Networks Are Trying To Drive A Stake Between the P5 and Everyone Else
It’s no secret that money is the engine of college football. And television networks are the primary source of much of the money. Recently we’ve seen pushback against Big 12 expansion from the league’s TV partners. The network exec’s position is essentially that if they’re going to pay escalator clauses tied to the league adding more teams, they better be marquee teams. Nobody seems anxious to pay up for a diluted product.
There are also potential changes happening in the ACC. The Worldwide Leader announced plans to create an ACC network as part of its new deal with the league. As Harry Minium reports, the network is now trying to exert influence with ACC’s scheduling. Like the Big 12’s media partners, ESPN wants premium content and doesn’t want to get stuck with a inventory of sub-tier games. They already got their wish in hoops, with the league agreeing to move from and 18 to 20 game conference schedule. Next on the agenda is preventing, or at least severely limiting, ACC games against non-P5 programs.
ESPN is going to get its way by forcing the ACC to agree to one of two things, either a 9 game conference schedule, or guarantees that every school plays two P5 schools in out of conference play. This would put a split between the P5 and everyone else one step closer. Because you can bet that when the other networks see ESPN getting more bang for its buck, they’re going to try the same thing. As Jimbo Fisher points out, this might be good for ESPN, but it has potentially devastating consequences to college football as a whole. There’s a trickle down effect when the power schools play programs with lesser resources.
JMU has been a beneficiary of this guarantee games, and the money earned is valuable to the athletic department. This all be certainly will impact JMU’s ability to schedule ACC teams as an FCS program. But FBS status alone won’t help too much. ODU will probably need to move at least 6 games against Tech depending on how things shake out. This move makes things more difficult for everyone outside of the P5. And it might be the very thing that eventually leads the P5 to breakaway entirely.
This stinks. And the “value” of an FCS game for potential college football playoff team makes it worse. Playing JMU, hell playing NDSU, is seen as automatically worse because of the FCS label than playing Kansas or SMU(two teams that have lost to JMU and NDSU). I wish the CFP Committee would look deeper into FCS games and their value. Playing us and playing Elon are not the same thing and realizing that would help FBS teams schedule FCS opponents.
Another thing that stinks about this too for the FBS teams in the equation is you will fill MANY more seats with local FCS teams as home opponents than G5 opponents or even far away P5 opponents. UVA sells way more tickets when they play William and Mary compared to Southern Mississippi I would have to imagine. Way more JMU people will head to Chapel Hill this fall than Illinois fans did last fall. UVA/W&M is a valuable and meaningful FCS/FBS game in terms of attendance and ticket sales. UVA fans all have friends that went to William and Mary and Richmond and look forward to those games. You think UVA fans get excited for UCONN or Central Michigan?
Just saying, All FCS/FBS games are not created equal and I wish for a number of reasons TV, Playoff Committee, and others would see that.