Who said divest away from football? Not me
You're the guy saying the sky is falling and we'll be nothing more than UNI. Even though we'll be playing with mostly the same players, have access to great coaches, have historical fan support of 60k people at Jack Trice and playing teams like: K-State, Okie State, Arizona, Colorado, TCU, Louisville, etc.
I'm not pushing ISU drops out of competing at the CFP level, but we may not have a choice depending on where college football is headed. Do you know with 100 percent certainty? I don't.
I see basically three
general paths forward:
- Cruz & Cantwell get their legislation passed and Big10/SEC agree to negotiate a single CFB media rights deal. Hopefully, that means a financial windfall for schools like Iowa State.
- Status quo. The P4 remains and each conference negotiates their own TV deal. We continue to see a wide disparity of what schools pay from among their combined House Settle Fund and in-house NIL funds. That means schools like Iowa State are paying it's football players around $13-15M annually and some teams in the Big10/SEC are paying it's football players north of $50M annually. Basically the MLB salary structure where Iowa State will be the Twins, Royals, Rays, Athletics, etc. And schools like Ohio State, Texas Michigan, A&M will be the Yankees/Dodgers.
- Big10/SEC breakaway. When Big10/SEC media rights come up for renewal (or it makes sense for their media partners) those 2 conferences continue to add attractive schools from Big12 & ACC. This would probably mean the Big12/ACC combine at some point and would likely have a negative impact on the Big12/ACC media rights deal. But it won't be a total implosion because we're talking schools like Iowa State, K-State, BYU, Va Tech, Louisville, Syracuse, etc.
If Pollard, Cook and other Big12/ACC leadership aren't considering what the last scenario entails, they wouldn't be doing their job. Heck, it's Jamie who said maybe the Big12/ACC should walk. I'd like to hope at worst, the status quo continues. And money isn't everything and Iowa State can be like the Tampa Rays with a low payroll and solid results on the field.
But the question would be: if ISU made the CFP, would we be competitive. Because I have concerns what happened to our roster last fall, will happen to a lesser degree every off-season because ISU has $15M to spend on players and there will be 20+ schools willing to spend $50M+. As Rogers develops players like: McDonald, Purdy, Kolar, Jontez Williams, Noel, Braymer, etc., at rthe first sign of their elite talent, they will jump ship for the big money.
