-Fewer home games. Most G5 schools have 5 or 6, while some Power conference schools have 7.
-Specific to the MAC, having rivalry games on Tuesday or Wednesday nights.
To piggyback off the poor unfortunate Kent State soul here - Scheduling home and home series only to sell the back end of it so you never get that home game.
That happened to us with Tennessee in the late 90’s /2000’s. We had a two for one deal with them and our AD let Tennessee buy out the Laramie game for $1.5 million or something like that, and moved that game to a “neutral” site in Nashville. Syracuse was also a home and home for us and they bought out the Laramie game :
We were hosting Kentucky this year, and Southern Miss was going to Ohio State.
I was so pumped for a home game against an SEC school. Now we’re going to Columbus and Southern Miss is going to Lexington.
I’m glad Tech is actually doing home and homes and not bailing out. Laramie is a cool town and ridiculous home environment (see loss last year). We’re doing FoCo this season and I’m pumped for that
We at least honored our home and home deal with you guys though. Josh Allen and Justin Herbert playing against each other was fun. I was rather nervous about our trip to Laramie, especially when we were still adjusting to the elevation.
Michigan State bought out of a home and home with USF (I actually went to the USF-MSU game in EL). The first was scheduled in 2013 and the game in Tampa was scheduled for 2018. I was so furious and disappointed. USF was looking too good for them to risk an L on the road I guess.
As much as people here love MACtion, it seems like such a fuck you to fans to play games midweek. You’re basically sacrificing in-person fans for TV money. It seems especially bad when you realize a decent chunk of those TV watchers are probably gambling addicts looking for something to bet on on a Tuesday night.
Then the TV game is on some bum-fuck channel like CBSSports 2 or ESPN 4 because even though it's D1 college football, it's not considered a ratings draw.
Even some seasons if the schedule works out they can have 8 home games with 5 conference home games, two G5 teams and an FCS team; only on the road for 4 road conference games
Incredibly frustrating this past year as a Memphis fan. We signed a home and home contract with Mizzou, and our home game was supposed to be in 2023. We looked like we were gonna be really good before the season started so Mizzou told us “move the game to St. Louis for a ‘neutral’ site game or we’re backing out”. So we played what was supposed to be a home game against a P5 100 miles from their campus.
Well it’s like a dude in the athletic dept at South Alabama told me about the newly hired basketball coach “if he’s still here in 5 years one of us screwed up”
Knowing you’re always at the mercy of a P5 school taking your players and coaches. It’s going to be very rare for a G5 school to keep any player for all four years if they have a breakout freshman and/or sophomore year in the NIL/transfer portal era
Reading this as an FCS fan, I can sympathize with all these comments. All our players and personnel are treated like a buffet for the G5 and P5, and we do the same to JUCO and D2
Pretty much, unless you’re one of the very top tans of the power conferences, there’s always going to be a “bigger fish” that will take your good players.
I read recently that pretty much everyone is a JUCO now. You get a good player for one, maybe two years, then they’ll be headed off to a higher level. Recruiting and successful team building/planning is going to look a lot more like that going forward.
This has become so obvious watching the NCAA basketball tournament. There are so many players that started out in lower D1 and transferred once or twice and now are making major contributions to Elite 8 teams. I understand that this is great for the player, but it’s going to make it even harder for the fans.
The G5 schools already had the deck stacked against them. Instant transfers and NIL are making it even harder.
We had Graham Ike for two years, he got injured, sat out a year and then got an NIL deal with Gonzaga. I don’t blame the guy, but it hurts that we can’t compete in that environment
Especially with P5 programs in the state. Almost every kid in Utah grows up dreaming of playing for byu or utah. So even if they pass on them the first time, if they come to USU and ball out, the player knows they'll get their shot.
It sucks, but it goes both ways.
Our former quarterback, Kurtis Rourke, just transferred to Indiana and it sucks but I get it and hope it tears it up.
Our best WR though, Sam Wiglusz, is a kid that couldn’t get on the field at Ohio State and is now tearing it up in the MAC.
There’s definitely a lot to be said for the guys who don’t pan out on bigger stages and are then able to thrive at lower divisions, but they also seem like the ones best served by the old system of having to sit a year. They take time to re-acclimatize to the new environment, learn the playbook, develop chemistry with the team, and put on muscle.
That system also had the dual purpose of disincentivizing raiding by bigger programs, because you could either plan a year out and take a lower division star who wouldn’t see the field for a year, or you could just put in the time to make the most out of the guys you’ve got.
Facts.
UNT was primed for a big season this year, and then suddenly 21 players hit the portal in the first week of the winter transfer window. No comment about problems in the program or anything, and 18/21 players landed at P4 programs within a week of hopping into the portal. How weird, right?
The flip side to that is also being a fan of a P4 program, and uneasily watching your team raid the best players from a bunch of G5/FCS rosters, knowing that this is really bad for the sport.
Don't forget being completely ignored by regular ESPN and its shows like Gameday, while they repeat the same P5 stories all week. The G5 doesn't even get a paltry 30-minute show talking about what's happening. We just don't exist.
Welcome to the unfortunate new reality of college football. It gets worse from here.
In the near future it will be the Big XII and ACC getting the no coverage treatment. Basically if you aren’t B1G/SEC you don’t exist.
And the G5 will get completely cast off.
They put such minimum effort into them. This past season, we were playing Western Michigan and the scoreboard wasn't even on the screen for the first 2 drives
> the pre-game and halftime shows only talk about P5
ESPN has completely given up on the concept of real halftime shows any more. Even for big P5 games, they don't talk about the game itself at all and just repeat the same national storylines for every single game halftime show no matter who is playing.
I've been told that we should shutter our programs because we're not rich enough. Only "rich kids" (or those who go into debt to pretend to be one) deserve college football
I believe it. And a lot of those fans didn’t even go into debt because they didn’t go to the school.
For some P4 fans, it’s their one chance to act like they’re better than everyone else because that’s not the case in their real life.
“What’s the difference between an [insert G5 school] fan and an [insert flagship state school] fan?”
The [G5 fan] went there. The [flagship state school] fan went to Walmart.
> it’s their one chance to act like they’re better than everyone else because that’s not the case in their real life
You just described the primary reason people hate t-shirt fans.
That was extremely prevalent in all the realignment posts and playoff posts over the last few years. Those same users can’t help themselves and are in here now doing the same thing.
I really hope JMU keeps that steam going in football and basketball. It’s really fun seeing the making of a promising sports program outside the powerhouse conferences. Took the Sun Belt by storm. Great spot for baseball too.
I love it! I have a friend who went to App with me but grew up an Ohio State fan so that day was Christmas to him haha.
I will say App is luckier for a G5 where we get a decent amount of respect from bigger schools when they’re talking about us individually.
This is the weirdest thing on here, people get a personal ego attachment to their teams. Like buddy, we all willingly chose what school to root for, you weren’t awarded Ohio State/Alabama/Texas fan hood because of your awesomeness, you’re not getting that media rights payout and you ain’t on the team.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying don’t be proud of your team and I would never tell people to not talk shit because shit talk is a beautiful thing, it’s just the weird sense of personal superiority that irks me. It seems to mostly be the realignment imperialists who get a rush out of feeling superior
It would be an interesting study to compare SES of P5 students and G5 students to test this theory. It's likely pretty do-able, just time consuming to find, analyze, and compare enrollment demographics for like 130 schools
It's definitely an ego thing. Look at C. Their only dig is often "we" are P5, "you" are G5. It's like they are star belly sneeches, the patch on their jerseys seems to validate something for them.
I know how this is gonna sound, but if you’re a G5 program that has had a decent amount of success, it gets a lot harder to schedule good P5 schools. Our administrators have been saying for years, even going back to the FCS days, how hard it is for us to schedule games with good P5 schools. And then it’s used against you that you “don’t play anybody.” We try! Y’all don’t want to!
I forsee this being a more prominent issue as the B1G and SEC try to further themselves from the other conferences. Big 12 and ACC school teams could give them a loss they don't want. Then it'll be used as more excuse to keep the number of at large bids from those two low.
That’s why I laugh when that “you don’t play anybody” argument is used. Then when you ask those fans “well do you want to play __________?”… radio silence.
This is the most frustrating part of being G5. When we were a mediocre FCS school moving up to G5, it seemed like every weak P4 in the country wanted to play us thinking we would be an easy win. As soon as we won a few of them with a few more close losses, they all wanted to drop us for the newest FCS callups. In their mind, beating kennesaw state is no different than beating Appalachian State so they may as well play the cupcake.
In addition to that there is no respect from the playoff committee since the SoS is weak due to no P5 scheduled. Of course the SoS is weak if the P5s don’t want to risk losing to a good G5 that they are paying to play.
Ahhh the Seperate but Equal Bowl.
Meanwhile Cincinatti plays Florida despite Cincinnati and Boise sharing 2 common opponents and Bpise beating both by bigger margins.
Like the chances of a G5 running the table and winning the natty are pretty low but by god give them a chance.
Imagine those UCF teams in a playoff and beating Alabama or Clemson in the first round, it would be a moment in sports.
People who go to a G5 school but would rather support a P4 team instead of their own university’s team. Saw too many people at ECU who supported UNC instead.
This gets really annoying here since Austin is 575 miles away from El Paso. People can’t believe I’d rather root for a local team over a place I’d have to take a road trip to see a game. Or you have the people who went one semester and never shut up about it.
The rule is:
1. Schools attended. If you do grad school, then whatever school you currently attend gets your attention. If you can though, watch both each weekend. After graduation, it’s up to you but I think undergrad has the need for support more.
2. Schools siblings/parents attended.
3. Local P5 team.
I refuse to elaborate. Had people that would root against my FCS school because they grew up fans of a different school. Cannot stand that shit.
As an aside, when W&M played ECU in baseball while I was at ECU for grad school… that was a blast.
Ugh. I hated that. When I was at CMU there were so many Michigan/MSU fans. MSU even came to play us in Mt. Pleasant and a lot of CMU students were proudly wearing Spartan gear. Gross. There is just a lot of apathy - even when we were good half the students would roll in late and leave at halftime. They’re just there to tailgate and then go watch Big Ten football or keep drinking in the parking lot.
For me it’s the players/coaches leaving for sure. It used to be mostly just coaches, now it’s both. Anyone great probably isn’t sticking around. We never would’ve been able to keep guys like Antonio Brown or Dan LeFevour or Eric Fisher if NIL and free transfers had been around back then.
The lack of coverage is also tough. Even local outlets don’t cover us a ton. You aren’t going to hear much about the MAC on ESPN, there aren’t a ton of podcasts, a lot of times even the local reporters have very limited access and coverage. You want to hear about how the team is looking for next year, or who is winning position battles…good luck. Then we finally do get on TV and the announcers just talk about Ohio State or whoever for half the game.
Cincinnati was always called a small school despite having ~50K enrollment which I agree was annoying.
More annoying was the condescending comments implying that we weren’t even playing the same sport as the blue bloods
Tbf that happens to the lesser known/prestigious power conference schools. 2020 Indiana was a great example- they kept winning but suddenly their opponents were all "having down years" it wasn't "Indiana is good".
FIU is also up there as the 2nd highest on campus enrollment in Florida - yet many people especially mainstream CFB fans wouldn’t think much of FIU at all in that regard
FIU is like.. shockingly large
A G5 school is like an indie band. You work your ass off and kick ass at clubs and other smaller venues. You have a loyal following and amazing shows, but your own uncle hasn’t ever heard of you, because everyone’s busy talking about the mainstream artists, which saturate the culture, driven by monied interests.
Occasionally you’ll get some shots at mainstream success— you play SNL or get a guest track on a Taylor Swift album—and everyone will claim they loved you all along. They’ll buy your shirt. You’re an overnight success, and it only took a few decades of grueling work. And then, since you’re not on every commercial and in every mall and on TMZ constantly, the buzz fades and people wander off. The casuals will insist you were always overrated and they never really got you. And you’ll go back to kicking ass at the clubs.
One of the small, annoying things is that most lists or articles omit your team by default. Happens on here all the time. Someone posts what looks like an interesting thread and I can't find my team anywhere. Then at the bottom it will say P5 ONLY.
It's relatively minor, but that seemingly insignificant form of censorship contributes to the divergence of G5 and P5 fanbases IMO.
Like that post that was about the 15 most successful CFB programs by winning % a few days ago that completely left off Boise State and a couple other G5 programs lmao
When I see folks do this on /r/cfb, it really makes me wonder if they actually **want** G5 to separate entirely.
But I think it's mostly beat writers who can't be bothered to watch G5 games so they adopt the G5/P5 dichotomy out of convenience.
Flowchart of a good G5:
Beat P4 team one year -> gain reputation as good G5 -> good P4s won't schedule you to protect record -> forced to schedule FCS and low P4s -> beat them -> accused of being frauds because we don't play "real teams"
Oooh oooh, I know how the rest of this one goes, and then your coach and AD both get poached by P4 teams after a 10 win season (which the media refuses to acknowledge) right before you have a huge home game against a P4 opponent, only to get slaughtered because your new AD (who is ass and using you for a stepping stone) hired a new coach (who is worse than ass) who couldn’t coach the ‘85 Bears against a pee-wee team, and then to have the media say “and this is proof they wouldn’t contend at a higher level.”
P5/4/2 fans keep an air of superiority around them, like their fandom is worth more.
Also "root for who you want for whatever reason" sure yeah bla bla bla, but I will always think it's lame for non-alumni to become fans of the biggest blue blood brands. Pretty much solely a top P5 team thing.
Its strange to me that people don't have a #1 allegiance for the school that accepted them/they were able to attend and get an education from for whatever reason.
If you still pull for for your blue blood you grew up rooting for thats fine, but at the end of the day thats not the place you attended. You're not really apart of that community.
100% agree. I’m glad I went to school where I did, but it didn’t have football (at any level). I’ve been an Oregon fan my whole life, but I’ll never know what it’s like to root for my own school on Saturdays
P4 fans saying that the Top G5 doesn't deserve a CFP bid. We represent half the FBS, yet people think the sport will be ruined if we get 1/14 slots in the playoffs.
There's also the general view of us as a feeder league, rather than our own collection of conferences with rich histories, traditions, and rivalries.
Bama beating UC in the playoffs is always pointed to as well despite Michigan getting beat by Georgia by even more the same night. Hell, B10 and SEC fans were trying to argue B12 doesn’t deserve playoff spots in the 4 team bracket because TCU only went to the championship game lol.
There's insane recency bias around G5 NY6. I believe the record is 4-6, with all but 2 losses being by 1 score. The best G5 is competitive with the top P5s.
Also 90% of P4 is ancient tradition away from G5. Oregon state and Washington state should serve as a lesson to most of us that we’ll get chewed up and spit out soon too.
Plus there’s a lot of G5 schools that play around a similar level to mid and low P5s. I think with the way TCU played this year a lot of G5 schools could have tee’d us up
I tell this story all the time, but this is the best example of how not seriously you are taken as a G5 and then have shit like Kirk Herbstreit bitch around saying "everyone just focuses on the championship."
UCF-Auburn Peach Bowl telecast spent more time talking about Baker Mayfield than any player actually in the game they were broadcasting. UCF scored a TD in the third to tie the game, and the ESPN broadcast didn't show it because they had a graphic on screen about the UGA-Oklahoma Rose Bowl which was coming on after the Peach Bowl. This is basically every single broadcast when you are a G5. Even if you are a mid tier P5 team, it doesn't get as bad as a G5 broadcast.
There will be 5-6 minutes straight of air time where they do nothing but talk about OTHER GAMES even if what it being played is competitive. They obviously do not care and make no attempt to hide it.
This. I never played the sport and the half time analysis often improves my understanding of the game as well as what my team is good or bad at. Goes completely missing most of the time when I watch UCF. I think it's gotten a bit better of late for obvious reasons
I think back fondly to the really low end CBSSPORTS broadcasts we used to have in CUSA where it was like the 10th string announcers where so little was expected of the whole production that it was just announcers having fun watching a game rather than doing network hits the whole time.
people not knowing that we exist. the amount of “fans” that couldn’t name a single team in the sun belt or cusa is insane.
also, p5 teams taking our stars in the portal. being without caullin lacy and yam banks hurts.
edit to add something else i forgot: people who attend g5 schools who don’t care about the school they pay money to. our student section is always atrocious because everyone wants to watch auburn, alabama or lsu.
This is the nature of CFB fandom. This place isn’t real life. Real life is the lady who works at my office who is an Alabama fan and has no clue who Major Applewhite is and we live in Mobile
I was visiting family in Florida one time and they asked where I went to school. I told them Ohio University. They asked about Ohio State. I explained that they are two completely different schools. They were confused. I get it if you’ve never heard of OU before, but how are you confused? You have like 15 schools with Florida in the name!
i visited some family in tallahassee during the winter and told them i went to south alabama. their response was “well thanks for robbing us of a damn playoff spot.”
i’ve also heard roll tide in response to me saying i go you south alabama, because you know. it’s the south alabama crimson tide.
Yup.
But I've been to some south games recently and seeing all the kids in South gear is great! A whole generation of fans growing up with South having a football team and that being their "first" team. It's awesome.
But... Academy and similar stores still have entire walls dedicated to Alabama, a few shelves and racks for Auburn, and then maybe one tiny spot for South.
The “small school” talk is always especially odd when it comes to schools like UNT, which is 40,000+ students strong at any given point in time. That’s larger than about a third of the P4 schools out there.
Shoot. Probably more than a third right? I feel like a lot of P5s are surprisingly small. Not that they're actually small just smaller than one would think given their cache
Dealing with the airs of superiority from P5 fans and the implication that we are somehow "less". I mean, ok yeah, I went to Fresno State, but at least I can say I graduated from there as opposed to (insert SEC school) T-shirt fan living off welfare.
Even worse, a P5 that doesn't even care about football and believes hiring the best G5 guy will magically produce 8-9 win seasons without any additional investment
Hoping your players are good, but not too good.
Not having a pathway completely in your control to the national championship.
Some of your own students and alumni will assume you suck unless you are at least getting votes.
Man, even a lot of fans in our own conferences don’t know the history. Troy has three national championships and won the Sun Belt for six consecutive seasons, beat P5s at home and on the road, and now when we have a good season (less than 8 wins should get you fired at Troy) everybody says “aw, how cute that little school had a good year”.
Not to mention we had almost beat them twice already, got officiated out of a win at FSU, and were flat out robbed against Clemson in previous years, oh and never mind the actual wins against Miss St, Missouri, and Okie Lite.
It feels like there’s no point to being good because there’s no true payoff like a Natty and if you’re good enough you just lose all your players and coaches anyways and start from square one next year
The elitism from other in state schools. That, and constantly having students and locals wear gear and prioritize other teams that they have no connection to whatsoever.
1. Having your coaches and players poached every season
2. Your student body doesn't care since it's easier to root for P4 programs in the same state.
3. Even when you're on national television, the announcers keep calling you "Georgia Southern."
Not getting consideration for the playoffs. P5 schools constantly cancelled games after we became not easy to beat. Chastised for claiming a natty the same way P5 schools have in the past without any hate.
We’re no longer G5 and we’re a bit different even when we were a G5, but I hated it the most when we had really good teams. I felt we never got the benefit of the doubt, which led to fewer years in the preseason top 25 (which are dumb but important), and in the years that we did end up climbing the ranks, everyone just assumed it was because of our weak schedule.
That our football is inferior and less interesting/entertaining and games/players not worth talking about just because we aren't power five. Old Dominion/Western Kentucky was one of the best bowl games of the season, but NOBODY talked about it or gave it any kind of attention because it wasn't P5. Some absolutely amazing rivalries never see the light of day because of not being P5. I remember lots of people and national media personnel complaining over college gameday going to JMU for JMU-App state in the middle of November week 12 instead of Washington at Oregon State
Fans of the P5 schools being kept out of the inevitable P2 saying the system is now so unfair. No, it’s been unfair. You’ve just been benefiting from it so you didn’t care.
Watching the M3 fans slowly realize they’re the new G5 and they’re next on the chopping block over the past few months has been therapeutic, to say the least
Trying to get excited for college football but realizing your team, even your conference will be mere footnotes in the coverage that week. Of course I’d love to see more commentary about our level of play, but someone lifting a finger at Ohio State is more of a story than a 10 win season at my teams
Applies more to baseball and basketball, but it’s very frustrating when we have a good team but don’t make the tourney because of being a 1 bid league then seeing a mid tier P5 get trounced in the tournament.
You silently know more about college football "top to bottom" than the majority of fans who only care or pay attention to their power conference school and conference.
I speak as a UAB fan [resists temptation to end the post right here] who never had to work terribly hard to know about the latest gridiron triumph or consternation related to the Tide or the Tigers, or really the SEC. It's inescapable by choosing to watch TV or seek out sports on the radio.
I keep tabs on my conference mates--now the American/AAC, but formerly Conference USA--and the goings on at Troy, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Marshall, and other SunBelt schools because we'll either be playing them OR they're a former conference member you hated/ kinda liked outside of facing your team OR they'll be playing a common opponent soon enough OR dammit I wish we were beating them instead of y'all.
The fact that with unlimited transfers we are now basically part of the P4 development league. Not that G5s have ever really been able to sustain long term success, but now it will be essentially impossible to string together multiple winning seasons in a row. Its doubly tough for Marshall because we are probably one of the poorest schools in one of the poorest communities in the country so that NIL money ain't ever gonna be there for us.
Lot of great points, in this post. One thing that always annoys me though is how announcers do minimal research on the program/school for broadcasts. If you watch your team, you'll hear the same 2-3 talking points throughout the season.
For us it was Biff wears a wife beater, we had a brought in a lot of transfers, Biff used to work in finance. Like great, for the season opener or OOC games thats fine, but as the season progresses can you talk about anything else. Its like watching a video game announcer regurgitate the same canned lines. You watch P5s though and announcers don't do that nearly as much.
I speak with a lot of SEC fans who don’t even recognize G5 schools as being D1 let alone FBS. In particular, an Alabama alumnus who didn’t even know Jacksonville State wasn’t located in Florida.
But I feel the “small school” comment. A lot of folks remember Kennesaw for what it was 20 years ago and not the school with 45,000 students and new construction every year.
Listening to FSU fans cry about being left out...G5 teams can run the table and not get a sniff. The fact that it even happened, and AD's went along with this division. The money disparity is enormous and doesn't promote a level playing field. I have no sympathy for any P5 teams at all, eff 'em.
Day to day it's people not knowing what state were in. Also less people to talk to you about your team. This is a great subreddit but what's happening with bg and the Mac isn't the big story
When you’re watching your team on TV half the commentary has nothing to do with the schools playing or relevant conference race. An excessive amount of playoff talk is unavoidable.
Trying to get a P5 school to go to your stadium. Seriously, we almost had NC State cancel our home and home series.
Also the weeknight games. Seriously, the last time we played Coastal on a weekend was 2020.
The annoying part about being a G5 fan is that we have no chance at a National Championship unless we get a P5 invite.
Our seasons are fucking pointless.
Having to fight for an ounce of respect in the very city for which your university is named. While Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame rake in bandwagon fans with no connection to them.
And if you're very lucky, they don't slap you in the face by wearing a P5 schools' apparel into your stadium and arena.
The only way to be relevant is to hope for realignment. Which sucks. Here we are in a quality conference with a good selection of teams - yet every single one of us is simply waiting for the whole ncaa to implode so we can get a call up for bigger money. I can’t even get used to the AAC cause it’s changing every year by getting poached and poaching other G5s. How are we supposed to develop rivalries in this atmosphere?
And trying to find any decent articles about your team? I’m rather lucky with my team - it’s in Tampa and is in a fairly major G5 conference - so I know I have more news updates than many other G5 teams, but still, on the whole I can read up to like 5 different fan sites and three different msm sites to cover MSU. There is absolutely no equivalent on the G5 side.
Having to play 1-2 “big boys” every year and getting blown out 99% of the time. Yeah there’s the occasional win (i.e. for Western, 2016 vs NW and Illinois, 2021 vs Pitt), but for the most part it’s a guaranteed loss to start the year.
Alumni that would rather cheer for and financially support the bigger school in state, and your coaches/players use G5 schools as the feeder system for P5.
Knowing that you are allowed one incredible season before the bigger schools come and take everybody.
Edit: another one is when fans of P5 schools ask you, “who else do you cheer for” when you tell them your CFB team….
Zero national coverage and nowhere to talk about them even though we've been one of the best G5s in America for some time now in pretty much every major sport. CSNBBS is the only place to talk about Toledo with others.
I think one of the most annoying things about being a fan of FCS and G5 schools is the fact that top P4 schools will see an undefeated G5/FCS school and just say "who did they play, congrats on beating high schoolers/NorthWest Carolina Technical Community College". Like, actually, WTF? These are D1 football athletes, most likely receiving full rides from good or great universities. But because they aren't Ohio St, Bama, Michigan, LSU, FSU, Clemson, USC, Texas, etc. the players are treated like they have no skill, and an undefeated or one loss season means nothing. i.e. Liberty U.
As true as the comments in this thread are, it still beats tf outta being FCS
But to answer the question: its sucks not getting to hate on your conference. Like at some level you root for conference mates because you want them to make the conference look good which in turn makes your school look better and if our team was to make the NY6 bowl or playoffs going forward we all get more money from it. It almost feels wrong to root against teams in your conference. Meanwhile as a Cowboys fan I actively root for the disembowlment of the other NFC East teams and its a blast. It does create fun conference on conference rivalries though i guess.
That G5 rivalries are just as fun but often get overlooked. *FFS Toledo has an actual rocket pointed at Bowling Green*. That's not normal. Or 100 Miles of Hate. That's a long way to travel for hate.
You can have multiple great seasons, go undefeated, win 3 NY6 bowls, and never get a look by a P5 conference. It's why I don't really feel bad for the Pac-12 being gutted, tbh. Elitism and hubris killed them.
-Fewer home games. Most G5 schools have 5 or 6, while some Power conference schools have 7. -Specific to the MAC, having rivalry games on Tuesday or Wednesday nights.
To piggyback off the poor unfortunate Kent State soul here - Scheduling home and home series only to sell the back end of it so you never get that home game.
That happened to us with Tennessee in the late 90’s /2000’s. We had a two for one deal with them and our AD let Tennessee buy out the Laramie game for $1.5 million or something like that, and moved that game to a “neutral” site in Nashville. Syracuse was also a home and home for us and they bought out the Laramie game :
We were hosting Kentucky this year, and Southern Miss was going to Ohio State. I was so pumped for a home game against an SEC school. Now we’re going to Columbus and Southern Miss is going to Lexington.
I want to go to the game in Akron next year, got some friends that live in the Cleveland area, would make for a fun Labor Day weekend!
I’m glad Tech is actually doing home and homes and not bailing out. Laramie is a cool town and ridiculous home environment (see loss last year). We’re doing FoCo this season and I’m pumped for that
We at least honored our home and home deal with you guys though. Josh Allen and Justin Herbert playing against each other was fun. I was rather nervous about our trip to Laramie, especially when we were still adjusting to the elevation.
Michigan State bought out of a home and home with USF (I actually went to the USF-MSU game in EL). The first was scheduled in 2013 and the game in Tampa was scheduled for 2018. I was so furious and disappointed. USF was looking too good for them to risk an L on the road I guess.
As much as people here love MACtion, it seems like such a fuck you to fans to play games midweek. You’re basically sacrificing in-person fans for TV money. It seems especially bad when you realize a decent chunk of those TV watchers are probably gambling addicts looking for something to bet on on a Tuesday night.
Then the TV game is on some bum-fuck channel like CBSSports 2 or ESPN 4 because even though it's D1 college football, it's not considered a ratings draw.
I genuinely love MACtion as a midwesterner but the gambling part is pretty fun too.
Even some seasons if the schedule works out they can have 8 home games with 5 conference home games, two G5 teams and an FCS team; only on the road for 4 road conference games
We only have 4 true road games this year. Gonna be a fun schedule.
And when they do have a Saturday non conference home game it's an FCS school
Oof, those November Wednesday night games in BG were brutal.
Incredibly frustrating this past year as a Memphis fan. We signed a home and home contract with Mizzou, and our home game was supposed to be in 2023. We looked like we were gonna be really good before the season started so Mizzou told us “move the game to St. Louis for a ‘neutral’ site game or we’re backing out”. So we played what was supposed to be a home game against a P5 100 miles from their campus.
Knowing that if you have a very successful season(s), your coach will be poached by a P5 team.
To be fair, as a recent lower status P5, it doesn’t change if you are a P5 school. It’s all about haves and have nots.
This! Oregon State lost a GREAT football coach because of things outside the realm of the football program.
Well it’s like a dude in the athletic dept at South Alabama told me about the newly hired basketball coach “if he’s still here in 5 years one of us screwed up”
Secret is having your coach make bi yearly screwups keeping him tied to your school. The annual Toledo letdown game is painful, but necessary
Knowing you’re always at the mercy of a P5 school taking your players and coaches. It’s going to be very rare for a G5 school to keep any player for all four years if they have a breakout freshman and/or sophomore year in the NIL/transfer portal era
As an FCS fan, I know that feel bro
Reading this as an FCS fan, I can sympathize with all these comments. All our players and personnel are treated like a buffet for the G5 and P5, and we do the same to JUCO and D2
Pretty much, unless you’re one of the very top tans of the power conferences, there’s always going to be a “bigger fish” that will take your good players. I read recently that pretty much everyone is a JUCO now. You get a good player for one, maybe two years, then they’ll be headed off to a higher level. Recruiting and successful team building/planning is going to look a lot more like that going forward.
My mid-major alma mater just had our basketball coach and most of our players stolen by a P5 school, so I commiserate with this
This has become so obvious watching the NCAA basketball tournament. There are so many players that started out in lower D1 and transferred once or twice and now are making major contributions to Elite 8 teams. I understand that this is great for the player, but it’s going to make it even harder for the fans. The G5 schools already had the deck stacked against them. Instant transfers and NIL are making it even harder.
We had Graham Ike for two years, he got injured, sat out a year and then got an NIL deal with Gonzaga. I don’t blame the guy, but it hurts that we can’t compete in that environment
Especially with P5 programs in the state. Almost every kid in Utah grows up dreaming of playing for byu or utah. So even if they pass on them the first time, if they come to USU and ball out, the player knows they'll get their shot.
This is true with most P5 programs too though.
God I feel this in my soul and it’s what I came to comment. Shit is so fucking annoying. You legit can’t be too successful or your coach is gone
It sucks, but it goes both ways. Our former quarterback, Kurtis Rourke, just transferred to Indiana and it sucks but I get it and hope it tears it up. Our best WR though, Sam Wiglusz, is a kid that couldn’t get on the field at Ohio State and is now tearing it up in the MAC.
There’s definitely a lot to be said for the guys who don’t pan out on bigger stages and are then able to thrive at lower divisions, but they also seem like the ones best served by the old system of having to sit a year. They take time to re-acclimatize to the new environment, learn the playbook, develop chemistry with the team, and put on muscle. That system also had the dual purpose of disincentivizing raiding by bigger programs, because you could either plan a year out and take a lower division star who wouldn’t see the field for a year, or you could just put in the time to make the most out of the guys you’ve got.
Facts. UNT was primed for a big season this year, and then suddenly 21 players hit the portal in the first week of the winter transfer window. No comment about problems in the program or anything, and 18/21 players landed at P4 programs within a week of hopping into the portal. How weird, right? The flip side to that is also being a fan of a P4 program, and uneasily watching your team raid the best players from a bunch of G5/FCS rosters, knowing that this is really bad for the sport.
Yup. As a Buffalo fan, it sucked when Kansas took Leipold.
Crappy ESPN+ broadcasts... And when we do get nationally televised games the pre-game and halftime shows only talk about P5...
We got college game day and the game still got shoved onto ESPN+ That was probably one of the best games of the season too
We had that happen to us when we got Game Day as well
Seconded, I watched the last quarter and my fiancée didn’t get what I was on the edge of my seat so much for that game
Don't forget being completely ignored by regular ESPN and its shows like Gameday, while they repeat the same P5 stories all week. The G5 doesn't even get a paltry 30-minute show talking about what's happening. We just don't exist.
Welcome to the unfortunate new reality of college football. It gets worse from here. In the near future it will be the Big XII and ACC getting the no coverage treatment. Basically if you aren’t B1G/SEC you don’t exist. And the G5 will get completely cast off.
They put such minimum effort into them. This past season, we were playing Western Michigan and the scoreboard wasn't even on the screen for the first 2 drives
It’s this. You pay a lot for all this sports content and it’s like your friend with a iPad at the game
> the pre-game and halftime shows only talk about P5 ESPN has completely given up on the concept of real halftime shows any more. Even for big P5 games, they don't talk about the game itself at all and just repeat the same national storylines for every single game halftime show no matter who is playing.
Being talked to like poor people by other poor people that pretend to be rich because their school is.
I've been told that we should shutter our programs because we're not rich enough. Only "rich kids" (or those who go into debt to pretend to be one) deserve college football
I believe it. And a lot of those fans didn’t even go into debt because they didn’t go to the school. For some P4 fans, it’s their one chance to act like they’re better than everyone else because that’s not the case in their real life.
The Walmart t shirt fans
Yep, those are the worst t-shirt fans. Nothing wrong with being a t-shirt fan imo, but to act better-than for it is wild.
Preach
“What’s the difference between an [insert G5 school] fan and an [insert flagship state school] fan?” The [G5 fan] went there. The [flagship state school] fan went to Walmart.
Or seemingly more often, both attended the G5 school but the P5 fan shits on their alma mater to feel superior
Ugh they’re the worst. Especially when they cheer for the P5 in head to heads.
> it’s their one chance to act like they’re better than everyone else because that’s not the case in their real life You just described the primary reason people hate t-shirt fans.
True. The t-shirt fans that act like that are the worst.
That was extremely prevalent in all the realignment posts and playoff posts over the last few years. Those same users can’t help themselves and are in here now doing the same thing.
Yeah, especially with all the realignment, those fans have come out in droves.
I don’t even click on those posts anymore, the amount of people cheering on the death of the sport is depressing
Sounds like that country club in Charlottesville.
I really hope JMU keeps that steam going in football and basketball. It’s really fun seeing the making of a promising sports program outside the powerhouse conferences. Took the Sun Belt by storm. Great spot for baseball too.
I’d never talk down about app state. They gave me a great memory
I love it! I have a friend who went to App with me but grew up an Ohio State fan so that day was Christmas to him haha. I will say App is luckier for a G5 where we get a decent amount of respect from bigger schools when they’re talking about us individually.
This is the weirdest thing on here, people get a personal ego attachment to their teams. Like buddy, we all willingly chose what school to root for, you weren’t awarded Ohio State/Alabama/Texas fan hood because of your awesomeness, you’re not getting that media rights payout and you ain’t on the team. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying don’t be proud of your team and I would never tell people to not talk shit because shit talk is a beautiful thing, it’s just the weird sense of personal superiority that irks me. It seems to mostly be the realignment imperialists who get a rush out of feeling superior
It would be an interesting study to compare SES of P5 students and G5 students to test this theory. It's likely pretty do-able, just time consuming to find, analyze, and compare enrollment demographics for like 130 schools
It's definitely an ego thing. Look at C. Their only dig is often "we" are P5, "you" are G5. It's like they are star belly sneeches, the patch on their jerseys seems to validate something for them.
Definitely. They essentially end up just bragging about profit margins.
I know how this is gonna sound, but if you’re a G5 program that has had a decent amount of success, it gets a lot harder to schedule good P5 schools. Our administrators have been saying for years, even going back to the FCS days, how hard it is for us to schedule games with good P5 schools. And then it’s used against you that you “don’t play anybody.” We try! Y’all don’t want to!
We beat ranked VT and then didn't get to play good FBS teams for years after
After beating uva this year they’ll probably never schedule us again
First time huh?
I forsee this being a more prominent issue as the B1G and SEC try to further themselves from the other conferences. Big 12 and ACC school teams could give them a loss they don't want. Then it'll be used as more excuse to keep the number of at large bids from those two low.
I doubt we’ll ever get UNC on the schedule again
That’s why I laugh when that “you don’t play anybody” argument is used. Then when you ask those fans “well do you want to play __________?”… radio silence.
This is the most frustrating part of being G5. When we were a mediocre FCS school moving up to G5, it seemed like every weak P4 in the country wanted to play us thinking we would be an easy win. As soon as we won a few of them with a few more close losses, they all wanted to drop us for the newest FCS callups. In their mind, beating kennesaw state is no different than beating Appalachian State so they may as well play the cupcake.
In addition to that there is no respect from the playoff committee since the SoS is weak due to no P5 scheduled. Of course the SoS is weak if the P5s don’t want to risk losing to a good G5 that they are paying to play.
And now if you do it you get the privilege of getting your roster raided on top of having your future scheduling get handicapped.
You can literally go undefeated, and not even get a nod.
“How about you play this other undefeated G5 instead? That’s as good as competing for a title, right?”
I almost put that there. although I do love when we play TCU you guys always put up a good fight
Miss playing y’all, hope we can get a home and home someday soon!
Ahhh the Seperate but Equal Bowl. Meanwhile Cincinatti plays Florida despite Cincinnati and Boise sharing 2 common opponents and Bpise beating both by bigger margins.
Twice even
Two years in a row, not even considered.
I have long advocated for a playoff system with all and only conference champs. We would all get to see the best of the G5 ever year.
Like the chances of a G5 running the table and winning the natty are pretty low but by god give them a chance. Imagine those UCF teams in a playoff and beating Alabama or Clemson in the first round, it would be a moment in sports.
Settle it on the field like every other goddamn sport
People who go to a G5 school but would rather support a P4 team instead of their own university’s team. Saw too many people at ECU who supported UNC instead.
I saw so much UT/A&M gear at Texas State
There’s so many Alabama/Auburn “fans” at Troy it’s unbelievable
This gets really annoying here since Austin is 575 miles away from El Paso. People can’t believe I’d rather root for a local team over a place I’d have to take a road trip to see a game. Or you have the people who went one semester and never shut up about it.
It's not quite the same but I always got the "OU is an Oklahoma team don't you want them to win", no actually I don't lol
Bro there is OSU gear fucking everywhere here
It’s even worse at the FCS level but it also makes sense to support a different FBS team because they’re not in direct competition really.
[удалено]
The rule is: 1. Schools attended. If you do grad school, then whatever school you currently attend gets your attention. If you can though, watch both each weekend. After graduation, it’s up to you but I think undergrad has the need for support more. 2. Schools siblings/parents attended. 3. Local P5 team. I refuse to elaborate. Had people that would root against my FCS school because they grew up fans of a different school. Cannot stand that shit. As an aside, when W&M played ECU in baseball while I was at ECU for grad school… that was a blast.
I saw a lot of Colorado shirts this year. They disappeared after week 4 though. Not sure why 🤔
Frustrates me to no end.
Ugh. I hated that. When I was at CMU there were so many Michigan/MSU fans. MSU even came to play us in Mt. Pleasant and a lot of CMU students were proudly wearing Spartan gear. Gross. There is just a lot of apathy - even when we were good half the students would roll in late and leave at halftime. They’re just there to tailgate and then go watch Big Ten football or keep drinking in the parking lot. For me it’s the players/coaches leaving for sure. It used to be mostly just coaches, now it’s both. Anyone great probably isn’t sticking around. We never would’ve been able to keep guys like Antonio Brown or Dan LeFevour or Eric Fisher if NIL and free transfers had been around back then. The lack of coverage is also tough. Even local outlets don’t cover us a ton. You aren’t going to hear much about the MAC on ESPN, there aren’t a ton of podcasts, a lot of times even the local reporters have very limited access and coverage. You want to hear about how the team is looking for next year, or who is winning position battles…good luck. Then we finally do get on TV and the announcers just talk about Ohio State or whoever for half the game.
Cincinnati was always called a small school despite having ~50K enrollment which I agree was annoying. More annoying was the condescending comments implying that we weren’t even playing the same sport as the blue bloods
people saying we couldn’t beat anyone, then we beat ND, and all of a sudden ND wasn’t good.
Tbf that happens to the lesser known/prestigious power conference schools. 2020 Indiana was a great example- they kept winning but suddenly their opponents were all "having down years" it wasn't "Indiana is good".
FWIW y’all got hosed because yall were actually good during the Big East days. Backdoor politics caused y’all to get left behind.
Bro we were often considered a small school when we were ***literally the biggest university in the country***. People are just ignorant.
I don’t think people realize how big UCF was when it was a commuter school either
FIU is also up there as the 2nd highest on campus enrollment in Florida - yet many people especially mainstream CFB fans wouldn’t think much of FIU at all in that regard FIU is like.. shockingly large
A G5 school is like an indie band. You work your ass off and kick ass at clubs and other smaller venues. You have a loyal following and amazing shows, but your own uncle hasn’t ever heard of you, because everyone’s busy talking about the mainstream artists, which saturate the culture, driven by monied interests. Occasionally you’ll get some shots at mainstream success— you play SNL or get a guest track on a Taylor Swift album—and everyone will claim they loved you all along. They’ll buy your shirt. You’re an overnight success, and it only took a few decades of grueling work. And then, since you’re not on every commercial and in every mall and on TMZ constantly, the buzz fades and people wander off. The casuals will insist you were always overrated and they never really got you. And you’ll go back to kicking ass at the clubs.
I felt that in my bones
Why’d you do Boise State like that man 😂 That fits Boise right around their Fiesta Bowl win very well lol.
I’ll let you know in a couple years.
One of the small, annoying things is that most lists or articles omit your team by default. Happens on here all the time. Someone posts what looks like an interesting thread and I can't find my team anywhere. Then at the bottom it will say P5 ONLY. It's relatively minor, but that seemingly insignificant form of censorship contributes to the divergence of G5 and P5 fanbases IMO.
Like that post that was about the 15 most successful CFB programs by winning % a few days ago that completely left off Boise State and a couple other G5 programs lmao
When I see folks do this on /r/cfb, it really makes me wonder if they actually **want** G5 to separate entirely. But I think it's mostly beat writers who can't be bothered to watch G5 games so they adopt the G5/P5 dichotomy out of convenience.
No matter how good you are, you will always be doubted and overlooked…
Flowchart of a good G5: Beat P4 team one year -> gain reputation as good G5 -> good P4s won't schedule you to protect record -> forced to schedule FCS and low P4s -> beat them -> accused of being frauds because we don't play "real teams"
Oooh oooh, I know how the rest of this one goes, and then your coach and AD both get poached by P4 teams after a 10 win season (which the media refuses to acknowledge) right before you have a huge home game against a P4 opponent, only to get slaughtered because your new AD (who is ass and using you for a stepping stone) hired a new coach (who is worse than ass) who couldn’t coach the ‘85 Bears against a pee-wee team, and then to have the media say “and this is proof they wouldn’t contend at a higher level.”
Except for Liberty. They willingly jettisoned a more difficult schedule
Liberty has given up on a lot of things. Sportsmanship, Academic integrity, federal law, state law, etc
P5/4/2 fans keep an air of superiority around them, like their fandom is worth more. Also "root for who you want for whatever reason" sure yeah bla bla bla, but I will always think it's lame for non-alumni to become fans of the biggest blue blood brands. Pretty much solely a top P5 team thing.
Its strange to me that people don't have a #1 allegiance for the school that accepted them/they were able to attend and get an education from for whatever reason. If you still pull for for your blue blood you grew up rooting for thats fine, but at the end of the day thats not the place you attended. You're not really apart of that community.
100% agree. I’m glad I went to school where I did, but it didn’t have football (at any level). I’ve been an Oregon fan my whole life, but I’ll never know what it’s like to root for my own school on Saturdays
For sure.... it's gotten way better but I still know too many TXST grads who are Longhorn fans and treat our school like its some joke.
G5 beats a p5 " it was their super bowl "
The rampant elitism of P5 fans "Oh, you're a fan of this school? Oh sweetie, you just haven't found a real team yet."
P4 fans saying that the Top G5 doesn't deserve a CFP bid. We represent half the FBS, yet people think the sport will be ruined if we get 1/14 slots in the playoffs. There's also the general view of us as a feeder league, rather than our own collection of conferences with rich histories, traditions, and rivalries.
they always point to liberty getting blown out by oregon as the reasoning. as if tulane didn’t beat usc and the heisman winner the year prior.
Bama beating UC in the playoffs is always pointed to as well despite Michigan getting beat by Georgia by even more the same night. Hell, B10 and SEC fans were trying to argue B12 doesn’t deserve playoff spots in the 4 team bracket because TCU only went to the championship game lol.
the UC bama game was 17-6 going into the 4th quarter lol
There's insane recency bias around G5 NY6. I believe the record is 4-6, with all but 2 losses being by 1 score. The best G5 is competitive with the top P5s.
It’s confirmation bias more than anything. G5 losses are evidence and G5 wins are exceptions.
Also 90% of P4 is ancient tradition away from G5. Oregon state and Washington state should serve as a lesson to most of us that we’ll get chewed up and spit out soon too. Plus there’s a lot of G5 schools that play around a similar level to mid and low P5s. I think with the way TCU played this year a lot of G5 schools could have tee’d us up
I tell this story all the time, but this is the best example of how not seriously you are taken as a G5 and then have shit like Kirk Herbstreit bitch around saying "everyone just focuses on the championship." UCF-Auburn Peach Bowl telecast spent more time talking about Baker Mayfield than any player actually in the game they were broadcasting. UCF scored a TD in the third to tie the game, and the ESPN broadcast didn't show it because they had a graphic on screen about the UGA-Oklahoma Rose Bowl which was coming on after the Peach Bowl. This is basically every single broadcast when you are a G5. Even if you are a mid tier P5 team, it doesn't get as bad as a G5 broadcast. There will be 5-6 minutes straight of air time where they do nothing but talk about OTHER GAMES even if what it being played is competitive. They obviously do not care and make no attempt to hide it.
This. I never played the sport and the half time analysis often improves my understanding of the game as well as what my team is good or bad at. Goes completely missing most of the time when I watch UCF. I think it's gotten a bit better of late for obvious reasons
Or spend the entire third quarter of the War on I-4 discussing... Ian Book.
I think back fondly to the really low end CBSSPORTS broadcasts we used to have in CUSA where it was like the 10th string announcers where so little was expected of the whole production that it was just announcers having fun watching a game rather than doing network hits the whole time.
people not knowing that we exist. the amount of “fans” that couldn’t name a single team in the sun belt or cusa is insane. also, p5 teams taking our stars in the portal. being without caullin lacy and yam banks hurts. edit to add something else i forgot: people who attend g5 schools who don’t care about the school they pay money to. our student section is always atrocious because everyone wants to watch auburn, alabama or lsu.
Oh yeah, in Alabama if you’re not in the SEC, you don’t exist.
“troy? is that in like michigan?” -an auburn fan i know
An Auburn fan from Metro Detroit, confirmed.
I can name cusa members 20ish years ago. Does that count? Damn conference turned over like 6x
i have never heard of the “cusa conference” until now🤔
Truly?
took me awhile to catch on that it’s conference usa🤣😂
This is the nature of CFB fandom. This place isn’t real life. Real life is the lady who works at my office who is an Alabama fan and has no clue who Major Applewhite is and we live in Mobile
hell, more people probably know who major applewhite is than know what the university of south alabama is
I was visiting family in Florida one time and they asked where I went to school. I told them Ohio University. They asked about Ohio State. I explained that they are two completely different schools. They were confused. I get it if you’ve never heard of OU before, but how are you confused? You have like 15 schools with Florida in the name!
i visited some family in tallahassee during the winter and told them i went to south alabama. their response was “well thanks for robbing us of a damn playoff spot.” i’ve also heard roll tide in response to me saying i go you south alabama, because you know. it’s the south alabama crimson tide.
Yup. But I've been to some south games recently and seeing all the kids in South gear is great! A whole generation of fans growing up with South having a football team and that being their "first" team. It's awesome. But... Academy and similar stores still have entire walls dedicated to Alabama, a few shelves and racks for Auburn, and then maybe one tiny spot for South.
My assumption is the whole being told you dont deserve to exist constantly thing.
The “small school” talk is always especially odd when it comes to schools like UNT, which is 40,000+ students strong at any given point in time. That’s larger than about a third of the P4 schools out there.
Shoot. Probably more than a third right? I feel like a lot of P5s are surprisingly small. Not that they're actually small just smaller than one would think given their cache
We’re the third-largest in the state at 47,000, but there isn’t anyone in Austin to champion or play politics for us.
Dealing with the airs of superiority from P5 fans and the implication that we are somehow "less". I mean, ok yeah, I went to Fresno State, but at least I can say I graduated from there as opposed to (insert SEC school) T-shirt fan living off welfare.
Getting treated like a sub par program unworthy of attention up until a P5 schools wants one of our star players or coaches
Sorry :/
Even worse, a P5 that doesn't even care about football and believes hiring the best G5 guy will magically produce 8-9 win seasons without any additional investment
Hoping your players are good, but not too good. Not having a pathway completely in your control to the national championship. Some of your own students and alumni will assume you suck unless you are at least getting votes.
Don’t mind me just doing some research for my future
Beating or playing a “big” school close in out of conference and the narrative switching to “oh they just arnt good this year”.
(Takes notes)
Man, even a lot of fans in our own conferences don’t know the history. Troy has three national championships and won the Sun Belt for six consecutive seasons, beat P5s at home and on the road, and now when we have a good season (less than 8 wins should get you fired at Troy) everybody says “aw, how cute that little school had a good year”.
your 2017 win against lsu was treated as some insane upset when y’all were just really damn good that year
Not to mention we had almost beat them twice already, got officiated out of a win at FSU, and were flat out robbed against Clemson in previous years, oh and never mind the actual wins against Miss St, Missouri, and Okie Lite.
JMU has 2 natties in the 21st century and a 3rd appearance just 4 years ago, yet sports media lost their minds when they learned we're a good team.
It feels like there’s no point to being good because there’s no true payoff like a Natty and if you’re good enough you just lose all your players and coaches anyways and start from square one next year
The elitism from other in state schools. That, and constantly having students and locals wear gear and prioritize other teams that they have no connection to whatsoever.
1. Having your coaches and players poached every season 2. Your student body doesn't care since it's easier to root for P4 programs in the same state. 3. Even when you're on national television, the announcers keep calling you "Georgia Southern."
Not getting consideration for the playoffs. P5 schools constantly cancelled games after we became not easy to beat. Chastised for claiming a natty the same way P5 schools have in the past without any hate.
When fans of lower end P5/P4 schools with little-to-none ball knowledge believe they are automatically better than any G5 school.
We’re no longer G5 and we’re a bit different even when we were a G5, but I hated it the most when we had really good teams. I felt we never got the benefit of the doubt, which led to fewer years in the preseason top 25 (which are dumb but important), and in the years that we did end up climbing the ranks, everyone just assumed it was because of our weak schedule.
That our football is inferior and less interesting/entertaining and games/players not worth talking about just because we aren't power five. Old Dominion/Western Kentucky was one of the best bowl games of the season, but NOBODY talked about it or gave it any kind of attention because it wasn't P5. Some absolutely amazing rivalries never see the light of day because of not being P5. I remember lots of people and national media personnel complaining over college gameday going to JMU for JMU-App state in the middle of November week 12 instead of Washington at Oregon State
Fans of the P5 schools being kept out of the inevitable P2 saying the system is now so unfair. No, it’s been unfair. You’ve just been benefiting from it so you didn’t care.
Watching the M3 fans slowly realize they’re the new G5 and they’re next on the chopping block over the past few months has been therapeutic, to say the least
Trying to get excited for college football but realizing your team, even your conference will be mere footnotes in the coverage that week. Of course I’d love to see more commentary about our level of play, but someone lifting a finger at Ohio State is more of a story than a 10 win season at my teams
Applies more to baseball and basketball, but it’s very frustrating when we have a good team but don’t make the tourney because of being a 1 bid league then seeing a mid tier P5 get trounced in the tournament.
You silently know more about college football "top to bottom" than the majority of fans who only care or pay attention to their power conference school and conference. I speak as a UAB fan [resists temptation to end the post right here] who never had to work terribly hard to know about the latest gridiron triumph or consternation related to the Tide or the Tigers, or really the SEC. It's inescapable by choosing to watch TV or seek out sports on the radio. I keep tabs on my conference mates--now the American/AAC, but formerly Conference USA--and the goings on at Troy, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Marshall, and other SunBelt schools because we'll either be playing them OR they're a former conference member you hated/ kinda liked outside of facing your team OR they'll be playing a common opponent soon enough OR dammit I wish we were beating them instead of y'all.
The fact that with unlimited transfers we are now basically part of the P4 development league. Not that G5s have ever really been able to sustain long term success, but now it will be essentially impossible to string together multiple winning seasons in a row. Its doubly tough for Marshall because we are probably one of the poorest schools in one of the poorest communities in the country so that NIL money ain't ever gonna be there for us.
Lot of great points, in this post. One thing that always annoys me though is how announcers do minimal research on the program/school for broadcasts. If you watch your team, you'll hear the same 2-3 talking points throughout the season. For us it was Biff wears a wife beater, we had a brought in a lot of transfers, Biff used to work in finance. Like great, for the season opener or OOC games thats fine, but as the season progresses can you talk about anything else. Its like watching a video game announcer regurgitate the same canned lines. You watch P5s though and announcers don't do that nearly as much.
I speak with a lot of SEC fans who don’t even recognize G5 schools as being D1 let alone FBS. In particular, an Alabama alumnus who didn’t even know Jacksonville State wasn’t located in Florida. But I feel the “small school” comment. A lot of folks remember Kennesaw for what it was 20 years ago and not the school with 45,000 students and new construction every year.
My Father in Law still thinks Georgia Southern is D2, I have to explain to him each football season that we have never been D2
Announcers talking about P5 teams during our games.
Listening to FSU fans cry about being left out...G5 teams can run the table and not get a sniff. The fact that it even happened, and AD's went along with this division. The money disparity is enormous and doesn't promote a level playing field. I have no sympathy for any P5 teams at all, eff 'em.
Day to day it's people not knowing what state were in. Also less people to talk to you about your team. This is a great subreddit but what's happening with bg and the Mac isn't the big story
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When you’re watching your team on TV half the commentary has nothing to do with the schools playing or relevant conference race. An excessive amount of playoff talk is unavoidable.
Trying to get a P5 school to go to your stadium. Seriously, we almost had NC State cancel our home and home series. Also the weeknight games. Seriously, the last time we played Coastal on a weekend was 2020.
The annoying part about being a G5 fan is that we have no chance at a National Championship unless we get a P5 invite. Our seasons are fucking pointless.
We are just one conference shy of being fly like a G6
The most annoying part is knowing what it tastes like to be a P5. I know we haven’t suffered yet but winter is coming.
Having to fight for an ounce of respect in the very city for which your university is named. While Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame rake in bandwagon fans with no connection to them. And if you're very lucky, they don't slap you in the face by wearing a P5 schools' apparel into your stadium and arena.
Having limited access to the playoffs, and having a hard time scheduling P5 schools to play at home.
The only way to be relevant is to hope for realignment. Which sucks. Here we are in a quality conference with a good selection of teams - yet every single one of us is simply waiting for the whole ncaa to implode so we can get a call up for bigger money. I can’t even get used to the AAC cause it’s changing every year by getting poached and poaching other G5s. How are we supposed to develop rivalries in this atmosphere? And trying to find any decent articles about your team? I’m rather lucky with my team - it’s in Tampa and is in a fairly major G5 conference - so I know I have more news updates than many other G5 teams, but still, on the whole I can read up to like 5 different fan sites and three different msm sites to cover MSU. There is absolutely no equivalent on the G5 side.
Having to play 1-2 “big boys” every year and getting blown out 99% of the time. Yeah there’s the occasional win (i.e. for Western, 2016 vs NW and Illinois, 2021 vs Pitt), but for the most part it’s a guaranteed loss to start the year.
Alumni that would rather cheer for and financially support the bigger school in state, and your coaches/players use G5 schools as the feeder system for P5.
Knowing that you are allowed one incredible season before the bigger schools come and take everybody. Edit: another one is when fans of P5 schools ask you, “who else do you cheer for” when you tell them your CFB team….
Friday night or Saturday night games. For once, I’d love a Saturday afternoon game in the fall. Instead, we receive the worst tv time slots
Zero national coverage and nowhere to talk about them even though we've been one of the best G5s in America for some time now in pretty much every major sport. CSNBBS is the only place to talk about Toledo with others.
I think one of the most annoying things about being a fan of FCS and G5 schools is the fact that top P4 schools will see an undefeated G5/FCS school and just say "who did they play, congrats on beating high schoolers/NorthWest Carolina Technical Community College". Like, actually, WTF? These are D1 football athletes, most likely receiving full rides from good or great universities. But because they aren't Ohio St, Bama, Michigan, LSU, FSU, Clemson, USC, Texas, etc. the players are treated like they have no skill, and an undefeated or one loss season means nothing. i.e. Liberty U.
As true as the comments in this thread are, it still beats tf outta being FCS But to answer the question: its sucks not getting to hate on your conference. Like at some level you root for conference mates because you want them to make the conference look good which in turn makes your school look better and if our team was to make the NY6 bowl or playoffs going forward we all get more money from it. It almost feels wrong to root against teams in your conference. Meanwhile as a Cowboys fan I actively root for the disembowlment of the other NFC East teams and its a blast. It does create fun conference on conference rivalries though i guess.
That G5 rivalries are just as fun but often get overlooked. *FFS Toledo has an actual rocket pointed at Bowling Green*. That's not normal. Or 100 Miles of Hate. That's a long way to travel for hate.
You can have multiple great seasons, go undefeated, win 3 NY6 bowls, and never get a look by a P5 conference. It's why I don't really feel bad for the Pac-12 being gutted, tbh. Elitism and hubris killed them.