I think there’s no question that the increased income, prestige and exposure would positively enhance our coaching, facilities and recruiting. You have to do some serious mental gymnastics to not come to that conclusion.

In my opinion, it raises our possible ceiling in some nice ways (better bowls, more predictable scheduling, more chances to knock off an elite team), but what it really does is strengthen our baseline foundation of ability, coaching and expectations.

In other words, we might still lose to an elite LSU team, but we don’t get embarrassed to the point of not crossing the 50. We win some and lose some against the Utes, but probably win 4-7 games a decade instead of 0-9. Our athletes know to expect big games all season long, rather than two overwhelming ones, and six trap games.