At his first press conference in Delaware, Rocco said that one of the reasons he decided to leave Richmond was because he thought Delaware was more capable of adapting to a changing college football landscape.
I do not know whether Richmond or Delaware is more capable of adapting to a changing football landscape, but I do think the landscape will be changing for two reasons. First of all, in today's world only the Power Five schools (ACC, Big Ten, SEC, PAC-12, Big 12) start the season with a chance of competing for the FBS national football championship. The chance of Power Five schools to compete for this championship will only increase as the FBS expands its playoffs.
However, unlike the Power Five schools, those FBS schools in the "Group of Five" (American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid American, Mountain West, Sun Belt) start the season with no realistic chance of competing for a national football championship. Those schools also lose a substantial amount of money. The 2015 median net loss of football programs in 58 BCS schools (mostly the Group of Five) was $5 million while the median net income of the other 70 BCS schools (mostly Power Five) was over $17 million. (From the NCAA Revenue and Expense Report.)
Why should a school in the Group of Five start the season with no chance of competing for a national championship and the odds of losing a lot of money? (The median net loss went from $1.8 in 2004 to $5 million in 2015.)
The FCS playoffs, on the other hand, seem to be gaining momentum and TV coverage. While most FCS schools also lose money it is less. In 2015, two schools had a medium net income of $952 thousand and 122 had a median net loss of $2.4 million).
In my opinion the Group of Five is going to do something. Maybe something like getting the NCAA to lower its scholarship requirements to 70 and dropping the requirement of having to average 15,000 ticket sales per game. This then might allow the Group of Five to cherry pick the best of the the FCS teams and form its own playoff, relegating the FCS to a third tier status.
On the other hand, the FCS may be strong enough to stop a move like this in which case I think the Group of Five schools will start leaving the FBS and joining the FCS.
In any event, I do think the landscape is going to change, and I hope our administration is as prepared to act as it was when it brought in Coach Huesman.
I do not know whether Richmond or Delaware is more capable of adapting to a changing football landscape, but I do think the landscape will be changing for two reasons. First of all, in today's world only the Power Five schools (ACC, Big Ten, SEC, PAC-12, Big 12) start the season with a chance of competing for the FBS national football championship. The chance of Power Five schools to compete for this championship will only increase as the FBS expands its playoffs.
However, unlike the Power Five schools, those FBS schools in the "Group of Five" (American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid American, Mountain West, Sun Belt) start the season with no realistic chance of competing for a national football championship. Those schools also lose a substantial amount of money. The 2015 median net loss of football programs in 58 BCS schools (mostly the Group of Five) was $5 million while the median net income of the other 70 BCS schools (mostly Power Five) was over $17 million. (From the NCAA Revenue and Expense Report.)
Why should a school in the Group of Five start the season with no chance of competing for a national championship and the odds of losing a lot of money? (The median net loss went from $1.8 in 2004 to $5 million in 2015.)
The FCS playoffs, on the other hand, seem to be gaining momentum and TV coverage. While most FCS schools also lose money it is less. In 2015, two schools had a medium net income of $952 thousand and 122 had a median net loss of $2.4 million).
In my opinion the Group of Five is going to do something. Maybe something like getting the NCAA to lower its scholarship requirements to 70 and dropping the requirement of having to average 15,000 ticket sales per game. This then might allow the Group of Five to cherry pick the best of the the FCS teams and form its own playoff, relegating the FCS to a third tier status.
On the other hand, the FCS may be strong enough to stop a move like this in which case I think the Group of Five schools will start leaving the FBS and joining the FCS.
In any event, I do think the landscape is going to change, and I hope our administration is as prepared to act as it was when it brought in Coach Huesman.
