We’re resurrecting this weekly column, sort of, to explore ongoing issues with college sports, particularly basketball and football—the revenue-generating, corrupt sports. Pac-12 Friday then returns, somewhat, even though the future of the conference remains in doubt. Maybe we will rename this column “Rose Bowl Friday” eventually to continue exploring the histories of both the B1G and the Pac-12 conferences? No idea.

Today, however, we want to take on some economic realities, as discussed by a trusted source in a LinkedIn post this week: the disparity between Power 5 schools and Group of 5 schools in football is wide, and it’s just going to get wider. This creates a situation where the smaller schools eventually will be squeezed out of the market—and with them, a lot of viewers loyal to those school’s teams. That’s the reality of the sport, right?

When emotional connections are the strongest threads between fandom and spending money on the sport, severing those connections due to hopelessness is going to be a reality. Again, this is not English futbol: this is American football. When the Tulsa football team is no longer relevant on the national scene, the interest from the alumni and fans will wane in the sport overall; inevitably, college football will lose most of its fans.

This is already apparent in the financial irrelevance of the minor bowl games: poor attendance, lower TV ratings, poor merchandise sales. In addition, when cheaters are not punished in the name of profiteering, it also tells other schools and their fans that they don’t matter under NCAA’s alleged bylaws: this means people will spend money and time elsewhere, as has happened with Major League Baseball … the pastime.

We are alums of several Power 5 schools: the University of California, Michigan State University, the University of Colorado, Arizona State University, and Washington State University. We have instructional experience at other Power 5 campuses, as well, across the nation. Every campus has its emotional appeal for us, but as time goes on, we begin to care less and less about college football and its vile shenanigans. Fact.

And we are not alone.

Sadly, college basketball isn’t that far behind, either, as has been shown in recent years with cheating schools let off the hook and small schools prevented from winning repeatedly. We prefer NCAA sports like baseball and hockey, which have not been corrupted by the TV ad revenue temptation. No surprise that MLB and the NHL have normal “minor league” systems in place that the NBA and the NFL refuse to establish.

All it takes is a class-action lawsuit on behalf of age-18 athletes who want to go pro right away and the NCAA. Fans still will watch college basketball and football—and more so—even if the “best” athletes go pro right away, because of their loyalty to their schools … but only if their schools have an equitable and fair chance to succeed, which they do not right now. And they will continue not to into the future, as things stand.