BREAKING: UD To Go (Semi-) Big Time In Football
From Sports Illustrated:
Delaware is preparing to join Conference USA in the 2025–26 academic year, according to multiple reports.
With Delaware’s move from the FCS to the FBS, it would become the first program required to pay the $5 million application fee, per Brett McMurphy of Action Network. In October, the NCAA Division I Council raised the cost from $5,000 to $5 million to move up from FCS to FBS. (Gee, I wonder whether state taxpayers are underwriting that cost…)
Before moving up the competitive ladder, it would be nice for Delaware to show that it’s capable of navigating the CAA without its annual season-ending collapses, Saturday’s recovery against Lafayette notwithstanding.
I think paying $5 million is an exorbitant fee as the means to escape the all-too-regular trouncing by Villanova.
Stop giving them the $130 million every year and invest in Delaware vocational education. This is tax payer money and I’m sure the taxpayers want some say. These politicians that vote to pass the budget with this in it probably should recuse themselves as they accept “payoff” from UofD
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out financially for UD. They’ll get a slice of TV money from any Conference USA contracts, they’ll probably get some bowl money.
They will lose traditional games that attracted fans, their program costs will go up, and, uh, you tell ME what natural rivalries will grow out of this move. UD will join in 2025. Until then, here are the C-USA member schools, not the most geographically-compact group of schools:
https://conferenceusa.com/sports/2022/10/7/future_membership.aspx
The UD schedule now includes new conference members like Campbell, Hampton and North Carolina A&T, small-timers who don’t get the heart racing and are about as far away as some Conference USA teams. Playing even low level Division I teams sounds a lot more interesting. James Madison and others have already made the move up and more will follow. More Campbells will be coming to the CAA.
This will involve:
1. $85 million in [stated] initial construction costs, much inevitably diverted from other fundraising goals.
2. The need to fund NIL – diverting annual revenue sources to pay linebackers to play in Newark, not for Clemson.
3. Spiraling salary requirements for the coaching staff.
4. Buyouts, perhaps in seven figures, when the coaching staff misses targets for two consecutive years.
5. Air travel replacing buses for baseball and field hockey road games.
Most college football programs lose big money. The costs just escalated, with effects that will reverberate for a generation or more.
That’s kinda my take on it as well. Except, Delaware won’t be using NIL $$’s to outbid Clemson, not to mention any team in the $EC.
Could well be a money-suck. Just one more reason to require UD to open those books before the state throws money at what could well be an expensive vanity project.
A dozen years ago Elena Delle Donne could have hauled in big bucks (not that she needed them) on NIL deals with every public-facing business in the state.
I have no problem with rich alumni funding it, but I predict they won’t be able to cover the nut and we’ll wind up with the bill. It’s not as if our corporate law community consists of UD alums yearning for football glory.
Most major colleges NIL are funded privately through trustees, donors, etc. The big expenses are the A) $5mil that has to be paid to join B) the new scholarships that will be handed out (an additional 20) C) making a bowl game is actually a financial drain on schools unless it is a major bowl – a small bowl like Myrtle Beach Bowl or Bahamas Bowl or Famous Idaho Bowl cost a school between 400-900k to participate.
This move is nothing more than a resume builder for the AD and president