USAToday - Split from NCAA coming? (Wolken /Schroeder)

[ponyinNC]

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

"Most of the talk about a major shift in college sports has centered on the idea of creating a "super division," only for football, that would essentially operate under a different set of rules, and perhaps even outside of the NCAA altogether.

One athletics director at a non-football school, who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said it would only make sense for BCS football programs to operate without the restrictions that apply to other schools who don't have the same budgets or goals."

[Water Pony]

As to the comment that a separation would increase the distance between the "Have's" and the "Have Not's", I can see little good out of a separation. The Power (Have's) Conference governing authority has little chance of being better than the NCAAs. It would be just a different name with more money.

"What form that evolution takes, and when it will happen, is a hot topic in the industry but also a murky one. Even if a group of schools or conferences decided to break away from the NCAA and form a completely new organization, there is no consensus on what schools and sports it would include, how it would operate and whether it would alleviate the fundamental problems in college athletics or become a parallel bureaucracy with a different acronym."

[Water Pony]

""I always felt the (current) tournament is absolutely the best model," said American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco, who helped negotiate the current NCAA tournament television deal when he was the vice president at CBS Sports in charge of college programming. "The tournament reflects the country. Everybody has a real opportunity, and the tournament has that unique ability to include every part of the country every year. There's a real charm for that. I think the Cinderellas are usually valuable to the tournament. I wouldn't change a thing."

[ponyte]

One wonders if the Big Boys split from the NCAA and makes college football a professional sport, if colleges will have to abide by the same labor laws as other professional sports. Will the players be able to form a Union? Will we get labor strikes in college football? Will the new pros demand that the entertainment of the game experience be changed? Instead of student cheerleaders, will we get more professional like cheerleaders? One reason college sports is so lucrative to athletic departments is that the labor laws and market forces of the labor market are suspended in college sports. How will this change that? How will colleges adapt to ‘students’ that represent the school but are paid to play a sport and have no rules that require they stay in school?

[smustatesman]

A good question to pose to the "The Bush Institute" under the heading of; Education. One of their major points.

[Water Pony]

One wonders if the Big Boys split from the NCAA and makes college football a professional sport, if colleges will have to abide by the same labor laws as other professional sports. Will the players be able to form a Union? Will we get labor strikes in college football? Will the new pros demand that the entertainment of the game experience be changed? Instead of student cheerleaders, will we get more professional like cheerleaders? One reason college sports is so lucrative to athletic departments is that the labor laws and market forces of the labor market are suspended in college sports. How will this change that? How will colleges adapt to ‘students’ that represent the school but are paid to play a sport and have no rules that require they stay in school?

The net result of such developments would be Universities sponsoring professional teams, i.e. paying players with schools, select conferences and media operating with fewer "contraints". The end result would be the loss of much of collegiate sports, as we know it. Title IX, non-revenue sports and academics would be under even greater pressure, since "pro teams" may not feel any obligation to subsidize other objectives.

[Water Pony]

Andy Staples‏@Andy_Staples Tweet:

Why stay in the NCAA? Because a new venture involving only the wealthy schools might be of too much interest to the IRS.

[StallionsModelT]

This would blow the doors off of college athletics as we know it. Talk about opening up Pandora's Box. I just can't see something like this actually happening.

[couch 'em]

The tabloid realignment twitters like @MHver3 have been talking about this for at least a year now as the ultimate objective.

Those talking about a "professional" league causing mass change or college football downfall are going overboard. An alternate NCAA could easily be set up, still operate under the guise of amateur athletics, but have changes to things like recruiting rules to meet their wishes.

Some have claimed that an agreement has already been reached for football to split off, but for those teams to stay in NCAA for other sports including basketball. NCAA gets to keep the tournament, but then doesn't have to deal with recruiting enforcement and conference realignment and media issues that they aren't equipped to adequately deal with.