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Conferences kicking out members?

I understand your points. All easy to comprehend in today’s environment. But everything changes so quickly. 5 years ago to comprehend NIL, transfer portal, magnitude of conference realignment, CFP expansion … the landscape has changed quickly and the next five years may have as much change as well.

All this has happened in an era of expanding TV. What happens if revenues decline? What happens when universities are faced with mounting debt, what happens if schools are forced to cut sports. It’s easier to run a business when the top line is growing. It’s harder when revenues are flat or declining.

If football is truly the cash cow … when is someone going to ask … what does Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Rutgers contribute? When are the Alabamas and tOSU’s going to say I’m better off without these schools than with them?
Don’t know about conference play but these superpower teams do need their cupcakes to beat up on. They can’t play Top 15 teams every week or they will not be making the playoffs every year imo. I used to have greatly dimished enthusiasm when Nebraska played cupcakes but since we’ve proven we can lose to anyone... that’s changed. lol Bottomline even good conferences need teams like NW, Rutgers, MD although those schools are improving. In other words having a conference with nothing but powerhouse programs would seldom produce 11-1 or 12-0 teams imo.
 
Don’t know about conference play but these superpower teams do need their cupcakes to beat up on. They can’t play Top 15 teams every week or they will not be making the playoffs every year imo. I used to have greatly dimished enthusiasm when Nebraska played cupcakes but since we’ve proven we can lose to anyone... that’s changed. lol Bottomline even good conferences need teams like NW, Rutgers, MD although those schools are improving. In other words having a conference with nothing but powerhouse programs would seldom produce 11-1 or 12-0 teams imo.
What if the super powers decided to limit themselves to 32 or 64 teams?
What if the networks said we want to see NU vs one of those 32/64 teams every week?
What if they created an NFL-like environment where the TV revenues are limited to a smaller group, creating serious have’s and have-nots?

I am not suggesting this is better but why should Boise State benefit from an easy G5-like schedule vs P5 schools beating up on each other?
 
Huskers just sold 80,000 tickets for a volleyball game. A growing sport. They are safe. Plus the fact that even though the big three sports are not doing well, Husker fans spend money like drunken sailors. Make it Red, put an N on it and we will shell out 35 bucks for it.
Volleyball collectively is a money losing sport. NU might make money on it but very few schools do.

Volleyball isn’t driving the bus .. football first by a large margin, then basketball and then a large Grand Cayon-esque gap between that sport and every other sport.
 
Yeah, that’s important for revenue generation! :rolleyes:
Only if the graduates are highly paid CEOs, and contribute generously back to their school's athletic department. :)

From reading some of your previous posts, I, too believe some major changes will be taking place in the next 5 to 10 years (no idea what those changes might be). I wouldn't be surprised if some of the top 64 teams become a farm league for the NFL where the highest rated players bypass college altogether and develop for the NFL straight out of high school. Then some of the players that figure they won't make it to the NFL anyway, will play for a college education, like it used to be in the old days.
 



I understand your points. All easy to comprehend in today’s environment. But everything changes so quickly. 5 years ago to comprehend NIL, transfer portal, magnitude of conference realignment, CFP expansion … the landscape has changed quickly and the next five years may have as much change as well.

All this has happened in an era of expanding TV. What happens if revenues decline? What happens when universities are faced with mounting debt, what happens if schools are forced to cut sports. It’s easier to run a business when the top line is growing. It’s harder when revenues are flat or declining.

If football is truly the cash cow … when is someone going to ask … what does Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Rutgers contribute? When are the Alabamas and tOSU’s going to say I’m better off without these schools than with them?
The problem with that logic (and I know you are going to say academics are making these decisions and not sports people) is that all sports are a zero sum game. You could load one conference with the 12 best programs in college football and it's "value" would be really high initially. Guess what would happen after a few years- at least a quarter of those programs would "stink". When all of these programs have to play each other in conference play, teams have to lose.

Snooty college football fan might sit back and say, "We are Ohio State! Why do we have to dole out the funds of our success to teams like Northwestern and Rutgers who are clearly inferior?" The response to that is that you'll always have to share a slice of the pie with an "inferior program". If you ever stop sharing the pie with "inferior programs", it means you've become the "inferior program".

You could argue- let's have our "irrelevant teams" be programs that bring more value with them. Instead of Northwestern, Vandy, Rutgers, give us Miami, Nebraska, and Florida State. At least then your inferior programs come with brand recognition and fan bases that will add value. But even with that, Nebraska is always going to be toward the high side of that metric.
 
Huskers just sold 80,000 tickets for a volleyball game. A growing sport.

Is college women's volleyball growing in popularity nationally?

Sure, it's been big in Lincoln for decades. Unsure about the growing popularity elsewhere.

Realistically, volleyball doesn't move the needle much in determining value to conference membership.

That said, no way would Nebraska get the boot from the Big Ten. Our all-sports ceiling is higher than any school other than Ohio State, Michigan, and maybe Penn State.

If you look at the current all-sports standings in the Big Ten, Rutgers is at the bottom. Yet, Rutgers was brought into the Big Ten because of their market -- not because the Big Ten expected Rutgers to become a national power in anything. No reason to dump Rutgers.

I personally think the article is laughable.

(Sorry, I went well beyond addressing volleyball lol.)
 



What if the super powers decided to limit themselves to 32 or 64 teams?
What if the networks said we want to see NU vs one of those 32/64 teams every week?
What if they created an NFL-like environment where the TV revenues are limited to a smaller group, creating serious have’s and have-nots?

I am not suggesting this is better but why should Boise State benefit from an easy G5-like schedule vs P5 schools beating up on each other?
At the moment there’s many “IF’s” and no one can really predict what direction college football will eventually go. We already have a pretty serious have’s and have not’s situiation imo. Looking at some of the huge loses piled up by many programs will that simply continue? Hopefully Nebraska will stay focused and on top of what they need to do and keep moving forward. One thing for certain imo and that’s our program needs to GREATLY improve in the win column. Our fans have really suffered over the last 20 with a few exceptions like Bo’s time. Just have to kick back and see how it all plays out over the next several years.
 
The TV guys will look at our low population but the other athletic drectors will want to keep us as an easy win. Especially as long as some of their older fans still think of us as respectable, for reasons fading from memory.

Of course all that is about to change. :Rockon:
 
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Someone has to lose. Thats real. Kick someone out. Bring someone in. New loser. Thats why i dont buy kicking out teams. Even losing teams serve a purpose. People like Mike Leach take them over and change football. If near-sighted wins they will lose viewership....jmo.
 



The fan base of the OG B1G holdovers certainly feel this way.

The inner workings of leadership … I agree might be different … but look at what happened during COVID. NU wants to play - kick ‘em out of the B1G; Iowa/tOSU want to play … ah OK let’s reevaluate. NU got kicked out of the AAU by some of the same leadership.
As I understand it, we never met the AAU requirements and that NU was only given membership for the purposes of adding NU to the B1G.
 
As I understand it, we never met the AAU requirements and that NU was only given membership for the purposes of adding NU to the B1G.
I don’t think thats right. There are others on here who know more about it than me. NU joined AAU in 1909 kicked out in 2011.


 


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