The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
JEFF JACOBS
UConn fans should be screaming about Power Five football monopoly
This was halftime of the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Jan. 1. Mike Aresco was walking through a concourse inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium when he bumped into Randy Edsall.
The American Athletic Conference commissioner and the UConn football coach wished each other a happy New Year. More than that, with Central Florida about to beat Auburn of the all-powerful SEC, they wished each other a new day.
“I sat there watching that game and thought, this is no fluke,” Edsall said. “UCF put it to Auburn on a neutral field. UCF beat the team that beat the two teams playing for the national championship. And UCF, the only undefeated team in the country, doesn’t have the right to be in the playoff ?
“That’s not right at all. Things have to change.”
Georgia and Alabama, the SEC teams that lost to Auburn, will meet for the College Football Playoff national championship Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. UCF, meanwhile, is holding a parade at Disney World on Sunday to celebrate what it believes is its rightful claim to a national title. Is this fantasy at a Magic Kingdom where fantasy is the order of the day? At the very least, in a sport where arguments over the No. 1 team have raged periodically for a century, it is a great marketing ploy.
For the American conference, for UConn and for a state worried that athletics at its flagship university are in peril, UCF’s parade also stands as an act of defiance that shouts for a new day. A day when the Power Five conferences, which- control major college football essentially as an unchallenged monopoly, release some of its grip on billions of dollars that allow 65 schools to finance their designs on athletic grandeur while others like UConn wobble under financial duress.
This is about survival. If UConn is unable to tap into the multi-billion-dollar college football industry, not only is its football program in jeopardy, so, too, is the dominance of its basketball program and there will be calls by many alumni and fans to drop football and return to the Big East. Oh, wait. That’s already happening.
So, if for one day Mickey Mouse plays a role in that defiance, hey, bring along Minnie, Donald Duck and Goofy. For nothing is goofier than members of the Power Five cartel defend-
ing its four-team playoff system as the be-all, endall. These are the same bosses or descendants of the same bosses who defended an archaic yet lucrative bowl scheme with no playoff for decades.
“This has more to do with the complexities of the bowl system versus necessarily what’s best for college football,” UConn athletic director David Benedict said. “It’s also hard for me to look at the four teams that got in and say they got that part wrong.
“I do think there is a great opportunity here. There is a significant amount of interest in the playoffs and with the money it generates, there’s an opportunity to include more teams. I think it would be compelling. UCF this year deserved a shot and it is unfortunate they didn’t get it.”
Benedict subscribes to the long view. He believes public opinion and the seeds of dissatisfaction within the Power Five eventually will lead to more teams in the playoffs.
“I think it’s inevitable,” he said. “Certainly it would be great for us to have a team in there, to get a larger share of the pot. But I’m also thinking about pressures beyond Mike Aresco.
“Pac-12 and Big 12 teams haven’t made the playoff in two of its four years. It’s not going to sit well with Ohio State, missing the playoffs. And with only four teams, Notre Dame may never get in without a perfect season.”
Maybe power eating away at power will lead to an eight-team playoff format and inclusion of an automatic bid outside the Power Five. Just don’t expect it to happen without a huge fight.
Why? Forbes figured out the Big Ten got $89 million from bowls associated with the CFP this season. The ACC got $87.5 million, the SEC $70 million. The American got $4 million from the Peach Bowl. The so-called Group of Five conferences outside the Power Five also share a collective pool of $81 million. So if our math is right, an American school got about $1.5 million while a Big Ten school got about $8 million.
That only scratches the surfaces. Media deals fuel the entire industry. The Big Ten has a deal worth $2.64 billion dollars. The Power Five schools get $30 million-$40 million a year. American teams get around $3.5 million. Keep the American out of the CFP, keep the American away from the big TV money. That’s alarming, given there are no signs of conference expansion on the horizon and seemingly no imminent opportunity for UConn to join a Power Five conference.
Even Dan Rather tweeted big-school prejudice locked UCF out of the playoffs.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby defended UCF’s exclusion from the playoffs. He said getting up to play Auburn once is not the same as playing Auburn every week. Despite applications from a reported seven American schools — including UConn — the Big 12 refused to add anyone for expansion. Yet when it comes to the playoff he argues UCF didn’t play the schedule a Power Five school does. Edsall called Bowlsby’s words disheartening. I’d call them disingenuous.
“If TCU and UCF played 10 times, I defy anybody to convince me that UCF would win the majority of the games,” Bowlsby said.
“Odd he chose TCU as an example,” Benedict said. “UCF is what TCU was six years ago [outside the Power Five]. TCU got the opportunity and look what happened. He made a great case for UCF.”
Edsall, a fiery critic of the current playoff format, makes a good point. With schedules made five, six years in advance, a nonPower 5 school can’t adjust and add tougher opponents for the following year.
Edsall argues the six conference champions including the American, which he says has proven its merit, should have an automatic bid and there be two wildcard teams.
“If you win the conference championship like Penn State did last year and don’t get a sniff at the playoff, then the conference championships don’t mean anything,” Edsall said. “Why even have them?
“The other thing is if you’re going to have a playoff system, everyone has the right to be in it. If you’re basically going to deny student-athletes a chance at a national title, create an entire separate division and allow them to play for a national title like 1-AA, D2 and D3.”
A few months ago, Edsall went so far as to say get rid of all the bowls and stop entitling 6-6 teams. The other day, he said, “The problem is all the money involved with the bowl system. Basically the way it’s set up, [teams outside the Power Five] don’t have a chance. Scott Frost said it right. Every week they made sure they weren’t going to move UCF up. In my opinion, they didn’t want UCF in the playoff.”
UCF stunned Baylor in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl. Houston upset Florida State in the 2015 Peach Bowl.
“There have been seminal victories,” said Aresco, who favors a move to a Power Six conference alignment over expansion to an eight-team playoff structure. “But in terms of perception, this is our biggest one. The best teams in our conference can play with anyone — period. That elevates the stature of our conference — period. The narrative has changed completely. All of a sudden UCF is firmly in the middle of the national conversation.”
It cannot be a polite conversation. Now is the time to scream about breaking the Power Five’s monopoly. And nobody should be screaming any louder than UConn alumni and fans.