Schools like Tulsa want assurances with Power 5 Deal

[Water Pony]

Tulsa World

"The University of Tulsa, the American Athletic Conference and schools and leagues just like them would like two assurances coming out of last week's big NCAA announcement about Power Five autonomy: One is maintaining the football scholarship limit of 85."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/j ... 5ee30.html

[East Coast Mustang]

Raising the scholarship limit from 85 would be a big negative for sure, but I think they can still only put 11 on the field at a time so I'd have to think playing time would become an issue for some guys- or there would be mass transfers. Maybe take away the one-year wait for transfers from P5 schools to AAC, MWC, CUSA, MAC, and Sun Belt schools? Or would that just make us a glorified FCS conference at that point?

Also- raising scholarship limits from 85 would be expensive since you'd had to balance that out with Title IX, but if you're a P5 school raking in $30M+ a year, you can cut that extra check.

My question- is it still set in stone that the top ranked team outside the P5 will qualify for one of the six major bowls in the new format? If so, we need to shoot for that every year, or hope another AAC team makes it if we don't. A $18 million payout (or half of that since half gets distributed to the rest of the conference) would be sweet.

I think we're going to see some schools (service academies, some publics, and schools like Temple that are bleeding $ already) go by the wayside and a merger of AAC/MWC teams that are willing to pay money to compete at the FBS level form the sixth best conference in the country. Something like this:

East- UConn, Cincy, USF, UCF, Memphis, ECU, Tulane (?)
West- SMU, Houston, BYU, Boise State, SDSU, Colorado State, Fresno State

[NY Pony]

My question- is it still set in stone that the top ranked team outside the P5 will qualify for one of the six major bowls in the new format? If so, we need to shoot for that every year, or hope another AAC team makes it if we don't. A $18 million payout (or half of that since half gets distributed to the rest of the conference) would be sweet.

For the life of the ESPN playoff contract (6 or 7 years), yes. It's a signed contract. It is equally important that the "BCS buster" (I know the BCS is gone) team play well in this game every year.

It would be nice to get a non-P5 team in the playoff, from time to time, as well. In this system, not having a championship game (Big 12 and AAC next season) could hurt because it's one less quality resume win for the conference champ.

[dirtysouthpony]

So in this brave new world would a team like last years UCF team be shut out of the playoff?

[NY Pony]

So in this brave new world would a team like last years UCF team be shut out of the playoff?

They would have been in one of the "host" bowls, the 6 big games (Fiesta, Rose, cotton, peach, orange or sugar) but their one loss to SC would have knocked them out of the top 4 teams so not in whichever 2 of those 6 that constitute the playoff in this hypothetical year.

Run the table in the group of 5 conferences and I suspect that team will be, at the very least, very much in the playoff conversation. Especially if they are dominant.

[East Coast Mustang]

Run the table in the group of 5 conferences and I suspect that team will be, at the very least, very much in the playoff conversation. Especially if they are dominant.

Would probably need to beat two decent P5 teams OOC to have a case, or one really good one.

[NY Pony]

Run the table in the group of 5 conferences and I suspect that team will be, at the very least, very much in the playoff conversation. Especially if they are dominant.

Would probably need to beat two decent P5 teams OOC to have a case, or one really good one.

Definitely puts a premium on smart OOC scheduling. UCF's schedule last year would have set them up really well in a playoff year assuming they went undefeated. PSU and SC would be a perfect future OOC schedule for them.

In the group of 5 a team from the MW and AAC that goes undefeated would probably have an advantage over the other 3 conferences due to these leagues probably being stronger.

[sbsmith]

So in this brave new world would a team like last years UCF team be shut out of the playoff?

Last year the playoff would have been Florida State, Auburn, Michigan State and Alabama. Even if UCF ran the table they'd have been a distant runner-up to Alabama for the final playoff spot.

[NY Pony]

So in this brave new world would a team like last years UCF team be shut out of the playoff?

Last year the playoff would have been Florida State, Auburn, Michigan State and Alabama. Even if UCF ran the table they'd have been a distant runner-up to Alabama for the final playoff spot.

No consolation, but they would have been in the conversation, though. Hard to argue with those 4 from last season, though.

[Mexmustang]

Respect your perspective, but I don't see why the service academies would drop out. They already fund a prep school for a fifth year of high school for their many football prospects. Certainly that has to more expensive than additional scholarships. I would also believe that the Big Five, would begin to look over their shoulders if the service academies got too far behind them. After all, who would Notre Dame play without them?

[NY Pony]

Respect your perspective, but I don't see why the service academies would drop out. They already fund a prep school for a fifth year of high school for their many football prospects. Certainly that has to more expensive than additional scholarships. I would also believe that the Big Five, would begin to look over their shoulders if the service academies got too far behind them. After all, who would Notre Dame play without them?

Those prep schools are of equal importance to them for non-revenue sports like crew, if I am not mistaken, and for students who they want but need a class or two. I went to prep school with a really bright guy who went to Annapolis who went to navy prep for a year to take some math classes he needed.

[blackoutpony]

FWIW SDSU and Fresno are broke and certainly cannot pay to play. Not sure CSU can either

[PonySnob]

Run the table in the group of 5 conferences and I suspect that team will be, at the very least, very much in the playoff conversation. Especially if they are dominant.

Would probably need to beat two decent P5 teams OOC to have a case, or one really good one.

Won't happen with JJ here.........../

[EastStang]

Let's make the P5 conferences have their own basketball tourney too. Oh, gee the last two national champions came out of non-P5 conferences, ooops. Get the picture. For the ACC, I think basketball revenue is still a big chunk of their revenue. You think Duke, Kentucky and Kansas would like to be left out of the dance? They have a near zero chance of ever seeing a national championship playoff birth in football. We have our cards, we should play them.

[StallionsModelT]

There will be a sixth conference comprised of schools among the G5 that are willing to float the boat financially in order to remain "at the highest levels". Everyone else either drops football or goes down to what will be a glorified D1AA.

BYU
Boise State
SMU
Houston
Cincinnati
Memphis
Central Florida
South Florida
East Carolina
UConn