P5 and the NCAA: These are the Days of Our Lives

[NavyApp]

I have to think the money would go way down if this separation would occur. Student sections wouldn't be the same. I certainly wouldn't donate to essentially a minor league team. College football student sections exist because of the "one of us" feeling; they go to class with these guys, see these guys around campus, and even if they never talk to any of them in their life, they still feel the connection to them because of that. The spirit of college football fandom would be nonexistent and it'd be like going to a Greensboro Grasshoppers game; sure, it's fun, but I don't view it as any different than going to another entertainment venue. College sports are special because of the connection, and if you lose that connection you are going to see support dwindle even though they have the college name brandished on their jersey.

I feel very much the same way you do on this matter. But I really believe the big time donors at the P5 schools could care less about student sections, or the spirit of college fandom. This machine would still generate huge money, especially from TV deals. You can't tell me that if T. Bone Pickens were still alive and the P5s split and he could put how ever much of his money into the athletic department he wouldn't because it would take away from the last shreds of amateurism in the sport. Yes the sport would lose fans like you and I but at the end of the day those big money boosters could care less about us and our donations(obviously I'm not referring to App because we don't have a bunch of multimillionaires donating money).