That's a big deal, especially considering that most schools will never get a chance to compete for a national championship. In fact, in the past I think winning the conference was the main focus of schools When it came to football. ** Edited by wwhokie1 at 1/12/2025, 9:36:42 PM

Most rivalries, the lifeblood of college football, were given life through conference affiliations. Conferences also make scheduling easier and more consistent. The problem with conferences is how media deals are negotiated and revenue is distributed. The fact that these deals are made by conference instead of individual members leads to the inequity of Vanderbilt and Rutgers making 2-3 times what FSU does. My proposal is for the NCAA, or its successor, make the media deals, as they did in the past. But now, distribute the money based on A) Viewership and B) Performance. Under my proposal, schools like Ohio St and Notee Dame would earn the most having had success on the field and high TV ratings. FSU would be in the middle of the pack, having had a horrendous season but still solid ratings. SMU would be on par with FSU with the opposite results of a good season that no one watched. Wake Fores would earn the least since they won few games and no one cared. When you dive into the numbers, schools like Clemson, whose current media rights are undervalued, would get a bump in revenue, by redistributing the revenue from overvalued schools like Northwestern and Mississippi St. Make this fundamental change and conference expansion would stop. FSU and Clemson's grievances would melt away. We could even see a return to logical, traditional conferences.

Remember the SCOTUS ruled in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 468 U.S. 85 (1984), that the NCAA's television plan violated antitrust laws. The ruling opened the door for conferences and individual schools to manage their own television plan. Now that the horse has left the barn, I don't see how the horse can be returned to its stall without Congress either passing a new law or amending the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to grant conferences/schools the same antitrust immunity that was given to the NFL. If the conferences/schools want Congress to act, then they better be prepared to give up something for the immunity. The NFL agreed to not play any regular season games on Fridays during the HS regular season and on Saturdays during the college regular season.

Get rid of championship games. Decide how many games will be played in the regular season. CFP auto bids to x amount of conference champions. But must play a round robin schedule to be recognized and have a minimum amount of teams. Limited amount of at-large bids. Form your conferences. Perhaps the CFP would look like 8 champions and 8 at large bids.

unless they figure out how to make the budgets relatively even, then we are stuck with what we have. Northern Illinois just went that rout, and maybe it starts with the G6, as they need the bus league for their non revs.

conference(s) will be the home for their other sports.

auto's in basketball, it won't be much different than the 1 bid MAC.

conference.

a football only addition. Not only that, but the 3 or 4 Million more they get would all go to travel expenses when you consider the non revs. By not taking the basketball and non revs, they elevate their football, and actually get a bump in revenue. Stay regional for your Olympics, and let the football go to the West Coast or wherever for that matter. With Northern Illinois, when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. In addition, they have a history with many of those teams in the MWC.

the reports I have seen have not given any indication whether it was an option for Northern Illinois or not. It is entirely possible that Northern Illinois had either option and preferred to go the football-only member route at this time.

to the final negotiations, so it is possible.

in the MAC as a non-football member, I would think full membership with the MWC would have come up at some point during the negotiations. Plus, it is likely there are some sports that Northern Illinois currently sponsors that the MWC doesn't sponsor at this time, so Northern Illinois would need to find a new home for them assuming they are currently not sponsored by the MAC. If any of those sports are currently not sponsored by the MAC and Northern Illinois is already a member of another conference in those sports, then it is possible Northern Illinois may want to explore the possibility of joining that conference for any or all of the non-football sports. ** Edited by VTHokie2000 at 1/12/2025, 11:14:57 AM

The MWC has a couple of basketball only additions, so the football only addition makes sense. Personally, I think this may be the future for the G6. UConn for instance, is looking for a conference, but the B12 is balking. I could see the AAC or PAC having offers on the table for football only, but there haven't been reports of such a deal. The MAC says they will no longer allow football only members, but I could see them revisiting that stance with a new contract coming up. Playing on Tuesday and Wednesday could be a deal breaker, unless they get more money for that "privilege". The MAC contract was inked in 2014, so they are long over due for a look in. I will find it interesting if those midweek games carry any mojo in the negotiations, as no school wants them - but they may have no choice.

for the other sports that the Horizon League currently sponsors? I do think Northern Illinois, G6, and mid-majors still operate with the mindset that they want to keep conference membership to the lowest number possible. As long as enough schools operate with that mindset, then I don't think you will see conferences be as open to sport specific membership as you may think. Particularly for the 2 revenue sports and assuming the school isn't competing in the other subdivision in football. For example, UC-Davis is joining the MWC in all sports except football for the time being because the school has opted to remain in DI-FCS and a football-only member in the Big Sky. If UC-Davis ever decides to switch to DI-FBS in football, then I think the school would be required to join the MWC.

a basketball only member in the MWC, so that could go wither way. Maybe the MWC invites another football only member. Toledo passed as the other football only member, but Toledo has a lot more history in the MAC, and wouldn't take a football only membership unless it was in a power conference (or real money), and as we could both agree on, that will never happen. If football is separated with the new realities of revenue sharing, then all bets are off. Toledo will do whatever it has to to stay in the FBS division.

"GCU is set to join an elite trio of non-football universities playing in FBS conferences, college athletics' upper echelon of notoriety and competitiveness. That list will include GCU, Wichita State (American Athletic Conference) and Gonzaga (Pac-12 Conference)." I think you will have difficulty finding an example where a school joined a conference just for basketball.

mean to imply it was basketball only. With all of the turmoil in the conference landscape, I would not be surprised if that is reshuffled as well, and the definition and rules of a conference are changed, especially if a new association is formed, and/or anti trust legislation is drafted.