Why not separate conferences for different sports?

[Mokum]

Why must membership in a conference include all sports,both men’s and women’s? Why not seperate leagues for different sports? In Uconns case,Big East for basketball. A football league of schools in reasonable proximity to each other like UConn,Umass,Temple,Buffalo, Delaware etc. Sports like women’s volleyball etc in leagues that involve only bus trips. Seems to me that a lot of money could be saved.

 

[Stinger92860]

We have this for Hockey now. Yormark, seems to be thinking along these lines to a lesser degree. I could see a day where the revenue producing sports are separate. This will only be done in an effort to squeeze out every dollar possible and reduce overall costs. The P2 will likely never need to do this. Revenue sports can be national and non rev local.

 

[Drew]

I don’t hate this idea but acting like this idea would lead to a massive re-org in the Power leagues is fools gold IMO.

There are a million reasons schools associate with one another… it’s not just a geography thing. School enrollment size, athletic budgets, academic rankings, etc all play a part as to why schools choose to associate with other schools in athletic leagues. Plus, they’re money hungry savages that want to squeeze every cent out of whatever they can. Pretending the Big East is geographically cohesive as an example is pretty laughable when it stretches from Rhode Island to Nebraska… but the schools associate with one another due to their religious affiliations, school types, enrollment sizes, and basketball focused athletic departments.

At a non-power league level, what you’re saying makes complete sense. There’s no reason that ECU, JMU, Liberty, Charlotte, ODU, Coastal Carolina, etc shouldn’t all just be Sun Belt teams instead of spread across three conferences. Why are we getting Liberty v New Mexico State and ECU v UTSA when Liberty v ECU and NMSU v UTSA would probably be better for everyone involved from a fan support, travel, and budget perspective? But good luck getting ECU and Charlotte to take a pay cut to play Liberty or whoever else they’d play in a revamped league.

Reality is, schools are consolidating with other schools they want to be associated with (at least at a power level). Once the P2 + revamped B12 spin off into their own league I think you may see the left behinds re-organize themselves in a more geographic way. But then again, if they can make $3M more playing someone 1000 miles away, the schools will sign up to do so in a heartbeat.

 

[Zissou]

We have this for Hockey now. Yormark, seems to be thinking along these lines to a lesser degree. I could see a day where the revenue producing sports are separate. This will only be done in an effort to squeeze out every dollar possible and reduce overall costs. The P2 will likely never need to do this. Revenue sports can be national and non rev local.

This is part of the destruction of the NCAA as an entity and the fall of college sports generally.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Niche sports aside (ice hockey/lacrosse), if the question "why not separate conferences for different sports?" Was asked to all who legitimately follow intercollegiate sports throughout the country, the overwhelming response would be "Why?".

There are a handful of schools who would benefit from something like this proposal but for most schools (and fan bases of those schools) the idea makes zero sense.

 

[CL82]

Niche sports aside (ice hockey/lacrosse), if the question "why not separate conferences for different sports?" Was asked to all who legitimately follow intercollegiate sports throughout the country, the overwhelming response would be "Why?".

There are a handful of schools who would benefit from something like this proposal but for most schools (and fan bases of those schools) the idea makes zero sense.

Exactly. The people who would be in favor of this are those on the outside looking in. Those actually with seats at the big boy table would see no reason for change.

 

[August_West]

Just split off football from everything else and everything would be fine.

"Football drives the bus" .........................................................off the cliff.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

ADub,

Good luck trying to convince the top football brands in the NCAA to split that sport from everything else.

 

[Bobol]

The mega conferences will soon be able to split into geographic subdivisions for the non-revenue sports, thereby sparing the USC woman's tennis team from travelling to RUTgers.

 

[Kolumbo]

Niche sports aside (ice hockey/lacrosse), if the question "why not separate conferences for different sports?" Was asked to all who legitimately follow intercollegiate sports throughout the country, the overwhelming response would be "Why?".

There are a handful of schools who would benefit from something like this proposal but for most schools (and fan bases of those schools) the idea makes zero sense.

I disagree.
First, I'm pretty sure the NCAA has some rules in place making universities participate in a chosen conference if it sponsors that sport. That's what I've learned from the collegiate authority, aka, The Boneyard. so I'm not sure if the OP was asking rhetorically.

Second, I think many programs would be in favor of this because it makes no sense for all varsity sports to be dictated by football.

Take the PAC 12. They can go play football in the B1G, Big 12, or ACC but the PAC 12 Conference would still be ideal for all of the other sports. Yes it is spread out but still more regional than the B1G or ACC. They would probably even be better off playing some WCC programs in some sports. Stanford has great all-around athletics. But Stanford and Cal are playing in the ACC because of football, and they're not even that good at it. The tree-huggers will be burning more fossil fuels than everyone else. I wouldn't be surprised if Stanford drops off in some sports because of the travel. Go to school in California only to have to fly to the east coast for all of your away games.

MWC same thing. Colorado State and Utah State should be in the same conference as Colorado and Utah in the other sports. Close in-state rivals.

Big East is the most glaring example. It was hands-down the best basketball conference and blown up because of football. Syracuse, Pitt, heck even BCU would have been better off playing hoops in the Big East. Playing in the ACC has been a complete disaster for them. WVU and Va Tech too.

 

[Rufus]

The conference networks need programming year-round. I don't see conferences with a conference network ever agreeing to this.

 

[August_West]

ADub,

Good luck trying to convince the top football brands in the NCAA to split that sport from everything else.

It's the opposite.
I think it would be better if all other NCAA sports led by basketball kick them to the curb.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

It's the opposite.
I think it would be better if all other NCAA sports led by basketball kick them to the curb.

Good luck with that.

 

[August_West]

Good luck with that.

Keep doing stuff like settling 20 billion dollar lawsuits with predominantly NCAA basketball money instead of football and watch the tides shift.

There are 350 some odd schools invested in and benefitting from basketball there are 60-80 benefitting from football.