Special to Sports News Highlights

(SNH) — Utilitarianism is a doctrine or theory that proposes actions are right if they benefit the majority. Basically, it states that the right decision would aim for the betterment of all.

The classic ethical dilemma proposed by utilitarianism is that of a runaway train. The train is on a course that would result in the death of five people who lay in its path. As a bystander, one could intervene and switch the train to a different track.

However, doing so would result in the death of another person. The moral dilemma is do you save five people by sacrificing one other person.

The money train that is the massive revenue now being generated by college athletics has indeed lost its brakes. It appears that the decision by the switchman is to sacrifice the five and save the one. Clearly, this is the case when it comes to college athletic conferences known as the Group of Five.

One must only look at the expansion of the College Football Playoffs (CFP). Previously, the Power Five conferences each received an annual revenue of approximately $80 million from the CFP payouts. Each of the Group of Five conferences received approximately $20 million each year.

The difference during the four-team CFP between a team in a Power conference and a Group of Five was approximately $5 million compared to $1.5 million each year. With the increased contract for the expanded CFP beginning this year, each SEC and Big 10 schools are set to receive more than $20 million annually. The Group of Five is set to receive $1.8 million.

Further, new media rights agreements for the SEC and Big 10 conferences are expected to increase annual revenue from $50 million to $100 million during the contract period for each school. To put that in perspective, the top five athletic revenue generators among all public universities exceeded $200 million. That is before the increases coming from the expanded CFP and new media rights deals.

For the 2022-23 academic year, the top 20 athletic revenue schools all topped $150 million. Seventeen of those schools will be members of the SEC or Big 10 this coming year. Two of the other three, Florida State and Clemson, are fighting in the courts to find a way to get out of the revenue lagging ACC.

Last year, the highest athletic revenue school not in a Power conference was UConn, which generated less than $100 million. With the added revenue coming, it won’t be long until the Power Two schools bring in three times that amount.

Former Florida State and Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher correctly identified the train coming down the track by stating, “They’re not even playing the same game.” As far as I can see, they are not even in the same ballpark.

The switchman had the opportunity to do the right thing and share the lifesaving increased revenue with the five. But instead, he chose to save one. Which is the problem with the utilitarianism runaway train dilemma: What if the one you save is yourself?

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