Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard's statements come as the divide between the SEC, Big Ten and everyone else continues to growReese Strickland/USA TODAY NETWORK
Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard is saying the quiet part out loud.
"Those with the gold make the rules," Pollard said in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday ahead of a stop on the Cyclone Tailgate Tour per a video posted to X, formerly Twitter. "If I was a member of the Big Ten or SEC, I’d start looking over my shoulder and wondering when is the day going to come when the top of the SEC is not going to want the bottom of the SEC.”
Pollard's point echoes what plenty in college athletics fear as the vacuum within the enterprise has already swallowed up the Pac-12 and put the ACC and Big 12 in precarious spots over the last 18 months. Meanwhile, the divide between the SEC, Big Ten and everyone else continues to grow.
The recently signed College Football Playoff media rights deal with ESPN functionally codified the growing gap between the Power Two and the rest of FBS as the Big Ten and SEC are each set to receive 29% of the annual revenue from the deal. The ACC (17%), Big 12 (14%) and Group of Five (9%), meanwhile, will see significantly lower shares.
"Go back in times when the AFL and NFL merged," Pollard said. "They only needed one commissioner. When the ABA and NBA merged, they only needed one commissioner. There's going to come a day when $6 million a year commissioners, they're going to eat their own. And if we think that's not going to happen, you're a fool, because we didn't think the Pac-12 would get eaten and it did. The CFP is just another example of our industry running amok. They're trying to swallow the ACC and the Big 12. I wish them all the best, because they're going to eat their own."
Pollard's comments came amid the same conversation with reporters in which he announced Iowa State would pause plans for a new ISU wrestling facility. He pointed to the changing landscape within college athletics -- a reference to the potential settlement in the House case that could see schools be on the hook for an additional $25-$30M in direct athlete compensation.
“There’s just no way possible to go forward and convince the state that we can take bonds out to pay for a wrestling facility when the College Football Playoff decided to take all the money and give it to the Big 10 and SEC,” Pollard said. “With this lawsuit getting ready to be settled, you just can’t go forward with projects like that. That’s the same reason we didn’t go forward with Hilton (Coliseum). You just can’t bond for them.”
