USA Today article in possible split from NCAA

[noeynox]

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2097115

Damn how I wish we weren't currently in this American conference and had gotten a call up already.

 

[Adios]

My guess is football would be the only sport that would break away. I can't see how we'd be left behind if the top FBS schools separate their football programs from the NCAA. Way too much at stake with all the other sports. We just had Quinnipiac ad Yale in the national championship game for ice hockey.

 

[djct1999]

Yes, because the Quinnipiac and Yale hockey programs does wonders for UConn football. If Delaney or Swafford can't see that, then they must be even more dumb than I originally thought!

 

[SubbaBub]

If there is not a strong contingent from Connecticut in Pasadena to lobby for it's interests, then everyone needs to be fired.

If they are relying on Aresco to do it, they should be run out on a rail.

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[nelsonmuntz]

Interesting article. I will strongly disagree with the person who says there is no anti-trust implication. While not the only test, the most important test in an anti-trust case is market share. If the BCS leagues break off, they will be treated as one entity with roughly 90% market share of revenues. They will have a very hard time arguing that there is viable competition in the market.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Interesting article. I will strongly disagree with the person who says there is no anti-trust implication. While not the only test, the most important test in an anti-trust case is market share. If the BCS leagues break off, they will be treated as one entity with roughly 90% market share of revenues. They will have a very hard time arguing that there is viable competition in the market.

Agreed. Have said this right along - since teams started jumping from Big East - this has "Trade" implications and improprieties.

 

[upstater]

All the BCS schools have to do is to treat it like semi-pro sports. Give their players a $5-8k stipend, required. That will separate people pretty quickly.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Interesting article. I will strongly disagree with the person who says there is no anti-trust implication. While not the only test, the most important test in an anti-trust case is market share. If the BCS leagues break off, they will be treated as one entity with roughly 90% market share of revenues. They will have a very hard time arguing that there is viable competition in the market.

Actually share is easier to determine than the definition of the market itself. That's where the cases are won and lost. The argument the FBS schools would make is that the market is "live entertainment" at the largest (including concerts for example), or "live sporting events" in the middle. They have a very reasonable argument that the latter is the appropriate market. The market would almost certainly not be defined as "college football", so they wouldn't have 90% share. Does college football compete with NASCAR, Hockey, the NFL etc. Yes, it certainly does. It competes with college and pro basketball too, and European soccer, even bowling. Now when it comes to football, there is some risk in this argument as the NFL and FBS football have colluded to avoid competition with each other. The NFL begins Saturday games after the college season. It would be an extremely interesting case. It s much more likely that Congress would intervene.

 

[upstater]

The big hangup is Title 9. If the NCAA goes under, there will be no money to fund playoffs in non-revenue sports. At that point, costs will explode on the lower schools. Once you take the implications of title 9 into account, you're not going to be able to cut sports strategically. You'll take an axe to athletic departments. Just like what's happening at the high school level.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

To my knowledge, no sports league has ever successfully made the "live entertainment" argument. Also, to make that argument, the BCS would have to repudiate past cases where it benefited from the narrower definition.(NCAA vs. Board of Regents 1984). Good luck with that.

 

[RS9999X]

They could do it for Basketball too.

A 64-team mega tournament featuring the BCS 5 with ND making 65. That would allow plenty of college competition for basketball with the AAC and C-7 and MWC powers leading the non-BCS pact in the new NIT. Some would argue that increases competition with two mega tourneys.

 

[weyuo]

What I don't like is they are basically saying some schools will be allowed to compete for a national championship while others will not even though they all are expected to adhere to the same guidelines. Your basically saying schools like Army, Navy, UConn, Boise St, Cincinnati, well over half of the Florida schools will all be ineligible to compete for a national championship based on what conference they are in? That doesn't sound right.

 

[uconnfan68]

What I don't like is they are basically saying some schools will be allowed to compete for a national championship while others will not even though they all are expected to adhere to the same guidelines. Your basically saying schools like Army, Navy, UConn, Boise St, Cincinnati, well over half of the Florida schools will all be ineligible to compete for a national championship based on what conference they are in? That doesn't sound right.

Well, not counting Army and Navy, there is no tradition at any of those schools worthy of a NC. It's all about tradition. Like old money.

 

[zls44]

If there is not a strong contingent from Connecticut in Pasadena to lobby for it's interests, then everyone needs to be fired.

UConn should have school interests at a commissioner's meeting or everyone should be fired, got it.

 

[Marty Jackson]

What I don't like is they are basically saying some schools will be allowed to compete for a national championship while others will not even though they all are expected to adhere to the same guidelines. Your basically saying schools like Army, Navy, UConn, Boise St, Cincinnati, well over half of the Florida schools will all be ineligible to compete for a national championship based on what conference they are in? That doesn't sound right.

One suggestion was to have the Power 5 Conferences represented.

If this were to happen, I think they would set a level of expectations to help determine which schools would 'qualify' for the new tier. I have no doubt that whatever measures they used, Uconn would qualify unless they were willing to drop other schools as well.

After reading that article, I am more confident Uconn would be in that new break-away group regardless of our current conference affiliation.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Well, not counting Army and Navy, there is no tradition at any of those schools worthy of a NC. It's all about tradition. Like old money.

I agree with your statement and that's the problem with college football. the system is rigged so that 'perception' has more legitimacy than on-field performance.
As people realized the BCS was nothing more than a veiled beauty pageant to determine the NC, the pushback was unquestioned. People want a legitimate National Champion settled on the field, not in the polls or in the forum of public debate.
Once this new system is shown to be nothing more than an extension of the BCS (completely rigged for the 'power' schools), I think people will get sick of this as well. It may take a few years, but it will eventually happen where we have a NC that is not anywhere near unanimous.

 

[baggerbob]

Until there is a 16 team playoff in football , its still tied to the polls. You have writers like the guy in south Carolina, who refuses to vote for a team as number 1 because they weren't rated highly in pre-season polls in basketball. Yet the same clown will vote a Kentucky team with 2 or 3 losses number 1.

 

[metsfan2323]

The day schools start paying players is the day they become a "minor league". I don't follow minor league sports so count this fan out. In short time the sport will become less popular, donations will slip and then they will go back to an NCAA model.

I'm not going to worry about how this effects UCONN because if UCONN joins the pay the players league I won't be a fan anymore.

 

[freescooter]

I actually think that title IX would be a significant handicap to any breakaway, even if it was just for football. Title IX is federal law, not some NCAA regulation, and if you don't give women the same opportunities it has some serious implications. So you need to set up not just a football structure, but one that covers the myriad of womens sports that schools rely on for compliance. And the NCAA, if they have any guts and any b@lls will draw a line in the sand and say its all or nothing. It is one thing to run a 4 or even 16 team football tournament. Do the Power 5 conferences really want to run a womens basketball tourney? Or Soccer? or bowling? It suddenly doesn't look so cool. As for incorporating football as a semi-pro/minor league entity, I suspect it won't take too long before it really becomes a minor league entity,with all the problems associated therewith. How long before the NFLPA decides to organize the players? Or some Heisman trophy candidate decides to jump from Texas to Oklahoma or hold out for a better contract? And when it has to compete with the NFL it will be just some minor league.

Finally, there is going to need to be some form of regulatory entity.. there just is. And this is different from the NFL. LSU will have different values from North Carolina, Michigan from Florida. And that will be a huge issue in setting up any new structure.

 

[The Funster]

I wonder how much NCAA money gets distributed to Div II and III? I also wonder how public institutions are viewed when the antitrust discussion begins?

 

[SubbaBub]

UConn should have school interests at a commissioner's meeting or everyone should be fired, got it.

What, you think the hotel doesn't have a bar? Herbt couldn't host a cocktail hour? Warde couldn't work the lobby?

No wonder we're left behind.

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[RS9999X]

UConn is a bubble team in any situation based on stadium size and attendance. Count the FBS schools with smaller and worse attendance. UConn would make the top 64 based on attendance but barely. Then there's the rigging of building season tickets into student fees.

In a fair apples to apples best of 64 then UConn is on the plus side. Wake, Vandy, and Washington State are the most obvious outs in any scenario outside of conference loyalty.