If we end up with four power conferences after all the realignment prostitution is over, will the NCAA survive? Are those quasi-professional conferences who are positioned to make mega-bucks going to want to be restricted by the NCAA?

Short and simple answer would be yes. If you have a sport or a function or w/e, you will always have some group back there making up the rules and keeping ppl in check. I could see there being a restructuring of sorts, but they will live on. You also have to remember that the NCAA regulates more than college football, so they will be ok.

(12-24-2012 11:06 AM)Chrono124 Wrote:  f you have a sport or a function or w/e, you will always have some group back there making up the rules and keeping ppl in check.

I agree, but will that be the NCAA. Or will the NCAA cover the lower conferences and the big boys start their own governing group. That is what worries me.

Will never happen. The power conferences need us more than they'll ever admit.

(12-24-2012 06:45 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  Will never happen. The power conferences need us more than they'll ever admit.

I hope you are right, but all that matters is money, and the money is entirely tied up in football TV. In that arena we do not matter.

From what I understand they run the risk of losing Tax exempt status if they split. That's why it hasn't happenedbut already.

(12-24-2012 09:06 PM)TeKERaider Wrote:  From what I understand they run the risk of losing Tax exempt status if they split. That's why it hasn't happenedbut already.

Not really that is really a very popular myth. There was a congressional report done on this and essentially it boils down to that it is difficult to strip these institutions of their tax exempt status and even if they did they found that it was so easy to circumvent the tax that it would not really do much. In fact it would mostly hurt the academic side because essentially extra money would no longer be able to be funneled to outside the athletic dept and instead would have to be used to payoff new expenses just to keep themselves out of a profit.

Splitting off is viable but not worth it right now because doing so would cause so many headaches and unnecessary work. It is easier to just work within the current system and use their greater power and clout to coerce us to follow their will. Fortunately for us breaking off appears to be more work than it is worth right now.

Pssst. There are sports other than FB. Sports that make loads of $$$ as well. And they're sports that these teams in the 4 super-conferences don't have monopoly over.

Also remember that there is nothing anywhere that says any school needs to compete in the NCAA. It is just one choice. For instance all the AQ schools could all decide to leave the NCAA and join the NAIA (assuming the NAIA does not have rules preventing that of course) and all of a sudden the NAIA would be more important than the NCAA. There are several college/university leagues out there and any group of schools can choose to try to join any particular organization or to create a new one.

The tax-exemption is a creature of statute. The promotion of amateur athletics is a specific category for exemption. That is why none of the share the money proposals go past actual cost of attendance.

No they don't have to be in the NCAA but as the NCAA has bloated I've never understood why they didn't go to the NAIA. You tell the NAIA what you want and if they give it, you move.

If the power schools break off, suddenly half of them have losing records.

(12-25-2012 04:18 PM)Tiguar Wrote:  If the power schools break off, suddenly half of them have losing records.

Not only that, but they lose the ability to schedule eight home games.

I've explained this many times, but I'll do it again. The status quot is too good for them. Schools like Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Florida State, Clemson etc. would no longer be able to load up there OOC with SBC/MAC/CUSA/FCS etc when those schools wanted to buy wins they'd have to turn to the likes of Vandy/Northwestern/Colorado/Kansas/Indiana etc and not only are those schools going to be tougher, they're going to cost a lot more money. If Alabama wanted to fill their OOC schedule with those schools any one of them could say give us a return game or we'll come play one game in your stadium for $8 million.

The only way a break away would work is if they all agreed to turn scheduling over to the governing body the way pro sports do it. New schedules every year, every team gets the same number of home games and either no money is exchanged between the schools or its an agreed upon amount based on miles or something like that.

I just don't see the top tier schools giving up that power and I don't see the middle tier power conference schools who win 7-8 games more often than not agreeing as it would put them in danger and I don't see the bottom tier power conference schools agreeing to being relegated to the bottom of an entire division. A school like Vandy or Northwestern can go sub .500 in conference evert year and as long as they schedule well in OOC they have a shot at 6 wins.

Again, no matter where a given school stacks up within the current power structure within the power conferences, the status quo is better for them than whatever their position would be in a break away.

(12-24-2012 08:52 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  If we end up with four power conferences after all the realignment prostitution is over, will the NCAA survive? Are those quasi-professional conferences who are positioned to make mega-bucks going to want to be restricted by the NCAA?

I think we do survive and prosper. The reason that there is an opportunity for any team, even though remote, to be in the national championship game was established by TooLame president threatening anti trust issues. Those issues doe not go away simply by withdrawing and creating a new so called amateur league.

(12-26-2012 09:55 AM)CajunExpress Wrote:  

(12-24-2012 08:52 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  If we end up with four power conferences after all the realignment prostitution is over, will the NCAA survive? Are those quasi-professional conferences who are positioned to make mega-bucks going to want to be restricted by the NCAA?

I think we do survive and prosper. The reason that there is an opportunity for any team, even though remote, to be in the national championship game was established by TooLame president threatening anti trust issues. Those issues doe not go away simply by withdrawing and creating a new so called amateur league.

I think you are correct.

The Big Five are focusing on the money, and not the means of production.

They now televise virtually every game. Used to be when one of us trudged off to play a Big 10, Big XII, SEC, ACC, or Pac-12 school that game wasn't televised. Now it is almost always on TV and quite often on a national channel.

So when we play them tight or win, our potential fans or national voters see it or at least see the SportsCenter highlights. I grew up in a era when we tied Ole Miss, the score got mentioned on ESPN but there was no video because there was no video to show.

Their games against us become a part of our TV package even if we aren't getting the money. It is no longer that crazy of an idea that a Sun Belt team can half of its games on the ESPN family of channels between the road games and the league package.

The quest for money led to the BCS because the joint effort required to maximize revenue from post-season without a playoff required the creation of access for anti-trust protection.

Without that access, do Utah, TCU, and Boise State get the national profile that makes them valuable to TV and that led two of them into Big 5 conferences?

Even without Big 5 membership Boise is now a brand name with TV value despite being in the 111th TV market.

At some point in the new version of the BCS, a team that goes to the access bowl end up winning, and the next year will run the table and crack the four team playoff.

Many people fear the selection committee but the the committee's first goal will insuring the integrity of the system and if a team rolls into selection weekend on a 15 or more game winning streak and will be up for consideration against a few one loss teams that either lost to teams certain to be selected or lost to someone that cost them their conference title making them a runner-up.

To preserve the legitimacy of the system, a gang of 5 school will end up in the playoff field. I think it would have happened with TCU in 2010 and would have happened in 2009 when three of the top 6 would have been from leagues now in the gang of 5.

That won't open the mega money door but the right program in the right place and time will win the next realignment lottery and if they don't they are in position where their donation, sponsorship and ticket money will put them on a competitive basis in recruiting and budget with more than half of the teams in the Big 5.