That is simply not true. The P5 only exists in football and it begins this upcoming year (i.e. you cannot draw conclusions from historical data, because there is no historical data.). The G5 are Division 1 as well. If you want to make a distinction between pressures on athletes at the FBS and FCS levels, you may have a valid point. If you want to make a distinction between Division 1 and Division 2, you may have a valid point, but to say that student-athletes at all schools in P5 have more pressure than all other student athletes is simply untrue.
Untrue? LOL
Just like everything else on the Boneyard, we have a bunch of people with little or no experience in the matter telling others what is true and untrue. OK, have it your way: athletes at the P5 conferences do not have any additional burdens placed upon them than those at the smaller conferences.
UConn, and several other schools, are currently not technically P5 (for now), but they certainly are considered P5 as it relates to this issue by virtue of how their AD's are setup. And whether or not you call it "P5", "Majors" vs. "Mid-Majors", or "Haves" vs "Have-nots", the issue is the same. Those programs competing at the highest level do face increased expectations, press coverage, practice/training expectations, offseason programs/workouts, etc. P5 is simply this month's broad definition of the "Have's" for football, and it's going to change.
Hell, my son is already facing this issue because he's a nationally ranked player (in another sport) and he's still a year and a half from college. People are watching his stats, checking his background, going to his games, performing scouting reports, making scholarship offers, etc. Guess where most of the aggressive following is coming from. (Hint: it ain't the small schools.) Because he has a 4.1 GPA, he has schools all over the gamut recruiting him, from Ivies to big public, to small private. On visits, coaches even acknowledge the different expectations of the various types of programs, and spin it to their advantage. Lesser programs will tell you that "you can still have a regular college student experience here", etc.
If you play at the "P5", "majors", or "have" level (whatever you want to call it), you are playing regularly against other programs of that caliber, and you are also (by default) traveling more. You are facing increased scrutiny whether it's from coaching staffs, fans/opposing fans, on internet message boards, or press coverage from what we affectionately refer to at UConn as "the Horde". You are training more, practicing more, and you have a well defined plan for your summer (summer leagues, national team tryouts, scout days, etc.) At the bigtime programs, coaches are constantly overcommitting their scholarship allotment, so they need to turn over the roster - if you're not a starter and you're not performing you're gone. No pressure there. Simply put, you cannot even begin to compare the two environments from a student athlete's perspective.
BTW, this is also not solely relegated to football, or even basketball anymore. In those sports it's just more noticeable to the average fan.
As far as expanded benefits for players, the fact of the matter is that nobody knows what's going to happen. I just had a conversation a few days ago with a college coach, and to quote him "nothing's been decided yet, and nobody has any idea how this is going to play out". He was speaking of athletes in other (non-football) sports and whether those athletes would be included in any expanded benefits.
Sorry to be so adamant, but I do know what I'm talking about on this issue.
And just for the record, I am against "pay for play". I am simply stating that the current system needs fundamental, and drastic change. The status quo does not work.
