COMMENTARY: OPTIONS FOR G5 GOING FORWARD

Cincy celebrates TD

In the recent article from USA Today entitled, "Uncertain future for non Power 5 football in scheduling", reporter Dan Wolken, spells out the issues confronting the G5 in scheduling P5 competition in the future. THe upcoming playoff system is starting to reshape college football as dramatically as cost of attendance issues are. It is interesting to note in that in the article,  Wolken primarily interviewed schools from the AAC. Wolken seems to believe that if the AAC is having issues in scheduling, then so must the  G5 schools that are currently in conferences that rank below the AAC.

In truth, however, not every G5 school is having issues finding P5 schools to play. For example Sun Belt's Troy, just announced a home and home series with NC State and Georgia Southern recently announced  a game with Ole Miss for the 2016 season. There is little doubt however,that G5 AD's are going to have to work smarter in order to convince P5 schools to play them. Mike Aresco, the American Conference Commissioner, noted in the article  that ESPN will help the AAC find P5 teams to play, and that P5 school will eventually want to play AAC teams  because of SOS issues. It is to early to tell if these hopes from Aresco ever materialize.

Looking at this issue deeper, it does appear that it just got harder for  G5 school's to line up P5 competition going forward. G5 schools will need to bolster their SOS resumes in order to qualify for the Access Bowl or even in the slim chance a G5 ever qualifies for the playoff spot coming to College Football.  It will be hard to do this without at least one P5 team on the schedule.

There seems to be  little doubt that no only are the P5 in the midst of a power consolidation  the likes of which College sports have never seen, but that they also have  no interest in the health or sustainability of the G5 conferences in any shape or form . College Football has unfortunately,  become a fight to the death, and it is not at all certain that every conference in the G5 or at the very least every G5 school is going to survive this new football landscape.

We may not know the real damage to the G5 from both the new scheduling  issues as well as cost of attendance platform , until years down the road. The first real test of the new landscape in College Football, however,  will most likely occur when G5 conferences begin to renew their tv contracts. Conf USA, which must renew its tv partners in 2016, will be the real first test of what the market is willing to pay for G5 schools and conferences in this new landscape. (In the coming weeks G5 News and Issues will be examine  the issues surrounding the new tv contract that Conf USA must sign)

What is clear however, is that G5 conferences need to make sure that their leadership is willing to go the extra mile to survive in this brave new world. The status quo, is no longer an option. The message from the NCAA to the G5 seems to be that you are on your own. Sink or swim, but sink or swim without any help from us.