P12 - MWC

[LawPoke]

We are all fighting the wrong war - PAC, MoWest, AAC - all of us. We are tearing each other, tradition, and history apart over crumbs with the mistaken thought that someday, some way, somehow, we will find relevancy nationally. We won't. We are all also rans and never-will-be-agains. The die is cast - the SEC and BIG have consolidated the real power and money and are about to bolt for their own future WITHOUT ANY OF US. In fact, they may even drop teams that are not additive (Vandy, Northwestern). They will add some of the upper tier ACC and Big 12 teams and then split. What will be left is a heap of nobodies that tried to play a rigged game and bankrupted themselves, their cultures, and their institutional integrity to reach for the brass ring that was never within our grasps. No, the real war is for leadership and relevance in the world that exists after the dust settles from the formal departure of the big boys - to organize all the nobodies into a new brand that represents the best of what college athletics were and build a moat around ourselves with federal legislation empowering the organizing body to limit transfers (especially transfers to the SEC/BIG schools) and put a bridle on NIL with some form of antitrust exemption. In that world, we may not get the best kids out of the gate, but we would at least have a fighting chance to salvage something resembling that has been pretty cool for over 120 years with rivalries, tradition, and quasi-amateurism that the market just might pay for, if for no other reason than nostalgia after the semi-pro thing that the BIG and SEC are birthing hits the streets.

 

[TheRealUW]

We are all fighting the wrong war - PAC, MoWest, AAC - all of us. We are tearing each other, tradition, and history apart over crumbs with the mistaken thought that someday, some way, somehow, we will find relevancy nationally. We won't. We are all also rans and never-will-be-agains. The die is cast - the SEC and BIG have consolidated the real power and money and are about to bolt for their own future WITHOUT ANY OF US. In fact, they may even drop teams that are not additive (Vandy, Northwestern). They will add some of the upper tier ACC and Big 12 teams and then split. What will be left is a heap of nobodies that tried to play a rigged game and bankrupted themselves, their cultures, and their institutional integrity to reach for the brass ring that was never within our grasps. No, the real war is for leadership and relevance in the world that exists after the dust settles from the formal departure of the big boys - to organize all the nobodies into a new brand that represents the best of what college athletics were and build a moat around ourselves with federal legislation empowering the organizing body to limit transfers (especially transfers to the SEC/BIG schools) and put a bridle on NIL with some form of antitrust exemption. In that world, we may not get the best kids out of the gate, but we would at least have a fighting chance to salvage something resembling that has been pretty cool for over 120 years with rivalries, tradition, and quasi-amateurism that the market just might pay for, if for no other reason than nostalgia after the semi-pro thing that the BIG and SEC are birthing hits the streets.

This is very well put.

UW should be laser focused on positioning themselves well for the "post-split" world of college athletics and forget everything else.

It's sad to watch all these schools, who are ultimately going to end up in the same boat, claw each other to death for the mere opportunity to get a scrap from the "big boys". I don't know if any of these smaller schools realize their fate and are just too scared to be the first to admit it or if they truly believe they are going to end up in the promised land. Either way, it's a sad state of affairs.

 

[Cowboy20]

We are all fighting the wrong war - PAC, MoWest, AAC - all of us. We are tearing each other, tradition, and history apart over crumbs with the mistaken thought that someday, some way, somehow, we will find relevancy nationally. We won't. We are all also rans and never-will-be-agains. The die is cast - the SEC and BIG have consolidated the real power and money and are about to bolt for their own future WITHOUT ANY OF US. In fact, they may even drop teams that are not additive (Vandy, Northwestern). They will add some of the upper tier ACC and Big 12 teams and then split. What will be left is a heap of nobodies that tried to play a rigged game and bankrupted themselves, their cultures, and their institutional integrity to reach for the brass ring that was never within our grasps. No, the real war is for leadership and relevance in the world that exists after the dust settles from the formal departure of the big boys - to organize all the nobodies into a new brand that represents the best of what college athletics were and build a moat around ourselves with federal legislation empowering the organizing body to limit transfers (especially transfers to the SEC/BIG schools) and put a bridle on NIL with some form of antitrust exemption. In that world, we may not get the best kids out of the gate, but we would at least have a fighting chance to salvage something resembling that has been pretty cool for over 120 years with rivalries, tradition, and quasi-amateurism that the market just might pay for, if for no other reason than nostalgia after the semi-pro thing that the BIG and SEC are birthing hits the streets.

Exactly right. The teams leaving for greener pastures in the pac will indeed bankrupt themselves as some of the teams fighting for relevance in current power conferences are experiencing now. If there is a split in the future, I’ll be curious to see how fan bases respond. A semipro league will not be the same as traditional college football. IMHO, it will fail eventually. Maybe then some regional conferences will return, let the big boys figure out what semipro is like, and go from there. I personally think that CBS will continue to carry the MWC, probably the same conditions as it has been, and we’ll stay afloat. It’s sad how money and greed has taken over one of the coolest things on fall Saturdays. To think that if the NCAA would have just let players make their own money YEARS ago, this could have been avoided. How nobody could have seen this coming is beyond me. Had to be the shortsightedness of making money for themselves instead of looking out for the entity as a whole.

 

[TheRealUW]

Exactly right. The teams leaving for greener pastures in the pac will indeed bankrupt themselves as some of the teams fighting for relevance in current power conferences are experiencing now. If there is a split in the future, I’ll be curious to see how fan bases respond. A semipro league will not be the same as traditional college football. IMHO, it will fail eventually. Maybe then some regional conferences will return, let the big boys figure out what semipro is like, and go from there. I personally think that CBS will continue to carry the MWC, probably the same conditions as it has been, and we’ll stay afloat. It’s sad how money and greed has taken over one of the coolest things on fall Saturdays. To think that if the NCAA would have just let players make their own money YEARS ago, this could have been avoided. How nobody could have seen this coming is beyond me. Had to be the shortsightedness of making money for themselves instead of looking out for the entity as a whole.

I think part of the issue is that no school wants to be the first to "give up". There are fans in every fanbase that will kick and scream bloody murder if their school admits they can't compete at the highest level anymore because of the shift in college sports with NIL and revenue sharing. They will accuse the school of "quitting".

In my opinion, these smaller schools are just wasting resources that they could instead be using to better position themselves for the inevitable split that is coming whether they like it or not. I do think more and more fans are starting to see the reality of what this new NIL era means for their school and are starting to come to terms with the fact that they can't have success at the highest level of college sports anymore. I understand it's a hard pill to swallow...but it is the reality a lot of schools are facing. The sooner they face that reality, the better.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

The other thing to keep in mind is the ad budgets of those leaving is around 68 mill average for 3 of them. Yeah, they'll get more tv money bur relative to our 54-55 mill budget, I don't think them gaining a little more will matter in the overall picture. We were pretty close to usu and fresno, so they'll probably surpass us by 3 mill +/-. Not the end of the world.

Honestly, even with a reduced budget, I like WYO's chances of building sustained success in the new MWC vs going to the pac or with a merged pac. Once the split does happen, we'll be as well positioned for postseason in the MWC as we would be in any other conference.

What has happened to college football is a tragedy. What has happened to the MWC isn't that terrible. Outside of the csu in-conference rivalry, I really don't care that we're not playing bsu, suds, usu, or fresno. Might be fortuitous that we didn't end up in that egocentric mess when the split does happen.