Just to add to the CR pot

[Jimdish255]

Don't think Childers ever posted the MP3 audio (now there's a bunch on Soundcloud but very little back then) but the whole interview was startling and raised some good questions. If anyone finds please post.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I completely agree. Eventually, I think conferences will somehow migrate back to more regional affiliations. Most likely with regional divisions within 4 16 or 20 team major conferences. The current set up is just silly

Yes, this is all stupid. It could easily be fixed by just having Congress step in and creating an NCAA championship in football, with 12 teams (4 with byes). Give a spot to every single conference champion. Bingo, suddenly having a football league with more than 10 or 12 is stupid and counterproductive (which it is in the general sense anyway for travel and rivalries). Better for the fan and media as well, as 6-8 decent football leagues would generate more broadcast competition, and the content would be harder to monopolize.

The only positive I see for 20 team leagues is that it is easier for them to split back to 10.

 

[ddminct]

Dip

 

[Exit 4]

Has John Greene denied that he is Melogroovy?

 

[upstater]

How about the crazy argument about the playoff taking away from class time. That simply doesn't fly anymore, if it ever did.

 

[Vuce]

How about the crazy argument about the playoff taking away from class time. That simply doesn't fly anymore, if it ever did.

Yeah even though the 1-AA schools at the time had a playoff and "missed class." Then you alkso had many schools who were on break anyway. It always was a bull excuse

 

[upstater]

Yeah even though the 1-AA schools at the time had a playoff and "missed class." Then you alkso had many schools who were on break anyway. It always was a bull excuse

Almost every university I know of is moving toward a long January intersession for two reasons.

1. Scholarship and federal loan money can't be used for those classes, so it all comes from out of pocket dollars.
2. The instructors likely to teach such courses will be part-timers earning $2k to 3k a pop.
3. It will allow students to finish their degrees more quickly.

This literally means that most state universities will begin spring semester between January 25-31 within the next decade. The way they can swing this is by getting rid of all holidays during the entire school year (including Labor Day) except for Spring Break and Thanksgiving.

In a decade, January football will be played when there are no classes going on.

 

[The Funster]

A mistake for whom though. These are colleges. It's only a mistake for athletics, not for academics. Maryland was bleeding and was being subsidized heavily by the academic side. When people complain about the lack of academic integrity to all this, I rarely hear them take this into account. This isn't directed at you but at the media talking heads affiliated with sports. Almost no one points this out because almost no one ever mentions that athletics is heavily subsidized almost everywhere, and that is what's dictating all the changes.

You make a good point. On the one hand the university's primary objective is supposed to be education. On the other hand we've seen what success in basketball has done for the University of Connecticut. We have raised our academic profile in large part because of that success. However, UConn appears to be the exception rather than the rule in this regard.

That being said, I think it's a mistake for the student athlete in general and for the fans. Let's use WVU as an example. They're already having issues with the travel in the Big 12 and that's with basketball. What are those travel issues doing to the Olympic sport athletes? How are fans affected because it's a flight insead of a drive to an occasional event? Let's assume that WVU is getting 20M more than they would have if they had stayed. Are all those issues worth 20M when contrasted against the entire WVU operating budget? Would WVU have been better served had they stayed in the BE (I know, a hypothetical) and maybe taking a little less money for a more comprehensive benefit for it's students and supporters?

I'm not going to pretend I have the answers to these questions because I don't and I guess if I was going to access this I would ask why bother with any thought of tradition and let us choose the top 64 or 80 or 96 teamsn and assemble them in such a way to leverage maximum $ for the entire collection. That way $ are maximized and there is some regional consistency so costs on the back end are reduced and fan participation for road games is still a realistic endeavor.

 

[John Greene]

Has John Greene denied that he is Melogroovy?

Not enough of an "insider" to know if being Melogroovy is good or bad. Someone please clue me in. If it is good I may not deny it. At least no one thinks I'm the rational 10% of hfd's brain.

 

[MTHusky]

Not enough of an "insider" to know if being Melogroovy is good or bad. Someone please clue me in. If it is good I may not deny it. At least no one thinks I'm the rational 10% of hfd's brain.

Give it time, John.

 

[upstater]

You make a good point. On the one hand the university's primary objective is supposed to be education. On the other hand we've seen what success in basketball has done for the University of Connecticut. We have raised our academic profile in large part because of that success. However, UConn appears to be the exception rather than the rule in this regard.

That being said, I think it's a mistake for the student athlete in general and for the fans. Let's use WVU as an example. They're already having issues with the travel in the Big 12 and that's with basketball. What are those travel issues doing to the Olympic sport athletes? How are fans affected because it's a flight insead of a drive to an occasional event? Let's assume that WVU is getting 20M more than they would have if they had stayed. Are all those issues worth 20M when contrasted against the entire WVU operating budget? Would WVU have been better served had they stayed in the BE (I know, a hypothetical) and maybe taking a little less money for a more comprehensive benefit for it's students and supporters?

I'm not going to pretend I have the answers to these questions because I don't and I guess if I was going to access this I would ask why bother with any thought of tradition and let us choose the top 64 or 80 or 96 teamsn and assemble them in such a way to leverage maximum $ for the entire collection. That way $ are maximized and there is some regional consistency so costs on the back end are reduced and fan participation for road games is still a realistic endeavor.

Good post. I wrote earlier today about universities moving to more revenue generating models by lowering standards. The pressures on student athletes are also being placed on regular students. So this is nothing more than a trend across higher education. A reduction of quality.

 

[UConnNick]

Don't know. This is speculation on my part but I bet a lot of UMD alums prefer to go to late Fall games in NC, SC, FL, GA, even KY, with maybe one visit a year to PA, NY or MA. In the B1G they get a steady diet of cold in in late Fall.

I don't know either, but I do know that the turtles always have been, are, and always will be a BB school first and foremost. I really don't think their decision-making process has much of anything to do with where their hardcore FB fans might be willing to travel to a late season away game. My guess is that concern was so low on the priority list as to not even merit the slightest bit of consideration.

To fully understand where Maryland FB rates among the school's fanbase in the hierarchy of Terp sports programs, one only has to look as far as their decision to hire Randy Edsall, when there were many more attractive candidates available at the time they chose to hire him.