Sports

Big 5 conferences don’t want to play smaller FCS schools

HARTFORD, Conn. — The age of Darwinism is coming to college sports.

As the commissioners of the five power conferences have made clear this week their desire for serious change in NCAA rules regarding stipends for student-athletes and a more robust enforcement staff, the losers are going to be some programs outside of those leagues.

In fact, the very survival of some university’s athletic programs could be in grave jeopardy as the ‘haves’ further distance themselves from the ‘have-nots.’

“I don’t think it’s as much of an us versus them situation as maybe is the impression out there, in my opinion,’’ Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said yesterday.

“I’m also certainly aligned with what you heard from my colleagues this week with need for transformative change. But I think it can evolutionary, not revolutionary.’’

Scott said that we will see fewer college football games between FBS and FCS programs. Which means programs that depend on big pay days — or “buy” games — are going to have to find other income streams, or they could become extinct.

Savannah State, for exampled, opened last season with games at Oklahoma State and Florida State. The Tigers lost both games by an aggregate score of 139-0, but the athletic department received $860,000 for the two games, about 17 percent of its athletic budget.

Savannah State’s entire athletic budget was about $5.1 million, or $200,000 less than Texas coach Mack Brown’s salary of $5.3 million.

“The idea that’s there even playing field in terms of resources is a fanciful and quaint notion,’’ Scott said.

Because the playoff system which will be implemented next season will place great emphasis on strength of schedule, and with conferences playing more league games, ‘buy’ games, are much less attractive to FBS programs.

The Big Ten recently decided, as a matter of policy, its teams will not play FCS foes going forward. Better save the tape of that Appalachian State upset at Michigan.

“I’m not very sympathetic,’’ said Scott. “I just don’t think that the concept of the buy games is a healthy thing for college football or for fans. I think it’s been a quirk in the system that they’ve benefitted from and good for them. I certainly don’t feel any sense of entitlement or right they have.’’

There has been a great deal of speculation as to whether the five power conferences would break away from the NCAA or form a new subdivision under the NCAA umbrella.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby recently said he had not heard talk about a split and Scott echoed those beliefs yesterday. But there is no question the chances of witnessing the greatest upset in college football history are becoming more scant.

“I would tell you the loss of the Big Ten schools will be devastating, to UNI and to a lot of our peers,” Northern Iowa athletic director Troy Dannen told reporters in Iowa. “Not just because we wouldn’t play Iowa and have the guarantee, if you think this will stop at the Big Ten … I look at things happening in the equity leagues in fives, and so I have to believe this might lead to additional dominoes.”