VTownie

I wonder if this settlement breaks some athletic departments. Will teams stop competing at the highest levels based on money? Could the collapse of college sports be on the horizon? That might be what is needed

And more to gain than the rest of college sports. They should absolutely pay more.

Today there are myriad prohibitions in our lives. If the government changes course, are we all able to sue for lost wages? I legitimately don’t understand how former athletes, en masse are eligible for a settlement. It makes no sense. I am sure there are lawyers here. Can someone explain this to me, please.

The rate varies by university, but the average is 50%. The money is used for facilities, salaries, graduate tuition, etc., etc.. As a result, research universities are always looking for top talent. Specifically ones that bring in the most grant dollars. A lot of professors start at one level, get funding and move up to a bigger “program”. Per the 2022 NSF Research Expenditures list, Tech ranked 53. There are 71 AAU schools. We certainly have the budget. To join we need a 3/4ths vote for entry. It’s not a stretch to think Tech could earn an AAU designation.

There are numerous granting agencies. Some schools do get funding from private sources, but most are via government grants. This has been how science has operated since WWII. To the best of my knowledge the largest granting agency for science is the National Institutes of Health. By and large they fund biomedical research. That type of work is far more expensive, and gets more funding than other fields, such as agriculture and engineering. Virginia Tech does get a lot of grant money, but compared to schools with a hospital and large medical school they lag behind. Duke and UNC are two of the largest in the US and dwarf what VT brings in. I have never worked with any of the B1G schools but I have seen figures before for a few of them. To grow research revenue you need to bring in professors with large grant budgets and enhance facilities. It’s an “arms race” that all large schools are fighting. VT’s research standing is somewhat comparable to how we’ve embeem in football over the last 10 years. University research is not corrupt. There are a few cases of people falsifying data, but that ends a career and is they anre extremely small outliers. I can honestly only think of two cases in the south east of note in the last 25 years. Basic research at a university is not done the way it would be at a private business and so in some ways it may be less efficient BUT it also allows people to address questions that would not otherwise be answered. Additionally some of those questions lead to business ventures that are critical to a specific sector of our economy. Plus a lot of the work done at universities is used by business who cannot justify spending they money on projects but use the answers to fuel commercial development. That answer was somewhat rambling but if you have any follow up let me know.

What have historically been the top brands of the old Big12 and PAC12. Honestly giving those two conferences 3 guaranteed bids is really just ensuring that Oregon/Wash/USC and Texas/OU can still have a chance at access. I think the real big winner in the 3+3+2+2 is the BIG12. Over the last 20 years, if you had a 12 team playoff, Oklahoma would have taken 1 bid and in some seasons they could have had a second with OKSt/Baylor/TCU/TT/Texas. But they lose TX/OU and while they gain Utah, their run as a power program has been short and may not last. Meanwhile they don’t really have any other significant programs. Once again the ACC is the one that really gets the bad deal. Out of fear we add Cal, Stanford, and SMU which just waste money on travel costs and provides no real juice. The best thing the ACC could do is stop the current expansion move and instead contract. Honestly, how much excitement does Syracuse/Wake or Duke/BC generate. Or more importantly, how many viewers do those games generate?

I’m not sure how competitive we’d be, even after 4 or 5 years. I don’t want to live life as a South Carolina/Kentucky/Miss St. analog. Even with better games it might really stink. Alternatively there are a lot of boring programs in the B1G that I would have ZERO interest in playing. Honestly, I would be really happy with the ACC less Syracuse, BC, Duke, Wake, and not adding the western teams. That would leave us at 10 schools. Add in 5 ND games a year and you have a pretty good conference. Play a full round-robin schedule and name the champ on the field. It would be a compelling conference and the viewership numbers for games would be pretty good.

Unsure if that is accurate or not, but it seems like some rules could be massaged in this era of mega expansion.

This is a means to an end.

The schools need to take the power back from TV. They have product, and should sell that product on their terms instead of Fox/ESPN/NBC driving the bus. Take the top 60 teams in D1. Split into FIVE, 12-team tiers. Each tier plays a full round-robin schedule. Your 12th game is scheduled as you see fit. The schools as a collective sell their TV rights and your payout is based on the tier you play in. You could add bonuses for promotion, etc. play bowl games between tiers. It keeps far more schools interested.

table the top 60 programs in the country. Split them into FIVE, 12-team divisions. Division groupings are determined by a power index. For season one use the last 10 seasons win averages. The top 12 teams are in group A, 13 - 24 are in group B and so on, and so forth. Each division plays a round-Robbin schedule. You get one extra game to play whomever you want. The lowest two teams get relocated the the group below and the top 2 teams promoted. This would ONLY be done for football. All others sports simply schedule regionally. This way each tier or division is like vs like. Ohio State can’t get 8 or 9 free wins a year and the weaker teams get a chance to play similar competition. Revenue is split over all the tiers but there would be bonuses for wins, etc. We might start in tier 3 but we would have a chance to get to tier 1. It would make each season far more interesting.

I’m not a lawyer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night ** Edited by VTownie at 7/31/2023, 7:28:22 AM