Well, for example, the NCAA expanded the regular season to 12 games a few years back. In the Pac-12, because of other rules about rivalry games, that means that our rivalry games are no longer the last game of the season. So, more practice, more playing, more night games, more Thursday games, more chances to get injured, more game times not announced until the week before the game. Cal had 7 night games and a 9:20 AM game this season. More money for TV networks, and less connection to the actual schools and the reasons we ostensibly have intercollegiate athletics.
What would it look like for Cal to opt out of the extra game if the school thought that was the right thing to do?
Well, we can't opt out and stay in Division 1. So we're out of the Pac-12, out of our TV deal and searching for our own. Maybe that could work for Notre Dame or USC, but Cal doesn't have the national TV draw to get a good TV deal on its own. So we get less revenue, have a harder time scheduling, have no access to FBS bowls. And we just spent way too much on a stadium remodel that the school has already acknowledged needs a bailout with money coming from the academic side. Can we afford to walk away from $28M in money from the Pac-12 for a school-specific deal that would be half that at best? Even though $28M is not enough, we don't really have the option to do something different.
This is the typical scenario for everyone outside of the top 10 or 20 football programs in the NCAA. The networks know it, and the schools know it, and the NCAA knows it, and the NFL knows it.