'Not even playing the same sport': Why Group of Five football teams should go their own way

North Texas coach Eric Morris sees the iceberg. It's dead ahead and there's no way to avoid it.

The prudent thing to do is get off the ship, which Morris wants to do but which almost none of his Group of Five colleagues would even consider. In fact, in the G5, which consists of the American, C-USA, the MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt, such talk is almost considered heresy.

The iceberg in this case is the Big Ten and SEC with a nod to the ACC and Big 12. They have become the dominant powers in college football and, especially in the case of the Big Ten and SEC, are only going to get stronger in the coming years.

While the G5 conferences like to pretend they can compete with anybody, the fact is that ever since 2021, when NIL and unrestricted transfers went into effect, the G5, which has always been a notch below the four majors, has now been relegated to permanent second-string status.

Statements like that produce howls of resentment from within the G5. Administrators — and some coaches, who should know better — point to Tulane's 46-45 Cotton Bowl win after the 2022 season as proof they can compete with the best.

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The fact is they can't. Since 2021, the American, up until last year the strongest of the G5 conferences, is 8-51 against the Power Four plus Notre Dame.

Furthermore, it is difficult for Power 4 teams to get motivated when they play someone from the G5 because they have nothing to gain and everything to lose. That's why most of these games are played early in the season. They are basically warmups for the P4 teams to ease into their regular schedule.

Speaking to the publication Texas Football along with TCU's Sonny Dykes, SMU's Rhett Lashlee and Rice's Mike Bloomgren, Morris was blunt and to the point.

"At some point, the G5 has to step back and let the powers that be with money (the P4 and Notre Dame) do their own thing," Morris said.

And when you examine what goes into building a competitive football program at any level, you can see what Morris was getting at and why the G5 is in an impossible position.

The first thing is money. The Big Ten and SEC have gobs of it. The Big Ten recently signed a new TV deal worth nearly $8 billion for seven years. The contract includes an escalator clause that could bring it to $10 billion if new markets were added. They were. After the deal was done, the conference added Washington and Oregon. In 2025, it is projected that the Big Ten will pay each of its teams $100 million a year.

That compares with the American, which has by far the best TV deal in the G5, about $1 billion for 12 years. That's a payout of roughly $7 million a year to each team, which means that in 2025, a single team in the Big Ten will make more from TV revenue than all 14 American teams combined.

In terms of building facilities, hiring personnel and other infrastructure, there's no way any G5 conference can compete with that.

Then there's the matter of acquiring talent. Historically, players and coaches regularly jump from G5 teams to the P4, in itself an indication that the G5 in inferior. With NIL money now available and the unlimited transfer rules, the poaching of the best players and coaches from the G5 will only continue. And in terms of high school recruiting, the best players, almost without exception, end up at P4 schools.

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So what's the solution?

For the G5 to get real. G5 football, at it's own level, is a marketable product. The G5 needs to break away from the P4. It could have its own top 25 and its own playoffs. That would create much more excitement than an occasional Tulane win over Southern Cal. But it likely won't happen.

Why? Because the G5 is stubborn. Under the new playoff format, one G5 conference champion is guaranteed a spot in the national championship playoff. And the G5 has delusions of grandeur, as if getting a team in the playoffs proves it can compete with the big boys.

SMU's Lashlee put it well while talking with Texas Football.

"Would you rather get beat 45-7 by Georgia in the first round (of the playoffs) or play for a championship?" Lashlee asked.

Dykes was even more succinct. "There's got to be a split (between the P4 and G5) eventually," Dykes told Texas Football. "There's such a big difference between the haves and have nots that I think we'll eventually split into two divisions. Alabama and La Tech aren't even playing the same sport."

So the G5 conferences have a choice. Either separate from the P4 gracefully, or wait until the Big Ten and SEC decide to go their own way and leave them choking in the dust.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Group of Five football schools should quit and go their own way | Zier