bowling Green cutting baseball here, Akron dropping sports there, budgets slashing everywhere — more than a few readers have understandably asked the question.
Is there a better way?
More specifically ...
Is it time for schools in the MAC to have a real conversation about their place in the college football ecosystem?
Is it time for universities to stop throwing money they don’t have into an arms race they can’t sustain, and consider a cost-saving move from the highest level of Division I to the lower-stakes Football Championship Series?
If these questions seem unthinkable, so do the times, and, as the thinking goes, nothing should be off the table.
Not even a reckoning for the sport that is both the front porch and money pit of mid-major athletic departments.
To play devil’s advocate, the logic of dropping to what was formerly known as Division I-AA — where football programs can offer 63 scholarships compared to 85 in the FBS — is simple: Schools could shave millions of dollars from their football budget and have the opportunity to compete on a national level.
Whereas now the best Toledo and Bowling Green seasons are rewarded with nothing more than a trip to the Ambien Bowl, they could contend for championships in the FCS.
“Don’t you think it’s time?” one former BG athlete emailed.
“It’s a no brainer,” a professor in the MAC added.
Right?
Well, actually ...
“This is an absolute non-starter,” Toledo athletic director Mike O’Brien said. “Let me just put it this way. A large segment of our fans would be disappointed, and that’s an understatement.”
With that, we agreed to ... agree.
Let’s put this to bed right here.
To be sure, the financial crisis born of the coronavirus has forced all college athletic departments to reassess their spending, especially those outside the Power Five conferences.
And no expense is more out of control than football.
Evidence the boom over the past decade, including at our four area colleges.
In 2009, Ohio State and Michigan spent $31.7 million and $18.3 million on football, respectively. Toledo invested $5.5 million, Bowling Green $4.1 million.
By last year, as enormous TV contracts left the blue bloods with more money than they could burn, Ohio State was pouring $60.7 million into football while Michigan anted up $47.4 million. Toledo and Bowling Green spent $11.7 million and $7.8 million.
It was all obscene, but the difference, of course, is Ohio State and Michigan could afford this rate of growth. Toledo, Bowling Green, and every other heavily subsidized Group of Five program feigning to keep up could not.
I’ll state the obvious: It’s time the latter group draws a line in the gridiron dirt, if not begins to funnel some toothpaste back into the tube. (The MAC ending the practice of home teams staying in hotels the night before football games and reducing the size of travel rosters is a good start.)
Still, a move to a lower division is not the panacea some might believe.
Let us break down the three main arguments of the reform advocates:
Read more:
www.toledoblade.com/sports/college/2020/05/23/briggs-why-toledo-and-bg-football-dropping-to-fcs-is-absolute-non-starter/stories/20200523086
DAVID BRIGGS
The Blade
dbriggs@theblade.com
Given the foreboding drip, drip, drip of news coming out of the Mid-American Conference — Bowling Green cutting baseball here, Akron dropping sports there, budgets slashing everywhere — more than a few readers have understandably asked the question.
Is there a better way?
More specifically ...
Is it time for schools in the MAC to have a real conversation about their place in the college football ecosystem?
Is it time for universities to stop throwing money they don’t have into an arms race they can’t sustain, and consider a cost-saving move from the highest level of Division I to the lower-stakes Football Championship Series?
If these questions seem unthinkable, so do the times, and, as the thinking goes, nothing should be off the table.
Not even a reckoning for the sport that is both the front porch and money pit of mid-major athletic departments.
To play devil’s advocate, the logic of dropping to what was formerly known as Division I-AA — where football programs can offer 63 scholarships compared to 85 in the FBS — is simple: Schools could shave millions of dollars from their football budget and have the opportunity to compete on a national level.
Whereas now the best Toledo and Bowling Green seasons are rewarded with nothing more than a trip to the Ambien Bowl, they could contend for championships in the FCS.
“Don’t you think it’s time?” one former BG athlete emailed.
“It’s a no brainer,” a professor in the MAC added.
Right?
Well, actually ...
“This is an absolute non-starter,” Toledo athletic director Mike O’Brien said. “Let me just put it this way. A large segment of our fans would be disappointed, and that’s an understatement.”
With that, we agreed to ... agree.
Let’s put this to bed right here.
To be sure, the financial crisis born of the coronavirus has forced all college athletic departments to reassess their spending, especially those outside the Power Five conferences.
And no expense is more out of control than football.
Evidence the boom over the past decade, including at our four area colleges.
In 2009, Ohio State and Michigan spent $31.7 million and $18.3 million on football, respectively. Toledo invested $5.5 million, Bowling Green $4.1 million.
By last year, as enormous TV contracts left the blue bloods with more money than they could burn, Ohio State was pouring $60.7 million into football while Michigan anted up $47.4 million. Toledo and Bowling Green spent $11.7 million and $7.8 million.
It was all obscene, but the difference, of course, is Ohio State and Michigan could afford this rate of growth. Toledo, Bowling Green, and every other heavily subsidized Group of Five program feigning to keep up could not.
I’ll state the obvious: It’s time the latter group draws a line in the gridiron dirt, if not begins to funnel some toothpaste back into the tube. (The MAC ending the practice of home teams staying in hotels the night before football games and reducing the size of travel rosters is a good start.)
Still, a move to a lower division is not the panacea some might believe.
Let us break down the three main arguments of the reform advocates:
Read more:
www.toledoblade.com/sports/college/2020/05/23/briggs-why-toledo-and-bg-football-dropping-to-fcs-is-absolute-non-starter/stories/20200523086
