That's what I've argued every time someone claims the P5 are going to pull away to set up their own administering body. It would be incredibly stupid. Without fattening up on the G5, roughly 1/2 of the teams will have to finish .500 or below. More coaches will be fired and a few mediocre seasons will take the shine off of even the most historic program. After a few seasons like this one will Michigan still be able to sell 100,000 seats in the Big House? College students are already less sports focused than they were when I was in school. Even Alabama has had to use incentives to get students to attend and stay at football games. Destroying the powerhouse image of all but the top 4 or 5 programs will cost a lot of schools major $$$.
100% agree. And this season is providing an actual sample for alumni, coaches and ADs to witness. Although a non conf schedule is only 3 or 4 games, psychologically it makes a difference. Penn St would probably be 3-5 at this point. They are having a shocking season, but they aren't putrid, they still could beat most non P5 programs.
Plus, and this can't be measured, maybe a program like Penn St or say Michigan would have been able to better use their non conf schedule to figure out their QB situations and other player development/scheme development.
Getting fat on non conf schedules is meaningful to the P5 and its paying fanbases.
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