While Cash Grabs Continue, Small College Football Programs Prove Old-School Approach Still Works

With Northern Illinois, Toledo and other mid-major teams scoring upset wins, there is the restoration of hope that success isn’t solely about who can spend their way to the biggest advantage.

Toledo Rockets players react after defeating the Mississippi State Bulldogs. / Matt Bush-Imagn Images

The pursuit of more revenue is making news this week in college football, which makes it just like most weeks in the sport. The Tennessee Volunteers rolled out a 10% “talent fee” tacked onto tickets to bolster its NIL payments to athletes. Meanwhile, the Atlantic Coast Conference is considering weighted revenue distributions according to TV ratings, an attempt to mollify litigious members Florida State and Clemson.

What they’re doing is understandable. Tennessee is striking while the program is red hot, shifting part of its NIL approach from please donate to you WILL donate if you want to keep coming to Neyland Stadium. The ACC, Florida State and Clemson are trying to make peace after a year of battling by financially rewarding their most powerful brands.

But they’re also acquiescing to the Chicken Little nature of the sport, where the sky is constantly in danger of falling unless more money flows in. A rival program or conference is always poised to get ahead. A revenue gap is a recipe for competitive doom we are told, over and over and over. Disaster lurks around every corner.

At this very moment, when the rich are desperately trying to get richer, we have had a remarkable series of common-man triumphs that suggest money isn’t everything. Coaching, smart recruiting, player development and program culture might actually still matter.

Northern Illinois, which ranked No. 143 nationally in athletic revenue in 2022 at $22 million, according to USA Today’s database, defeated NBC’s team, Notre Dame. Toledo, No. 97 nationally with $36 million in athletic revenue in ’22, crushed Southeastern Conference member Mississippi State—which makes nearly three times as much money as the Rockets. UNLV, checking in at No. 59 in the revenue rankings, has beaten Big 12 members Houston and Kansas this season. Memphis, forever the program with its nose longingly pressed against the power-conference window, beat Florida State in Tallahassee despite a $100 million revenue deficit.

There now is an additional benefit to toppling giants, beyond pocketing a seven-figure guarantee check and earning a week of celebration. Someone from the Group of 5 conferences is going to the College Football Playoff. Northern Illinois, Toledo, UNLV and Memphis have moved to the front of the pack chasing that new windfall.

But beyond that, there is the restoration of hope that college football success isn’t solely about who can spend their way to the biggest advantage. Or bankroll enough money to correct their egregious errors.

Florida appears to be on the verge of paying Billy Napier $26 million to go away early in his third season. Texas A&M went an unconscionable $75 million deep to dismiss Jimbo Fisher last year. Earlier this year, Mike Norvell got a raise to $10 million a year over the next seven years at Florida State—and he’s winless since then. Norvell is not going to get fired this year, but he cannot continue on the current trajectory through 2025.

These are foreign concepts at the Group of 5 level. The Mid-American Conference schools are particularly illustrative of how to build a competitive team without quick fixes. The basic tenets: target three-star prospects in your backyard; find a secondary niche in a talent-rich state; create a culture where your players want to stay and graduate.

Toledo’s starting lineup at Mississippi State included the following: 10 players in their fifth, sixth or seventh year of college, and seven of those players have spent the entire time at Toledo; five transfers, but only one who is in his first year at the school; six guys from the state of Ohio, including 80% of the offensive line; 12 guys from the Midwest; seven guys from Florida, including the starting quarterback, leading tackler and two leading receivers.

For Northern Illinois, this was the starting lineup breakdown at Notre Dame: 13 players listed as seniors, 11 of which have spent their full careers at NIU; four transfers, just one from another FBS program; 17 players from the Midwest, with particular emphasis on Illinois and Wisconsin; four from Florida or Georgia, including the leading rusher. 

Neither MAC program is flush with transfers down from power-conference schools, or up from the FCS ranks. They’re primarily built on high school recruiting, then keeping those players within the program. They develop and mature, and are ready to contribute as older veterans.

Northern Illinois quarterback Ethan Hampton played in 10 games his first three seasons, starting a few as an injury substitute. Now in Year 4, he’s the starter—and he leads the nation in pass efficiency.

Toledo quarterback Tucker Gleason spent a year at Georgia Tech before transferring to the Rockets. He reunited there with his coach at H.B. Plant High School in Tampa, Robert Weiner, who is an assistant on Jason Candle’s staff. Gleason backed up Dequan Finn for three seasons before taking over the starting job this year; he currently ranks 16th nationally in pass efficiency, right behind Texas’s Quinn Ewers.

Every MAC school would assuredly like to have more money. They all have stories of bigger programs tampering with their players, attempting to woo them away with NIL dollars. But the declarations that they can no longer compete are their own Chicken Little laments. The best of them are doing it, right now. 

There might be an ever-expanding pool of money available for transfer players, but playing time is finite. There are only so many starting jobs, and everyone wants to get on the field as opposed to sitting on the sideline. The really big money is in the NFL, and the best way to get there is to put your skills on film—something that can be done at places like Toledo.

Defensive back Quinyon Mitchell declined offers to transfer and became a first-round draft pick. The Rockets, built properly and offering quality coaching, are keeping enough good players to go into the SEC and not just win a game, but dominate. The score was 35–3 in Starkville, Miss., before the Bulldogs managed a mild rally to lose by 24.

“Days like Saturday don’t happen often,” Candle acknowledged this week. “That’s a massive thing. … But our best moments as Rockets have not happened yet.”

The biggest moment the MAC has had in a long time could be coming a month from now: Toledo at Northern Illinois. This is a hard league in which to look too far ahead—the margins for error are very slim—but the winner could take a significant step toward that CFP automatic bid. 

The programs aren’t flush with money, but they’re proving they can compete with those that are. The answer isn’t always more revenue. It’s maximizing available revenue and building a program culture that resonates beyond the size of your media-rights share or your donor pool.