SMU raking it in - Recruiting

Don’t worry man. Recruiting? We’re working on it as we speak.

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May be a hot take but I would not be surprised if we are forced to drop down to FCS in 10 years. With the amount of money we are losing just to to keep the football program alive, combined with the fact that you will now have to pay players just to keep up with the top of G5 I just don’t see a scenario were we can afford that.

We don’t have the mega donors that SMU has, we don’t have the track record of recent success that UCF has, we don’t have the mega company that Memphis has, and we definitely don’t have the fan support that Cincinnati has.

People have quietly mentioned but schools like Tulane and Tulsa will definitely be FCS in 10 years as they just wont be able to compete in this new landscape of college ball. And unfortunately we have made too many missteps over the years to be in position where we can attract the type or even much less afford the type of players we will need to keep up.

Ultimately at some point the university is going to say that the costs outweigh the benefits and will simply decide to cut losses I think. Of course if we start having success this season I think all that changes for the better. But my fear is if Dana fails we will never be relevant again no matter what we try to do. We will simply become the UCONN of the south.

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Jesus Christ I swear the takes I see on this board are something else

Relax

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Hey I hope I’m completely wrong and it’s an idiot take. But I’m just seeing and hearing alot of things that make me very uncomfortable with the direction our program is heading.

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No

Everyone here feels entitled just because we’re from the city of Houston

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If anything the fans here should understand being more mediocre than great. Pretty much all Houston sports in general have been mediocre far more than they have been great.

I hope we are working on recruiting because it looks a little bleek right now.

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That’s…“hot take” is being more than a little generous. You’re obviously trolling.

Given the current economics of college athletics, dropping Football entirely is more likely than dropping to FCS, and that’s not particularly likely. The math just isn’t there when it comes to dropping to FCS. It’s a drastic cut in income from every single source, and most of our biggest costs would remain the same. There’s a reason that SFA and Sam, schools with attendance that’s half of ours in the closest years, are trying to go FBS. Competing at the FCS level is an absolute dead end.

I do think that it’s pretty obvious that our current expenditure isn’t sustainable; we’re gambling that our investments in the athletic department will pay off, either in the form of a P5 invite or a larger TV contract for the AAC, and there’s no guarantee that the bet will pay off. But even if it doesn’t, the Football team isn’t going anywhere without a seismic shift in the structure of college athletics – it would take something like a complete P5 separation from the NCAA for the Football team to get dropped, and as much as they hem and haw about it, that doesn’t seem to be in their interest. Some non-revenue sports could potentially be at risk, but that’s about it.

FWIW, Tulsa and especially Tulane aren’t dropping down either, largely for the same reasons.

You lost all credibility when you just dismissed my argument as trolling… I haven’t missed a home football game in 26 years. Maybes instead of dismissing something you don’t agree with as trolling you should actually come at it from a reasonable angle.

But if you think paying players isn’t a seismic shift in football you’re kidding yourself. There is no way Tulane or Tulsa remain competitive in this new age of football and the money they will save by dropping to FCS will be far too attractive to them.

I mean sure schools WERE competing to come to FBS but now in the age of paying players. I think we will start to see alot of schools dropping down to FCS very soon. Hell the Idaho Vandals did it and that was before having to pay players. Uconn is even talking about it, and they WERE a powers school at one point.

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Idaho Vandals and UH will never be FCS.

Idaho vandals are already in FCS… are joking?

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Idaho dropped down to FCS a few years ago. There is no team called The Iowa Vandals.

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Lmao dammit you’re right whoops! I was typing too fast.

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I’ve been around the internet to know a troll when I see one.

Conference realignment left Idaho without an FBS home, and UConn joined a conference that didn’t sponsor Football. Neither one is just dropping to FCS apropos of nothing. As of right now, in fact, UConn isn’t dropping to FCS at all, and dropping Football is just as much of a possibility for them. With or without payments to players, there’s no way to make sense of it as long as the conference they’re in keeps sponsoring Football; it’d be a much more drastic cut to revenue than it would be to expenditure, akin to quitting your job because taxes went up. It’s worth noting that the financials are substantially different for Idaho and UConn – Idaho didn’t have an FBS conference available to them after the WAC dropped Football, and UConn’s best option was a conference that didn’t sponsor it.

The only school that’s voluntarily left FBS football despite being in an FBS conference is UAB, and they dropped Football entirely.

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Ok well I’m not a troll, so you can just drop that argument. It just makes you look foolish and it’s a childish retort.

But let’s get to the simple, I’m too lazy to look up the numbers, but let’s just say hypothetically by 2031 we are losing $50 million a year, only producing 4 win seasons, and can’t attract a single star player because we can’t afford to pay them. What do you think the school does? Do you agree that it would be insane not to start looking at cutting the costs of football?

I do agree that dropping football entirely for UConn is a possibility but I suspect they would like to try FCS before making that decision. I don’t think UCONN continues as an independent however. Not playing football due to covid was devastating to UCONN and could very well be the start of the end for them.

I mean I guess I could see a scenario where we accept our irrelevancy and stay in FBS for the reasons you have stated. But essentially we start competing in FBS at the bottom of the barrel level just hoping to get one or two big wins every few years.

When did we, or when will we (D 1 College Football) begin to “pay” players ? ? ? ? ? As I understand it, schools are still not allowed to legally pay players . . . . .

we are aware we are currently outspending every g5 by a large margin… our coach salary are larrger than many p5…
we are located in the city of houston a mega hotspot for NIL
the playoff will increase our ncaa payout and increase our tv value (especailly the aac)…

there is a real threat for certain schools to fall to the fcs, houston is not one of them

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Trust me it’s coming.

You’re not wrong, but the problem right now is we are spending alot of money for little return and that simply isn’t sustainable. I think being in Houston is both a blessing and a curse. The curse being is we will have a ton of SEC schools and Big 12 schools taking NIL from us. And unless we start getting competitive relatively quickly it will be hard to ever take advantage of the NIL advantages the city of Houston offers.

The AAC is locked in for 12 years (11 left after August) and I doubt ESPN is going to pay more money “because”. There is a reason ESPN locked that down for 12 years.