A Good Read on the Impending Death of Mid-Major College Football

Its the curse of Boise State. Watching Boise come from nothing to be a solid mid major with national attention caught the eye of a lot of colleges around the country. Big paydays, lots of students, national acclaim!

Next thing you know you are sinking millions into a program that is barely competitive in the Sun Belt.

I have said this for years and predicted it was coming. This was why schools like UAB, USA, UTSA, Geo St need to just end it and drop football. Instead USA is about to build an on campus stadium that will be half full. It will be a drain of millions on a school already operating on a much smaller budget than previous years.

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The taxpayers of Mississippi footed $9 million for Southern Miss to have a Division I program last year. That's going to be what takes the mid majors down. I think we are somewhere in the 10 year range of a complete redistribution of the NCAA. Division II is in a crisis mode as well. Schools like Delta State and North Alabama are winning championships and still losing millions.

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Yea, it's just not sustainable. And I vehemently disagree that the Power 5 conferences have some sort of responsibility to keep these programs alive at the FBS level. The same people who get outraged at Alabama playing ULM and MTSU then get outraged when there is talk of making those programs sustain themselves on their own.

Every university is not entitled to have a Division 1 football program. It is not a constitutional right.

Why the hell does Bama need another 6 million to fund it's athletics? is the budget just that out of control? They win more than any other SEC team, they have more bandwagon fans than anyone in the country.

It is a damn shame that only LSU is able to run it's program right. This isn't even banner waving for LSU, this is more an embarassment from all the rest of the schools that take even a dollar. Kentucky doesn't even have an excuse because their basketball program is top 3 for profit in the country.

You can't tell me LSU somehow makes more money than every other school in the SEC.

I work at a Division III institution. Athletics are revenue neutral, primarily because they are non-scholarship.

Even at the Division III level, there are schools trying to make a push for more athletic merit. Mississippi College recently made the jump from Division III to Division II. They are losing their tail financially, and the on the field results have been horrific. They are 3-17 in football (all three wins are playing down NAIA/Division III).

Their women's basketball team played MSU in an exhibition. They got beat by 94. These colleges are moving up for prestige and to build a community amongst their students. When teams are this bad, it actually has the opposite effect.

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I work at a Division III institution. Athletics are revenue neutral, primarily because they are non-scholarship. Even at the Division III level, there are schools trying to make a push for more athletic merit. Mississippi College recently made the jump from Division III to Division II. They are losing their tail financially, and the on the field results have been horrific. They are 3-17 in football (all three wins are playing down NAIA/Division III). Their women's basketball team played MSU in an exhibition. They got beat by 94. These colleges are moving up for prestige and to build a community amongst their students. When teams are this bad, it actually has the opposite effect.

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Yep, I played ball at a D3 school my freshman year, and they started football for the same purpose.

I also audit quite a few schools athletic foundations/departments that fit squarely in this mid-major area, and they run their entire departments based on those payout games. It is really not going to work for much longer (and it isn't really even working now).

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The problem is that system that Boise succeeded under is gone. Due to the playoffs and consolidation after conference realignment the moat between the Power 5 and "Other" 5 is much larger than the old BCS/non-BCS situation.

Even Boise is screwed now.

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Yup. And I bet it will take a good long while for folks to realize they are either chasing fool's gold or committing to 30-40 year slog of slow and expensive improvements in the hope that a big conference cherry picks them at the end of the line.

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UAB is coming back in 2017 and has two former 5*s committed, soo....

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And if their alumni continue to support them and they sustain themselves then more power to them. Hope it works out. So far so good for them.

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I fought a D3 player once... he was a pussy.

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He was probably too busy swelling with pride for his love of the game and didn't want to diminish himself to your level.