I read it as no one is forbidden. There’s a minimum amount of $$ that you need to invest in to “get in the door” once you’re in the door it’s up to you to decide how much you want to spend. There’s not going to be a cutoff at this is the 40 teams we want and the rest of you can rot.
They want schools to invest more because that means they will ultimately get a better tv product. Look at how the Big 10 is operating with their new financials. You think Indiana would have paid a $20 million buyout 10 years ago.
If I’m the Big 10 I’m saying: look we got you the big payday but you better use it for a better product on the field to help us out.
And this makes total sense for everyone. You want to be in the club, there's a minimum you need to invest and bring to the table. And it's not like they are going to hold on this fantasy of equal media revenue sharing.
People need to let go of this as a marginal adjustment to the equal revenue sharing conference model. The marginal value of a team into a conference based on media $/# of teams is irrelevant in this context.
The best business model for the big boys is this:
- The floor of investment/payment is $X - if you can do that, you can be in
- There are no or few limits to what you pay athletes
- Revenues are largely going to be merit-based
That way they are getting the marginal difference in viewership that having a team "in the club" brings, but not heavily subsidizing them. ****, Ohio State and Michigan are subsidizing everybody in the big 10 save for PSU and MAYBE Wisconsin. It isn't like the Big 10 teams are all a few degrees of difference around the per team average in value. Hell, Michigan, Ohio State and whatever other 10-12 teams you want to throw in there is a P2 league in value.