Southern Miss’ Todd Monken thinks that if that new D-1 super bracket comes to fruition, mid-major schools like his ought to take their footballs and stay home, so to speak.
“Go ahead. See how you like that. See how you like the NFL rule and play each other every week. Coaches will be like ‘Whoa, hold on, wait a second now.'”
“Go ahead and do your deal — you guys split all the pie — but don’t go playing anyone else. You just play each other every week. Just have a nice NFL crossover where you play each other. Then when you fire up a nice 7-5, and you’re at a pretty good place and they fire you, they won’t be real excited about it, because you won’t have those games that they’ve been able to win. Plain and simple.”
“Some of those teams that get bowl eligible when they go 2-6 in their league and they go 6-6. Well, you’ll be 2-10, or 3-9, and it won’t feel so damn salty.”
Of course, he admits that comes with a price.
“Schools at our level, until we get done prostituting ourselves are never going to really see those teams to come play you [at their home field],” he said.
I’d love to play Auburn [at home] — they’re not coming. They pay you enough to where you won’t come. They’ll find enough people so that you’ll come.”
I bet you’ll find the records of schools in our league are pretty good when they get to play teams at home. They just don’t get to play them at home, but ’cause they need the money or someone else will do it. That’s the biggest thing — how do you get to where you give yourself a shot, and make them travel?”
Well, refusing to play them won’t help. Does Monken have a solution?
“I don’t know that,” Monken said. “Obviously it’s very difficult, otherwise they’d be doing it. I understand the issues, when you need revenue streams that don’t exist — I get that. I do.”
“But if you’re asking in a perfect world, we want chances, games that we can win.”
And there’s your state of college football, circa 2013. In the end, we know they’ll keep cashing those road game checks.
Get The Picture 
The guy is absolutely right, though I imagine he’s going to catch a trainload of shit over the “when we get done prostituting ourselves” remark.
If the “super division” goes through, will that not more or less complete an impenetrable wall around the BCS conferences where schools outside that wall have literally no chance to ever improve themselves?
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Poor schlamazel. Sounds like he needs a break. Spent too much time buns up and kneeling.
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He does have a point. I don’t mind that he didn’t use politically incorrect language either. Sometimes it takes that nastiness.
BTW, does any school ever have a shot in hell in making it big like the powers that be now? Boise was trying like hell to do so, and they still are a Rodney Dangerfield.
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You know, maybe if they keep it up for another “fitty” years, which will give them about 57 years credence, well then I guess we can talk. I think the dearth of cupcakes improves the league. Either you get better, no I mean really better, or “No Bowl For You”, as the Bowl Nazi would say.
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The last report I read sounded like the big boys were going to take the mid-majors with them to Division 4. They would just get to control the rules they wanted in football.
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+100 to Monken for the unfiltered rant. Wish more coaches would drop the coach speak and throw down like that more often.
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You know what? Southern Miss SHOULDN’T be playing Auburn, at home or away. They should be playing GA Southern and UCF so their fans can watch some good games, too. Our “Appalachian State” moment against UCF notwithstanding.
And I would much rather watch an “NFL” slate where we don’t make a bowl some years but replace the Chattanooga VoTechs and Buffalos with a Maryland or Washington or Army or Kansas St and another SEC team or two or whatever. Please, take your ball and go home, but I’m all for it. There are always three games a year I barely watch….what fun is that?
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If, in some years, you lose those greater games, will you back our coaches when some alums are trying to get rid of them because we don’t have enough “Ws” ?
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As long as we remain competitive against equal competition. I don’t think it will take people quite as long to get used to the fact that we’ve stepped up our opposition as Americus Dawg thinks…although you can never underestimate fans’ insanity. My own included.
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If the Super Division happens, membership should not be permanent. I have posted before that in an eight 10-team conference format, every conference plays a round robin. The true 8 conference winners meet in round one of the playoffs during what is now conference championship week. The 4 winners meet on News Years Day and the two finalists the following week. Worst case it adds one extra game for the Natty. All the other bowls go on as before so losing in the first round doesn’t cost you a good bowl bid.
Additionally, each super team must play one game against another team from a super conference. The last two games are at home against the lower tier teams.
Every five years, lower tier teams with winning records can petition to replace top tier with a losing record over the previous five years.
Your place at the big kids table is earned and can be taken if you don’t perform.
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+1
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I think Monken makes some good points but aren’t all the comments about what will/might/aughta happen merely hypothetical at the moment? I agree that the fans, etc. won’t like seeing less Wins but I also believe that the educated ones will understand that the pool of opponents is not only smaller but also richer in talent overall. Hopefully the fans, etc. would take all that into account before calling for the Coach’s head when their team loses more than a couple of games. With that said, though, I don’t think it will happen immediately (and may never) because you can’t erase the last 40 years (give or take) from most folk’s minds. If/when it happens, it’s gonna take a while for everyone to adjust.
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Todd Monken will take the first SEC job that he’s offered. Then his righteous indignance about the economics of the game will most likely shift. Let’s get Monken the Mississippi State job the next time it opens up and then see if he thinks they should go on the road to play Southern Miss.
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