Reorganizing the NCAA's three divisions

[billybud]

Billy,

I believe that you have a few years on me but I vividly remember pre Bobby Bowden FSU, when the idea of FSU competing for a national title was about as outlandish a thought as projecting a future title for UTSA would be today.

I was there before Bowden and I remember well...but you don't seed teams in a league based on what it might take decades to grow into (or never)....in the year that I graduated from high school (1964), FSU lost one game during the season and beat Oklahoma in the bowl. But Oklahoma wasn't the same terror that had played five consecutfive seasons with only two cumulative losses.

Heck...FSU was a gitl's school at my birth...they have come a long way. But I won't hold my br5 eath waiting on UMass, UTEP, Arkansas State, etc to be a Florida State.

Demographics helped FSU ...when I was 4 years old, Florida was one of the smaller states in the southeast population wise (smaller than Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisianna, North Carolina, Tennessee)...and went on to grow to be number three in the US on population behind California and Texas.

 

[billybud]

I see that folks are reacting to Sankey mainly in regard to basketball....I see the P2 in football...but I just can't see a collapsing of basketball with that.

Quality teams are too well spread though the college universe...SDSU, Gonzaga, Loyola, Nova, and on.

A school can be competitive at an elite level in basketball without a P2 athletic budget...that's much more difficult with football...

 

[Patman]

But again, Sankey isn’t talking about football here. He wants to kick 150-175 schools out of D1. Not for football. Most are already not playing D1A football. He is trying to grab extra cash and extra prestige of getting bids for his conference. Of course, “I can’t wait for .500 Ol Miss to play .500 Iowa in the NCAA tournament,” said nobody ever. Show me the money say the SEC and Big. But there are implications of doing that that destroy everything else.

And going beyond all that, if you decide to run your own Power Championships, let’s call them, you risk losing legitimacy and you need to create an entity to manage them. Either one entity or sport specific ones. The SEC isn’t going to care about hockey or lacrosse. The Big doesn’t care about some others that are important in the SEC. So OU can’t leave it at the conference level.

Yeah. What he wants is fewer autobid conferences. Now, the number of conferences has only moved up slightly over the years but regardless is they want more spots for their teams.

 

[NE Football]

The best solution is to reduce football scholarships to 65 and cap walk ons at 10. That will spread the talent and give teams in the middle of the P4 a chance to compete for NC. Increase the playoffs to 32 teams.

Let’s hope that the P2 does not destroy college basketball. The NCAA tournament is so successful because every region and most cities have a horse in the race. Less teams in college sports equals less interest.

 

[billybud]

College football viewing is doing very well...

With only 18 teams accounting for 50% of the viewing...one wonders,

 

[ScottVib]

The Viewership is also a function of carriage & channel. The bottom 71 schools are absolutely less popular... but 10% viewership is also in part due to their content being on channels with much lower carriage and/or harder accessibility.

There's no doubting the 18 schools citied are the most popular... but there is a not-insignificant amount of that viewership that is a function of convenience/background noise for sports fans who aren't watching because it's Alabama, but because it's football on ABC or CBS or even (but to a lesser extent) ESPN.

It's hard to jump tracks, which is part of what gives "historical" powers staying power at the top, it takes a long time for a former power to fall out of that top-tier (i.e. if they pulled that report 20 years ago, Nebraska is probably still on it, Oregon probably not). To put it in basketball terms, it's taken a long time for Indiana to lose its relevance and is part of the battle UConn has faced to break through and be considered a "blue blood".

 

[billybud]

Will Fox and ESPN college football viewing go up next year ? I think so.

Add Texas and Oklahoma to Bama, UGA, LSU, Auburn, Florida, Texas A&M, and then you add USC, Oregon, Washington to Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan..... the number of made-for-TV matchups on a weekly basis jumps up a notch.

And that, IMHO, is the driving force behind the media....increase revenue, decrease costs.

 

[Ldandy]

The best solution is to reduce football scholarships to 65 and cap walk ons at 10. That will spread the talent and give teams in the middle of the P4 a chance to compete for NC. Increase the playoffs to 32 teams.

Let’s hope that the P2 does not destroy college basketball. The NCAA tournament is so successful because every region and most cities have a horse in the race. Less teams in college sports equals less interest.

This changes nothing except providing less scholarships to kids who may need them. The top of the food chain will still have the highest concentration of the top HS Recruits and transfers divided among them. We're talking entire rosters of 5 stars, as they will be far more selective in building their rosters and willing to pay whatever necessary to compete. JMO but #32 in your tournament will be no closer to winning a title than #132.