What if...?

[muskienick]

...we do wind up with 4-5 mega-Conferences in Big Football (i.e. 12-16 teams each) and they decide to form their own new Association (let's call it the American Association of College Athletics, or AACA) to compete with the NCAA. Obviously, they would completely overwhelm the NCAA in Football, but they would leave a large number of Basketball-centered programs behind that could seriously challenge their version of March Madness.

With that in mind, wouldn't the AACA be wise to invite the best of those 18-20 Basketball programs to form a couple of Conferences based on geography, natural rivalries, metro- and media-centered advantages, good facilities, and name recognition to join them in the AACA instead of remaining in the NCAA? By doing so, they would also overwhelm the NCAA in basketball.

In the East, one such conference would certainly include the following schools: Providence, Villanova, Georgetown, UMass, URI, St. John's, Seton Hall, Richmond, and one more from among ODU, VCU, Geo. Mason, Siena, or Canisius,

In the Midwest, another such conference would certainly include the following: Xavier, Dayton, Butler, Marquette, St. Louis, Creighton, DePaul, and two more (depending on circumstances) among Notre Dame, Missouri State, Memphis, or Cleveland State.

In the East, VCU might not be desired since Richmond would already be in that market. George Mason may not make the cut since G-Town already covers the DC market. ODU, Siena, and Canisius would qualify under all other criteria except for name recognition.


In the Midwest, ND may already have become a part of one of the mega Football Conferences and Memphis would qualify only if C-USA would accept them as an affiliate member for Football only (even though Memphis hasn't had a really viable D-1 football program for quite a long time and this year is no exception)! Missouri State and Cleveland State would qualify nicely in all other criteria.

The only other top BB program that would be "left out to dry" would be Gonzaga and the Zags are so far removed from the other good programs that logistics would eliminate them. Furthermore, there are too few similar far western programs that have the criteria mentioned above to make a Basketball-driven Conference out there attractive enough for the AACA to include it under their wing. The only way possible would be to create the best possible hybrid Conference consisting of highly respected football schools and Gonzaga. Assuming that TCU and BYU would already be members of AACA Football Conferences, one could image another AACA Western Conference consisting of Hawaii, Colorado State, San Diego State, Boise State, Air Force Academy, Nevada, San Jose State, UNLV, University of New Mexico, New Mexico State, University of Idaho, and Gonzaga.

The NCAA would then, for all intents and purposes, become a footnote in college athletics!

[xudash]

Nick,

It's creative thinking, but, at least in my opinion, the football schools are truly attempting to solve for football while leaving everything else pretty much alone.

The NCAA Tournament is magical for being inclusive and for featuring the David & Goliath upset thing, especially in the earlier rounds.

Doing what you suggest would be better than just the 64 or so breaking off, but still too clubby for CBS and most of the viewing public.

This is about football. If they go beyond football, it's going to get real nasty with attorneys getting involved.

[muskienick]

Nick,

It's creative thinking, but, at least in my opinion, the football schools are truly attempting to solve for football while leaving everything else pretty much alone.

The NCAA Tournament is magical for being inclusive and for featuring the David & Goliath upset thing, especially in the earlier rounds.

Doing what you suggest would be better than just the 64 or so breaking off, but still too clubby for CBS and most of the viewing public.

This is about football. If they go beyond football, it's going to get real nasty with attorneys getting involved.

I am certainly not suggesting that the scenario I proposed above would ever materialize. But the way the NCAA has done things for so long a time has largely been very successful for them and it has included conferences that are driven by football, basketball and a few that are hybrids. I would venture to say that if the BCS or NCAA had come up with a D-1 playoff plan to determine a National Champion in Football, we might not be talking spin-off now. It seems more than capable of holding D-2 and D-3 Football Championship "Tourneys," but can't seem to get over the hurdle of the Bowls to get to a BCS/FBS Playoff.

Money would definitely be the driving force for Big Football to secede from the NCAA. But one must consider the fact that "March Madness" is the biggest money-maker and most exciting series in college sports today. If the Big Football boys do decide to go their own way, they may take more than just a peek at the successful history of the NCAA, adopt those aspects of their structure and function that have been really successful (e.g. March Madness), correct those aspects that have generally been disappointments (the current BCS Championship formula) and proceed to blow the NCAA out of the water.

I honestly don't believe the AACA (or whatever they decide to call themselves were it to materialize) would ever reach the March Madness heights of the NCAA without the 15-20 great programs that don't even field big-time D-1 football. That's why I think the spin-off-ers would be wise to encourage them to join their move away from the NCAA.

Finally, the supposed appeal of having the Belmonts of the college scene serving as the "Davids" to the UConn and UCLA "Goliaths" in March Madness is hardly necessary when you would already have present among those leagues such traditional basketball "behemoths" such as Rutgers, Clemson, Oregon State, Northwestern, Mississippi, Iowa State, South Florida, Texas Tech, etc... I say let the actual Belmonts have their days in the sun by challenging each other in the new (and quite uninteresting) NCAA.

I might not feel too good about the diminished status of the ultimate National Championship of a Belmont, Evansville, LaSalle, or Pepperdine, but I won't shed a tear for the smug leadership of those sitting in the corner offices of the NCAA if they were left with such a situation!

Oh --- you mentioned lawyers. Those vultures are going to be around regardless of the extent of the spin-off. The ultimate package resulting will never be quite so ultimate or dollar-producing without the cream of the Basketball schools involved. People have said over and over that G-town, Villanova, St. John's, etc. have risen to their levels of BB greatness supposedly because of their affiliation with "the big football boys." (I'm not sure I buy that since the Big East became almost an overnight success with the establishment of their Monday Night ESPN appearances before their Football presence was ever established!) But if it is somewhat true, then imagine how the 18 Basketball programs described in this thread-starter would be elevated and, in turn, help to elevate the entire AACA!