I don't always agree with everything Bomani says but during the last portion of this clip he brings up a great point that people who don't follow college football closely might not understand: The financial gap between even the lowest level P5 schools and SWAC is gigantic. Even the gap between SWAC and The rest of FBS is big.
I've seen many people say "why doesn't Deion Sanders stay at JSU and build it up to where it could compete with top 25 programs?" Obviously anyone with even a vague understanding of the business of college football knows this is impossible (especially if JSU was committed to staying in the SWAC).
Here is what the gap looks like:
- Top 15-20 schools (OSU, Georgia, Michigan, Bama, etc)
(big gap)
- The rest of P5
(gap)
- High level G5 teams
- Low-level G5 teams
(gap)
- High level FBS (ie The teams typically making the playoffs and succeeding
- Mid-tier FBS teams
- SWAC level football
Not trying to sound negative or hate on HBC football but this is just a reality of the situation. Deion Sanders could spend a lifetime trying to uplift the HBCU football and he would probably never get to the level that Colorado is at.
It would be intriguing if, hypothetically, Deion Sanders stayed at JSU and JSU was willing to leave the SWAC. Then I could truly see the program leveling up quickly. Look at Georgia State football, it literally didn't exist 15 years ago and they've already gone from FBS, to G5 to now making bowl games consistently.
Obviously leaving the SWAC would fly in the face of the mission of helping all of HBCU football but that is the fastest way for a program to level up.