But to get back to your assertion that the Big Ten would have more teams. Purdue lost to Eastern Michigan. So there is no guarantee that they or Minny would have won their extra cupcake game.
Dropping a cupcake FCS game and replacing it with a league opponent costs the home team more in a payout.
Conference James, C O N F E R E N C E.
Not team.
The conference as a whole would lose that money. Otherwise it stays in house so to speak.
So the conference in playing nine conference games can somehow claim the high ground, or get some sort of credit, in claiming they played a tougher schedule without losing a friggin dime in doing so. Brilliant I admit. In a twisted self serving way.
If any other team besides a Big Ten team gets the money it is going to someone else. Not a Big Ten school.
Alabama will PAY a team 1.9 million dollars to come and play. The TV money is not the issue. It's "who" gets it. That 1.9 mil will effectively leave the SEC and go to another conference's team. Had it been a conference matchup of two SEC teams the money stays in conference.
That has nothing to do with my original point.
If Ohio State replaces an FCS team with a Conference Game it loses some revenue for that game.
It should be pointed that the Big Ten, unlike any other Conference, shares gate receipts with Conference schools based on a formula. This often results is some teams losing revenue.
If the 9 game schedule was reduced to 8 then there would be less revenue sharing and, most notably, schools scheduling FCS teams would take home a much larger amount from gate receipts.
That’s all.
Obviously the difference in dollars is outweighed by factors the Big Ten feels are more important to the long range goals of the Conference including presenting more attractive games for its ticket buyers, better competition for the players, its strength if schedule when vying for post season play, among others.
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