Smaller schools like Tulsa want assurances with Power Five deal

[jostar1]

"One thing that we're definitely stressing: We want to maintain shared governance," TU athletic director Dr. Derrick Gragg told the Tulsa World. "If those conferences get away from that model, then they will be able to just create their own rules whenever they want to."

Gragg said AAC commissioner Mike Aresco has had preliminary communications with representatives of his league's institutions about avoiding exclusion from the Power Five leagues.
"We feel like some schools or some conferences may need some autonomy," Gragg said, "but we in the American Athletic Conference don't feel we're that much different from those conferences. Especially some of the, what I would call, lower-tier institutions within those conferences.

But the board also asked its membership for input over the coming months before the plan is enacted in August.
So, yes, Aresco and his colleagues will be providing lots and lots of input.

"From our conference standpoint," Gragg said, "we feel like the autonomy rules should regulate student-athlete welfare issues."
That means a focus mostly on a full cost-of-attendance stipend, paying for families to travel to games, health-insurance initiatives, continuing-education opportunities and other such benefits.
It does not mean adding scholarships. It cannot, or college sports could become irreparably damaged.
"Our commissioner has said it over and over," Gragg said, "we definitely have to pay attention to whether these schools want to increase the scholarship limits. Because if you go back to some of the old scholarship rules, then I think we would have a problem.

"Those schools would just stockpile student-athletes because they could give them more, and then that would limit the number of student-athletes that would come to smaller institutions or those outside what they call the Power Five, certainly. I think as long as you have the scholarship limits in place, there will still be some parity in college athletics."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsext...cle_b65ff912-51bb-5bdc-b3e9-8038afa5ee30.html

 

[noeynox]

Subscription required. Damn it. Seems like a good read. The idea that Wake or BC have big boy school problems that we just wouldn't understand is laughable.

I think we are starting to see the smaller P5 schools raise objections to what some of the bigger p5 schools like Texas want.

 

[jostar1]

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Columnist |

The University of Tulsa, the American Athletic Conference and schools and leagues just like them would like two assurances coming out of last week's big NCAA announcement about Power Five autonomy:

One is maintaining the football scholarship limit of 85.

The other is continuing the current form of shared governance.

If granting the ACC, the Big 12, the Big Ten, the Pac-12 and the SEC legislative autonomy due to their expansive revenues means those leagues can add football scholarships, that would create a competitive imbalance with which schools in the AAC, Conference USA, the MAC, the Mountain West and the Sun Belt would not be able to keep up.

And if the Power Five leagues are allowed to make their own rules while schools in other conferences are kept under a broader (stricter?) NCAA umbrella of governance, that could create a gap so wide that college athletics would be virtually unrecognizable.

"One thing that we're definitely stressing: We want to maintain shared governance," TU athletic director Dr. Derrick Gragg told the Tulsa World. "If those conferences get away from that model, then they will be able to just create their own rules whenever they want to."

Gragg said AAC commissioner Mike Aresco has had preliminary communications with representatives of his league's institutions about avoiding exclusion from the Power Five leagues.

"We feel like some schools or some conferences may need some autonomy," Gragg said, "but we in the American Athletic Conference don't feel we're that much different from those conferences. Especially some of the, what I would call, lower-tier institutions within those conferences.

"Now, they'll get more money based on conference (television) deals and that kind of thing. But I don't see a lot of difference between some of our institutions and some of theirs. What we want to maintain is that there are 10 FBS conferences, and we don't want to see a total separation where there are considered to be five conferences and then everybody else is lumped in there together."

Gragg and all the other American Athletic Conference ADs were big Connecticut fans in this year's NCAA Tournaments. Having the defending national champion in both men's and women's basketball, as well as Central Florida's victory over Big 12 champion Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl, shows "we can certainly compete," Gragg said.

The NCAA Board of Directors endorsed a plan last week that would essentially divide the Football Bowl Subdivision into 65 schools from the Power Five leagues and 59 (and counting) from everywhere else.

But the board also asked its membership for input over the coming months before the plan is enacted in August.

So, yes, Aresco and his colleagues will be providing lots and lots of input.

"From our conference standpoint," Gragg said, "we feel like the autonomy rules should regulate student-athlete welfare issues."

That means a focus mostly on a full cost-of-attendance stipend, paying for families to travel to games, health-insurance initiatives, continuing-education opportunities and other such benefits.

It does not mean adding scholarships. It cannot, or college sports could become irreparably damaged.

"Our commissioner has said it over and over," Gragg said, "we definitely have to pay attention to whether these schools want to increase the scholarship limits. Because if you go back to some of the old scholarship rules, then I think we would have a problem.

"Those schools would just stockpile student-athletes because they could give them more, and then that would limit the number of student-athletes that would come to smaller institutions or those outside what they call the Power Five, certainly. I think as long as you have the scholarship limits in place, there will still be some parity in college athletics."

Whether lower-revenue schools will be unable to keep up with the spending habits of their competition "remains to be seen," Gragg said. Maybe smaller institutions like TU can create ways to reduce expenses or divert funds or generate new income.

Or maybe they'll be forced to cut certain sports out altogether, like Temple recently did with baseball, softball, men's indoor and outdoor track and men's gymnastics. (Men's and women's crew also were eliminated before a philanthropist and the city of Philadelphia stepped in to save them.)

Oh, boo hoo, right? No one who tunes in to "College GameDay" or paints their face or tailgates all day on fall Saturdays or buys Final Four tickets worries whether the Owls are unable to field a softball or indoor track team, right? Who cares, right?

But these program cuts are tragedies.

At Temple alone, that's more than 100 young people each year who no longer have access to financial assistance they once did to attend college. Just because they're good at hitting or throwing a ball or can run like the wind or have great strength or balance, they got to continue their education and improve their lives and perhaps make a positive impact on society. Now some of them may not be able to go to college at all.

Another reality is that almost all non-revenue sports only cover partial scholarships, meaning most of those playing equivalency sports like golf, soccer and wrestling are still paying the school to attend.

Gragg said there has been no discussion of cutting sports at TU. Thankfully, the topic has trended the other direction.

"With us going into the American Athletic Conference, I think the university is making a very big statement about the importance of athletics on this campus," he said. "I found out about that during my interview process (last year), and I definitely thought that was the way to go for us to maintain our national prominence athletically.

"And I certainly feel that way now that the American Athletic Conference has done so well in its inaugural year."

 

[Fairfield 1st]

I am starting to think that the law of unintended consequences may apply to the 65... I mean, once they are up and running, and counting their money, what stops Texas, Alabama, etc.. from further culling the herd. We saw earlier this week that there was some disharmony in the SEC when LSU voted against the current scheduling structure that makes them play Alabama and Auburn every year. I guess, I am starting to thing that the 65 will clearly not work as they intend it to... it cannot sustain itself over the long term because there is just too much money at the top. Texas would not want the same voice as Wake Forest anymore than it would, say Memphis or Tulsa.

The 65 will eventually be cut. I guess the timing of it will have a lot to do how we end up, but the end game would likely be the destruction of the current conference structures as TV deals expire 5-10 year out.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

The way we are headed, I believe every school will end up doing its own TV deal. Why in the world would someone like Florida State want to get the same payout as Wake Forest? Texas and OU vs. rest of the B12 midgets? It will just be a matter of time before those big schools realize they can do better on their own vs. being in a conference.

It is the same for UCONN in the AAC. We might as well start working on this now if the conference situation does not work out. We just need a place to put our FB program.

 

[The Funster]

Good article. I don't see how the P5 schools can keep anyone out. Schools that want to compete on the same level will get the same opportunity or there will be hell to pay. 5 sixteen team conferences is looking very likely.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The Tulsa AD is basically telling the P5 to tread carefully or he is calling his lawyer. This would be the easiest antitrust case in the history of antitrust cases.

 

[IMind]

It's stupid. Isn't that why they went to 1A to begin with? It's the same BS all over again. The P5 don't want to share money with anyone and they don't want Boise State in their bowl games.

 

[Fairfield 1st]

The Tulsa AD is basically telling the P5 to tread carefully or he is calling his lawyer. This would be the easiest antitrust case in the history of antitrust cases.

Thank God its him and not us...

 

[UConnJim]

I don't think they are going to prevent people from competing within the same framework as the P5, but the rules/realities will change that will cause people to self select out of FBS (or whatever it will be called). How?

1) Full cost of attendance.
2) Stop playing football with small schools for large paydays.

The financial burden of these two changes will probably force 20 to 25 schools currently in FBS to reconsider their football programs.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

The concept of creation of an aristocracy ,simply on birth, should anger everyone,or have we lost our sense of the American dream. UConn membership or nonmember ship is irrelevant to this larger issue.
This countries biggest attraction was alway opportunity. Sports have always been a means of the upwardly mobile nature of our society. The idea of using your athletic skills to secure an education has been going on or years. Having come from the immigrant class. I have seen people I know including relatives rise to incredible achievements fueled by their ability to run,block,tackle,pass,or make baskets. Most of this is accomplished at non p5 schools.
The consequence of creation of this cartel could be the death of scholarship based athletes at levels lower than the P5. Limiting opportunity to those few who can play at that level. It may be extreme but until the issue of survival of non-p5 sports is addressed the P5 concept should be opposed by anyone with the means to do so.
It's simply too important to ignore.
..

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The bigger PR problems are going to be:

1) The power of the P5 is not based on their superior athletic prowess but on their collusion to lock all the other schools out. Americans are fine with winners and losers, but they don't like a rigged game.

2) There is no possible argument for how the P5 structure is better for athletes. The majors are trying to essentially lock out from major competition any athlete that does not play at their school. I would expect that the athletes would join any class action against the P5, which is where I think this will end up.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

The concept P5 is preaching is simply un-American (no pun intended).

The idea that crappy schools like Wake and BCU are in the P5 while we are out is simply sickening.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The way we are headed, I believe every school will end up doing its own TV deal. Why in the world would someone like Florida State want to get the same payout as Wake Forest? Texas and OU vs. rest of the B12 midgets? It will just be a matter of time before those big schools realize they can do better on their own vs. being in a conference.

It is the same for UCONN in the AAC. We might as well start working on this now if the conference situation does not work out. We just need a place to put our FB program.

I don't think so, for the same reason NFL teams don't do this. Yes, the Giants, Patriots, Cowboys and Niners...could score more money, and Buffalo and Jacksonville would fold in heartbeat. But that's a losing scenario. Nobody wants to see Texas if there isn't anybody for them to play. A degree of parity is critical to ensuring the quality of the product.

I do think you will see a trend towards schools keeping more of the rights, 3rd tier for example, so they can cut their own deals. But I think conference games will always stay with the conferences.

 

[upstater]

They should have relegation, as they do in world soccer.

 

[upstater]

http://espn.go.com/college-football...-decision-maintain-8-game-conference-schedule

I found this hilarious.

We want an equal playing field!!!!