My worry about the NCAA Tournament is that the P4 (or whatever it is now) don't need to find a TV partner to pay the $1.1B that Turner pays right now. Conferences only get a small portion of that pie, like roughly ~30%. So around $330M split between all the conferences with tournament credits.
This is simply not true. The best players are going to go where the money is, and that will be to the power conferences. Those teams will be able to offer more NIL money, better facilities, they will be on tv more. It will be a gradual decline for the non Power conference schools, but it will happen.
Also, I do feel the politicians might fight for the BE & the little guys because they are in DC, kinda like they wanted a ML baseball team in DC?
My personal preference (likely never getting in the BIG) is the Big12 coast to coast with 20-24 schools which seems inevitable for all conferences. Divide into regional divisions of 6-10 and play in conference tournaments then the national tournament-more revenue and interest. That would create rivalries and cut down on travel and especially help Olympic sports. In that scenario we should surely be included. Lastly, Yourmak and the Big12 BB schools want us and want to solidify the conference as the undisputed best for BB. A HUGE help starting very shortly is : in Jim Mora we trust!!!!
Why stop there? Let's push for UConn to be admitted to the NBA.
I disagree with NIL and facilities. How much a school makes from their media contract has no impact on what gets paid in NIL. And UConn BBall has some of the best facilities in the country.
I don't think you're suggesting it, but we should never join any conference for basketball only.
They aren't going to create a tournament and leave out the best basketball brands and they aren't going to leave out the Cinderellas.
UConn basketball as a stand-alone could likely get into a p-2 or 3 conference on its own merits, because it has such support in CT (state funding) & is a known brand country wide. It’s the other sports - especially football - that would likely suffer. Hoping that becomes the worst case scenario & we’re able to eventually finesse a solid footing somewhere in the “power 5” asap.
See. Here’s the thing. You don’t actually know this. It is just more CR puffery. No one knows anything. I don’t know how many times one has to get T-bagged in the CR carousel to finally realize that no one ever knows anything.
Thing is, if there is a P4 tourney, they only have to do it once. After that, no top recruit will come to a non-P4 as there is no chance of playing for the NC. After that, coaches will leave, TV money will evaporate, and that will be that for competitive hoops in non-P4 conferences. You'll essentially have ~80 teams playing one game and everyone else playing basically Ivy League level hoops.
The average fan doesn't care about the SEC Tournament, Big Ten Tournament, etc., and they're not going to care about a hypothetical P4 Tournament.
The only problem there is Title IX. That's why the big football programs can't just create their own league.
