(05-13-2013 03:16 AM)allthatyoucantleavebehind Wrote: I'd guess that SMU fans will root for SMU football in its new league...one where an actual championship might be possible.
They'll also be casually interested in what's happening in the p5 football league...maybe to root against big=bad-Texas or maybe to root for them or for Nebraska or for LSU or whomever.
To claim some blatant "boycott" of p5 football isn't realistic. Maybe a few die-hards will take that line. But not the majority. I'm a casual NFL fan...I prefer the college game...but I don't boycott the NFL. It's just not my top choice. Group of 5 teams will prefer their new league...but won't fully boycott the Power 5.
They don't have to. What we are saying is 65 tema fanbases as a whole are being eliminated. Most of these people will be angry to an extent.
1). Some will simply walk away from the college game (including their own team).
2). Some will continue to support thier own team, but lose interest in the P5 since it has no relevance to thier team. Some will still watch P5 football--just much less often.
3). Some will have unchanged viewing habits.
4). The most damaging one will be the one that actively campaign against the advertisers of P5 games. They will write the advertisers, explain thier positions, and indicate they will no longer purchase the products of any company advertising P5 football. Advertisers purchase tv time to marginally increase sales--the last thing they want is to purchase time and actually degrade thier sales. Corporate America has plenty of advertising options--they don't have to advertise in a place that might hurt sales. If this option becomes an ORGANIZED movement rather than a just a random smattering of grass roots individuals, then the P5 breakaway could be significantly harmed to the point where it's not profitable to break away.
Not only that, such an organized movement would quickly gain significant public support and in turn, legislative support. Remeber, as popular as college fotball is, the majority of the country doesnt care. Women, casual fans, and fans of smaller teams will all be tend to be supprtive of the schools being demosted. Since fair play always plays well with the American public, the P5 probably don't want congress involved. The P5 already has the playing field slanted hugely in thier current direction, legislation can only hurt the P5 current position.
The truth is, I just don't see tv allowing a straight split. You literally would have entire states that have no FBS representation. You have nearly half the fanbases in FBS football eliminated. The Saban idea is too extreme and too drastic for tv to buy into it. On the other hand, Cutting FBS to 80-100 teams gets back to the historical size of the top level of college football and leaves room for most of the best known mid major brands, allows inclusion of the service acadamies, preserves coverage for every state in country, includes most every large mid-major that can make a good argument for inclusion, and minimizes the potential degradation of the potential viewing audience (since only the 25 smallest fan bases would be eliminated).