well, all those SEC coaches getting paid six million bucks definitely need a team or two to beat inside the conference...I just don't see the logic of tossing legacy schools like NU and Vandy, but I guess we'll see...
Conference Realignment
- Thread starter DavidBenAkiva
- Start date
blazindw
Duke Basketball Roundup Host; Moderator
The emotional insanity that is college football is rarely logical
LeadingEdge
Member
This is like how law firms deal with deadwood partners: the most painless way to get rid of them is to merge with another firm and let new management do the firing by not inviting them to come along to the new ship.
These gargantuan conferences won't last forever. Eventually, there will be some sort of splitting within conferences, or a new national power football association will be formed, which will divide the association into somewhat regional divisions. When that happens, the low-value schools can and will be relegated to the kiddie table without current conference-mate high-value schools having to wield the knife openly.
Schools such as Northwestern and Vandy (and several ACC schools) will get shivved, but it will be done indirectly and discretely.
These gargantuan conferences won't last forever. Eventually, there will be some sort of splitting within conferences, or a new national power football association will be formed, which will divide the association into somewhat regional divisions. When that happens, the low-value schools can and will be relegated to the kiddie table without current conference-mate high-value schools having to wield the knife openly.
Schools such as Northwestern and Vandy (and several ACC schools) will get shivved, but it will be done indirectly and discretely.
sagegrouse
Member
The august Big Ten, with its emphasis on academics and tradition, would never ditch Northwestern. Moreover, NU is fully competitive in athletics, including football and hoops (compare its record with Minn., Iowa, Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, Terpville); it is the only Chicago-area school in the Big Ten:; it is the highest-ranked university in the Big Ten.
Vandy? I think it's safe, in that I don't see the SEC merging with anyone else. Being in Nashville also helps. Plus academics.
The best example of what you describe is the departure of Texas and A&M to the then Big 8, bringing Baylor and TTech along, and consigning TCU, SMU, UH, and Rice to the nether regions of college athletics. Truly, Texas had been complaining for at least a decade about the poor economics of the SWC. I personally didn't think the Big 8 was much better, except for the presence of OU.
I agree Sage. I don't see NU or Vandy being jettisoned ...but if a conference were to fall apart (not a threat to B1G or SEC) that's where stuff could happen...and I don't see the ACC falling apart any time soon.
Vandy and Northwestern aren’t going anywhere.
Wouldn’t a team being asked to leave a conference ‘ involuntary ‘ , be pretty rare ?
LeadingEdge
Member
The question is not really whether NW or Vandy (or Duke or my U.Va.) would be dropped. It's whether they would be invited to join the new College Football Association when that forms as a de facto NFL of major college football teams. This would be a part of high-major college football being separated from current conferences and perhaps also from the NCAA.
Only time I can recall was when Temple was booted from the Big East.
bingo. This doesn't stop until teams are paid commensurate with the actual value they generate. Just look at what european soccer tried to do with the ESL until the british government blew it up.
FosterCoachK82
Member
I would be very glad to see this happen, divorcing football from all other college sports.
SkyBrickey
Member
This is the right answer. Market forces will continue to reshape the landscape until schools are getting paid their true value. Same as what's happening with the players today...
This is the best outcome. Put all other sports, including basketball, back into their regional conferences… 8-10 schools each. Then the conferences will be able to count again… PAC10 Big10, Big8, ACC(8), SEC(8)… this would bring down travel expenses by a lot, I would think. And round-robin seasons again… [dream]
How does it divorce football if football tv money continues to fund the non revenue sports?
Mike Petrik
Member
Good question. I think what it recognizes is the ability of college athletic departments to use revenue from one sport to subsidize other sports regardless whether there is conference alignment among those sports. I don’t see why subsidization is dependent on conference alignment. I imagine ND uses football dough to subsidize its olympic sports without difficulty. So maybe “divorce” is the wrong word. “Separation”?
LeadingEdge
Member
Perhaps (in the new College Football Association world) non-revs will be cut off from football money and will have to find funding elsewhere. The NFL doesn't financially carry other sports. The competitive pressure to win in big-business football probably will eventually cause all football revenue to be plowed back into football because winning in big-time football is the most important thing a university does (sarcasm alert).
I think it should be pointed out that an org with that name was formed in 1977 for the purpose of giving schools, rather than the NCAA, control of TV revenue. My point is that this process has been going on for nearly 50 years. It's just that the baby seems to get uglier and uglier the more it grows up.
College Football Association - Wikipedia
Maybe. But those sports cost Duke tens of millions which is why Nina is trying to find a safe harbor. So many unknowns now
blazindw
Duke Basketball Roundup Host; Moderator
I didn't say they were. But that's absolutely the worry with many people among the fanbases at those schools in particular and certainly others that would be theorized to be "on the chopping block."
Mike Petrik
Member
The membership of this hypothetical association would still be institutions of higher education, and they would have to collectively decide to what extent the association's revenue must be ploughed back into the association or will instead be distributed among the members to be used as they believe most appropriate. It might well be that such an association would expose a true dividing line between those universities that care only about football and those that care about their other sports too. I think we can easily guess where many of the institutions will come out, but I think many would find the question to be a bit of a moment of truth.