The history of college football is way longer than that Bro.
In fact, if you go back far enough, Idaho and Montana were at one time members of the PAC’s predecessor.
They moved down, never to move up again.
Chicago dropped out of the B1G, and eventually became D3.
Western Reserve (now Case Western Reserve) was, at one time, a charter member of the MAC; dropped athletic scholarships in the mid-50s.
The Ivy League was once considered big time.
Big time college football has gotten SMALLER over time, NOT bigger.
And no, the AAC was never considered on par with the rest of the power conferences, even with Louisville. Not close.
IN MY LIFETIME of over 50 years…there hasn’t really been a net loss or net gain of big time programs. It has stayed nearly the same, with roughly the same number of teams ultimately moving up or down, as I illustrated.
And as I pointed out…at least three of the teams that moved down never to (so far) move up again, were located in large markets.
I can tell you that in my lifetime, which has been more than a half century, there has been no significant increase or decrease.
Thus…NO bloating.
Some teams have moved down, others up. Others down and up again. Others (like USF) up then down (up to BE, then down to AAC).
And it hasn’t been about markets. Some schools located in large markets like Temple, USF, and Rice, have been DEmoted. Others not located in a large city like BYU have moved up.
Not sure quite how to categorize Louisville, because they were arguably a big-time independent that joined a power conference, unlike BYU and UCF which moved up from leagues (WAC/MWC and AAC) that were definitely not considered power leagues; BYU did spend a little time as an independent, but I would not characterize that Indy stint as big-time. As I see it, once most of the top Eastern independents went to the BE, B1G, or ACC…only ND remained as a “big-time” independent.
Now…might the “big time” get smaller still?
Sure.
There could be a P2 breakaway. But if that happens, it won’t happen with 48 teams. There are simply NOT enough brands out there that would add value to the P2 to get to 48. No more than a handful. 40 max. Might even jettison some dilutive members if they can leave the NCAA altogether and breakaway with 35ish teams, just like every major PRO league has. I do NOT relish the thought of that, because I know that with our small brand size, we’d likely be a team left out.
I can’t stand smu. But please we all know that all programs cheated when it came to recruiting. That includes utamafia. The difference is that they got caught. utamafia cheated too but they got a slap on the wrist with interior ncaa help.
These probations like the one we got was designed to control the dallas/forth worth and greater Houston area.
Cam Newton allegidly was paid over $300k to play for Auburn. Auburn to this day still has that naty.
The stadium expansion thread is closed. I have a question for our fans that have attended games at different stadiums.
I looked at different stadiums seating area. I am trying to compare the distance between one row to the next. It appears that the spacing between seating benches in our TDECU is wider than some other stadiums.
Definitely trends bigger in newer buildings. For TDECU we looked at Minnesota, UNT, UCF, and Stanford / TCU renovations as comparisons. All were close to 3ft if I remember correctly. Some of the older 1920s B1G/SEC stadiums were barely meeting code.
A good place to look would be Irwin Seating’s website… They had numbers for us when they did Fertitta Center chair backs.