More or less there are four types of athletic programs:
1)Blue Blood winners - these are the schools that have big brand names and big attendance.
2) Useful Tomato Cans - schools that very conveniently lose very regularly to the Blue Blood Winners and strangely enough their fans still show up evey year to watch them lose.
3) Upper middle class - schools that can be very good and win and knock off the blue bloods semi regularly but if they lose their fans have better things to do than sit in a stadium for four hours.
4) Never can and never will - no attendance, no prospects, no championships, no hope. Think Rice and San Jose State.
The P5’s are 1&2. The American is 3 with a couple of 4s. Yes on the field/court the 3’s are better than the 2’s. But the whole point of the 2’s is to pad the1’s record so when 1’s square off, they have stellar records (to drive more TV viewership).
If you are a Titan you will get into a P5. If you lose and your fans show you have value and you are in a P5. If you are good but you need to be good for your fans to show up, you are in the American.
The good teams in the American are good, the Champion is/will be excellent but that doesn’t mean it has a tremendous amount of value.
Why do you keep comparing us with teetech, baylor or even vanderbilt? They are in a P5. We are not. This is why we have to try everything in our power to get into a P5. The gap is only going to get wider. That is a given. We get more money? Future Coaches are going to want more money. We do not get into a P5? We have to litigate, In the long we won’t be able to afford a D1 football program. We have no choice. The reality of the P5’s existence should be litigated. You either have D1 or you don’t. The P5’s existence clearly states that D1 does not exist anymore. Think about the following. How many P5’s Schools are in the black & how many depends of subventions? How many P5 Schools can sustain themselves? How many of the same Schools get Federal funds?
President Trump signed an executive order on Schools free speech. Could we see an executive order for all D1 football/sport programs/conferences be given a P status? Sure it is extremely far fetched but why does the D1 definition exist today? Title IX was brought by litigation. Why would/should it be any different?
That’s not how it works though. You are stuck with the group you come with. It’s the average value plus we refused to agree to an exit buyout but the Big12 has one in place. They also got the bonus for not adding two more schools to the conference. OU is certainly worth more than Texas Tech, Baylor and Kansas State like we are worth more than Tulsa, ECU and Tulane.