Knee-jerk reaction - are we finished?

[LA_Mustang]

Did anyone just listen to Norm's segment on what the ruling yesterday means for college sports? I have to agree with him. It's done. The 64 P5 schools along with ND have broke away and the "have not," as our leader likes to call us, are now tier 2. Our dream of making it back to the big time (football) is over. Getting to 64/65 is what the big boys wanted, and they are there.

As Norm mentioned, the lucky ones (although I don't like that term lucky because these schools did what they needed to do) TCU, Louisville, Rutgers, Utah and WV got in, while SMU, Cincy, UConn, Memphis, Boise, SDSU and UCF are sitting outside. The only remaining school that has a chance to be added is BYU, and they likely will if the big boys want to go to 66.

So who do we blame? We made a last-ditch effort but it was too little too late. We needed to make a move in 2011 to help get us to that next level and we possibly could've been in the Rutgers, Louisville group making the final jump. This sucks, but it is what it is. We have no one to blame but ourself.

[malonish]

My knee shouldn't jerk because I just had surgery.

[sbsmith]

Yeah we're finished, the ruling class of CFB is only going to get smaller from here.

[B1GPonyFan]

If the gang of 30 have proclaimed it, then I guess it's the reality.

Whatever....

[ideal]

Every private school is at a huge disadvantage, even ND.
TCU, Duke, etc. will be shed.
The hypocrisy is rank.

[Alaric]

aaaa...don't forget unintended consequences

won't some schools decide to become glorified club teams while others just take the gloves off and go semi-pro? what's to stop the UNLV's of the world (and hopefully us) from breaking off from the NCAA (could be legal and other factors such as state politics, not sure, don't want to think right now) and offering twice the "stipends" as P5 schools with no pretense of having to be students unless you want to?

how about $5,000/month cash plus you just have to ATTEND 75% of your classes? all classes are pass/fail for you and you pass if you attend 75% unless "excused"? A 5* kid would obviously need a COLA

[JasonB]

I still think they will get it down to 64 after adding BYU and ND. They might do some more cut and switch, but it will be to pick up really large schools like UCF in favor of the small private institutions. I know TCU looks safe for now, but it is temporary.

I think the dream is gone until the ratings decrease in the long term because of the lack of association with college football in parts of the country. I know I won't support any of the major conferences after this by watching or attending any games. Surely there are many others who have no skin in the game anymore and would rather bail and spend smaller money on lower level football than pick a team to support that they used to have a natural/regional rivalry with.

Schools like SMU are effectively going to become the Leeds United of college football. We expect to be competing at the highest level, but aren't, and can't get back. Most fans will be apathetic towards their own team because they expect to be more, but Leeds fans are also apathetic towards the entire premier league because there are too many rivalries for them to support a new club at the highest level. That gets multiplied by 100 when you actually attend a university and become attached. I will never, ever, ever adopt A&M, UT, Baylor, TCU Oklahoma, Arkansas or anyone else as my second team.

So, the NCAA has lost me for a decade until the ratings finally decrease enough that they trash this new system and become more inclusive. At this point, I am really actually in favor of switching the other 5 conferences to an alternate schedule and holding our own championship. Don't go silently into that good night, create the USFL, and flip off the big schools along the way.

[ideal]

it opens the process to many new realignment ideas and forms of compensation.

[Hoop Fan]

wasn't this a vote of the membership? I can't believe the current 'have nots' would have voted for a measure that they think will kill them. You have to realize that even the P5 presidents want to limit to benefits paid to athletes to a minimum that does not hurt their pockets too badly, or draw IRS scrutiny. All this measure does is allow them as a smaller governing group on this topic to set the bar on the compensation and its ramifications. It does not preclude the AAC and other from providing the same benefits, or even (and this is what the P5 is not counting on) raising the stakes. In the long term, the AAC obviously can't get in a bidding war, but it could do some "autonomous" things to test the bar and be a real irritant. If the P5 was actually motivated to pay big dollars to athletes, then i would really worry about this step, but you have to realize that they don't want to overpay athletes either or they could invite big problems for themselves (IRS,Title 9, anti-trust).

[jpe747]

Hopefully SMU's administration will come up with a strategyegy. But my first reaction is we need a law suit. If that fails. Find out if alums want to buy players.

[Bergermeister]

Hopefully SMU's administration will come up with a strategyegy. But my first reaction is we need a law suit. If that fails. Find out if alums want to buy players.

General Ford needs to emerge as our T. Boone.

[ideal]

wasn't this a vote of the membership? ... but you have to realize that they don't want to overpay athletes either or they could invite big problems for themselves (IRS,Title 9, anti-trust).

They didn't want to hack off espn, but you are right they want to treat players as state minimum wage employees. altho, FSU just paid direct to Jameis Winston's family $70,000 to fund an ins. policy, wtf?

[FoxRaider]

I think you're overreacting a bit. Little will change in recruiting. The haves were already the haves before this anyway by virtue of their conference affiliations and revenue.

The only thing I could possibly see coming out of this would be some lower level realignment, as certain schools decide they don't want to (or can't) provide the additional benefits. I would expect to see some AAC, MW, CUSA schools who do (or do not) want to provide these benefits to split from those who feel the opposite.

One thing I could see happening eventually (maybe 15-20 years down the road) would be a period of time over which the G5 schools reform themselves into locally focused conferences. An example would be SMU, Rice, UNT, UH going in with UTSA, Texas St., UTEP, Tulsa, UNM, etc, in order to get travel costs back to a more reasonable spot.

One more question though, if there were a split, would your fanbase be excited at all to compete for a national championship against 60 other schools that would be on (relatively) equal footing with you?

[Hoop Fan]

i would like to see SMU put out a press release. Something saying that we are more committed than ever to competing at the highest level of D-1. An amendment to the NCAA bylaws may lead to some conferences establishing new precedents regarding student-athlete support. SMU will monitor and consider such precedents and respond accordingly and decisively. We hope our fellow academic institutions will act responsibly and for the common good that these institutions purport to aspire. Something of a veiled threat along with commitment to compete.

[LA_Mustang]

General Ford needs to emerge as our T. Boone.