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Message: [QUOTE="pj, post: 4726277, member: 2524"] What works on behalf of schools like UConn is the economics of bundling. It's just more valuable to have a bigger bundle than a smaller one, which is why cable has historically generated so much revenue. If the top 40 schools or so broke off, they lose half the audience which roots for the next 160 schools. Those fans had their local rooting interest but considered themselves college football or college sports fans, and watched the name schools because of that. If their local rooting interest splits off, they never see the big name schools and lose interest. The big name schools walked away with half the college football fan base but less revenue than they formerly had. The weaker half of the big name programs that used to go 9-3 are now playing tougher competition and going 5-7 or 4-8. They may start to bleed fan interest as well. We all know the casual fans who only root for winners. Sports like basketball that can support many more schools don't fit that model, so what would follow is a further divorce of football from other sports. If football and basketball are economically divorced, then the natural next step is separate conferences for football and basketball (UConn being a leader in this). Moreover, there's no reason for the basketball schools to shoulder the burden of D2 and D3 sports alone, so basketball has reason to break away from the NCAA and make its own arrangements. You end up with football-only conferences, basketball-only conferences, and Olympic sports conferences. The subsequent Balkanized sports world may fit the streaming paradigm better, but it won't give the kind of revenue that these superconferences currently have and hope to continue getting. It's only a matter of time before there starts to be downticks on the contracts. FSU's unhappiness, and Oregon's acceptance of a half-share in the B1G, are harbingers of things to come. In that disrupted world, there will be less money, but the distribution will be more fair. The UConns of the world will migrate toward the college athletics mean, and end up with similar revenue to Syracuse, BC, Louisville, Pitt, Wake, NC State, Va Tech, Miami, West Virginia, etc. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach