Decision-makers want autonomy
Updated: January 17, 2014, 6:05 PM ET
By Kevin Gemmell | ESPN.com

SAN DIEGO -- An unofficial straw poll of hundreds of delegates at the NCAA Convention in San Diego shows they support Division I athletics moving toward a model that would grant more autonomy to the five conferences with the most resources -- the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.

The vote showed that 58 percent of athletic decision-makers in attendance either supported or strongly supported a change in the way Division I athletics are governed. The vote was nonbinding and the proposed new governance model is still raw, but it represents the first tangible acknowledgement that change is needed.

"People agree this is the appropriate way to have Division I stay intact and grant these degrees of freedom to higher-resource conferences," Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch, who also serves as Division I president, told ESPN.com. "Six months ago I don't think we would have been there. The very process has been a constructive one and you can see from this we tried to make things open."

The purpose of the two-day Division I governance dialogue at the San Diego Convention Center was to introduce the rough model and solicit feedback from all corners of Division I athletics.

"It's a little bit like the formation of our [U.S.] Constitution," Hatch said. "Big states versus small states. There are different interests -- how to craft hopefully an elegant solution where no one gets everything they want, but it's acceptable as a fair resolution."

The catalyst for the change is the growing divide between the five conferences with more resources and their desire to be able to autonomously pass legislation -- such as cost of attendance, unofficially referred to as a stipend, and the length of academic eligibility for scholarships.

"The biggest challenge for us right now is we don't feel we're able to get an intact piece of legislation through the program that will benefit our 65 programs," Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. "I don't say that to be critical of others. But the fact is what is a great decision for us, may be a marginal decision for (the Football Championship Subdivision) and an awful decision for the rest of the Division I. Those are honest disagreements.

"But we have enough issues, and our issues are high enough profile, and our institutions are of the sort, that we have to be able to solve those problems for ourselves. If there was something that we were relatively unanimous on, us being the five conferences, we would be able to work that through the system."

The hope is that the new model of governance can be firmed up by spring.

"It's encouraging and consistent with the under-the-radar discussions what we've heard from our colleagues," ACC commissioner John Swofford said. "There is a lot left to be done. I think this was a productive and necessary part of the process. The more people you have on board supporting a concept, the better it is in the long run. There are concepts and there are details and there is an awful lot yet to be done in terms of the details."

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/...e-autonomy

I have been saying four conferences with 16 teams from the beginning of realignment. It might be five conferences but I think it will be 64 teams.

Let it begin...paying players.

Quote:"People agree this is the appropriate way to have Division I stay intact and grant these degrees of freedom to higher-resource conferences," Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch, who also serves as Division I president, told ESPN.com. "Six months ago I don't think we would have been there. The very process has been a constructive one and you can see from this we tried to make things open."

Oh the irony you leach of an institution.

Death knell tolled a while back...just going to take time for it to clearly manifest. We are in the FCS Major Division already.

I hate for this to be my first post after lurking for quite some time. However, did the WF President really just compare this process to the U.S. Constitutional Convention? Does he really believe that?

What an d-bag and eff em all. I'll still root for the 'Cats no matter what, but I'm absolutely done with the rest.

An exceedingly clear example of the Golden Rule, he who has the gold makes the rules.

Just about everyone there would fail a business ethics course. These are public and private non-profits acting very inconsistent with their mission statements. Eventually if things break very poorly for the American and Mountain West I could see lawyers getting involved again and potential government action.

Title IX is still going to hang over everyone's head. As long as individual conference will be allowed to adopt the same rules at the power five conference without interference from other division one members, I think everyone gets what they want. If do things that put other schools at absolute competitive disadvantage in terms of scholarship and pay then we have a huge fight on our hands.

West Coast Conference, Big East, and the Atlantic-10 might join the gang of five fight if basketball rules start to change in favor of the power five.

It's beyond laughable and sickening. Cartel like money grabs completely orchestrated in secret by cable tv $$$$ billions directing and instructing public institutions of higher learning.....now being compared to the process of creating the US Constitution. All being done simply to restrict access.

As Baylor proved when they saved themselves and singularly almost forced the Big 12 to stay together................"somebody" is being damaged in this process and I would hope somebody smacks a huge lawsuit on either the NCAA or a couple of the conferences and exposes what has been going on behind the scenes.

(01-18-2014 10:15 AM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  Just about everyone there would fail a business ethics course. These are public and private non-profits acting very inconsistent with their mission statements. Eventually if things break very poorly for the American and Mountain West I could see lawyers getting involved again and potential government action.

Title IX is still going to hang over everyone's head. As long as individual conference will be allowed to adopt the same rules at the power five conference without interference from other division one members, I think everyone gets what they want. If do things that put other schools at absolute competitive disadvantage in terms of scholarship and pay then we have a huge fight on our hands.

West Coast Conference, Big East, and the Atlantic-10 might join the gang of five fight if basketball rules start to change in favor of the power five.

The P5 is smart.....they have already figured out how to avoid "we're restricting you". They will smile and "allow" either the AAC or MWC to play by the new rules.............no restrictions. They will then vote into place "rules" that can't feasibly be funded the AAC or MWC. Read the document.....they will quickly vote into place unlimited coaching staff positions, increase the scholarship limits in FB, etc. This will allow the P5 to set up dedicated "recruiting coaching staffs" for the major sports, peal off an additional layer of talent from the have-nots so that the on-field talent gap is actually increased, etc.

They won't say the AAC and MWC "can't follow"...........but the AAC and MWC won't be able to follow, because access to the $$$ from playoffs and big conference tv deals won't be there. The Big East, A10, and BBall only schools won't fight the P5..because they care about only 1 thing....NCAA Tournament $$$. They fear if they don't enable the P5, they increase the risk of pushing a true split...and the P5 breaks away ending the NCAA Bball tournament as we know it and results in a dramatic decrease in their bball revenue potential. The P5 is willing to play "shared revenue" on the bball side to get the bball conference votes, knowing that the big big money is in preserving their "cartel like" restrictions on the football side.

Might this play out and further separate the P5? Possibly, but I'm not counting on it. Bearcat fans who have been around for decades will remember the CFA (College Football Alliance?) more than 25 years ago. Somehow, UC was in that group and it was to be the beginning of the long rumored separation of the big boys from the NCAA. Never happened.

The stakes are higher now with cable TV involved. But if the AAC/ Mountain West are invited--with the bar set so high financially that their schools have no chance to truly participate then they have been constructively excluded. That has litigation written all over it.

I would love to hear what Whit Babcock has to say about this. Of course he needs to be careful in case there is a tiny shred of hope of being let in to the party.

The first time you hear of him interviewing for an AD position in a P5 conference, you will know what he thinks about this.

(01-18-2014 10:44 AM)mbl95 Wrote:  They won't say the AAC and MWC "can't follow"...........but the AAC and MWC won't be able to follow, because access to the $$$ from playoffs and big conference tv deals won't be there.

Correct.

That's why I have harped for over a year that UC needs to do WHATEVER it takes to get access to that P5 television dollars.

But others say we have to be patient; wait for an invite. Someone quoted "ethical business practices." What a joke, ethics for college football? Again, UC needs to do WHATEVER it takes...and soon, before all the seats are taken away in this cruel game of musical chairs.

(01-18-2014 12:07 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  The first time you hear of him interviewing for an AD position in a P5 conference, you will know what he thinks about this.

It's been predicted, and if things don't change, it will come.

And why wouldn't he? Seems to be a very nice man with a beautiful family. If he could get a pay raise of 10x what he is making now, he is smart enough to say bye-bye to UC.

Remember P5 money is over 10x AAC money.

Lots of issues coming into play here, will be interesting to see how it shakes out. The classic power schools are losing the advantage they had for the last few decades, because all the games are now available to watch (for the most part). No reason for farmer Joe and his son (who went to UC) to cheer for OSU because that was the only local game they could watch on a Saturday.

Meanwhile, the old model of ads paying for television that were watched live has died, because people tape shows and skip ads, so live sports became a hot ticket. So networks paid out the nose to buy rights and try to funnel eyes to certain programs. But the single network providing what it wants is also dying, and the broad service providing what the viewer wants is going to win.

So the P5 are going to become P4, and split off, and pay players to play a sport that is causing intelligent men to kill themselves soon after retirement, in the hopes of keeping this last hurrah of network TV dollars all in one exclusive basket? If they split off and go semi pro, they cut their own throats. I welcome it if it happens.

I believe there is stuff going on behind the scenes for UC and the Big 12. We all think because it is not in the press or on blogs it must not be happening. Think of Rutgers and Maryland, the press didn't see that coming.

(01-18-2014 12:10 PM)Ragpicker Wrote:  

(01-18-2014 10:44 AM)mbl95 Wrote:  They won't say the AAC and MWC "can't follow"...........but the AAC and MWC won't be able to follow, because access to the $$$ from playoffs and big conference tv deals won't be there.

Correct.

That's why I have harped for over a year that UC needs to do WHATEVER it takes to get access to that P5 television dollars.

But others say we have to be patient; wait for an invite. Someone quoted "ethical business practices." What a joke, ethics for college football? Again, UC needs to do WHATEVER it takes...and soon, before all the seats are taken away in this cruel game of musical chairs.

Power five invite or not, this is not a good thing. Even if UC is part of the club, I am not going to defend this power grab. I keep hoping that common sense prevails before the attorneys get involved.

(01-18-2014 01:33 PM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  Power five invite or not, this is not a good thing. Even if UC is part of the club, I am not going to defend this power grab. I keep hoping that common sense prevails before the attorneys get involved.

I may be wrong, but I think a club of 64 will lessen overall interest in college sports. Excluding so many so a few can prosper will have some unintended consequences who grabbed all the power.

(01-18-2014 12:10 PM)Ragpicker Wrote:  

(01-18-2014 10:44 AM)mbl95 Wrote:  They won't say the AAC and MWC "can't follow"...........but the AAC and MWC won't be able to follow, because access to the $$$ from playoffs and big conference tv deals won't be there.

Correct.

That's why I have harped for over a year that UC needs to do WHATEVER it takes to get access to that P5 television dollars.

But others say we have to be patient; wait for an invite. Someone quoted "ethical business practices." What a joke, ethics for college football? Again, UC needs to do WHATEVER it takes...and soon, before all the seats are taken away in this cruel game of musical chairs.

What makes you think they aren't doing whatever it takes? I have seen them reach out to the ACC, build practice bubbles, and renovate a stadium. Before that it was the construction of Varsity Village an the Lindner center.

Add to that the recent successes of both football with the 10 and 9 win seasons, the hiring of a well-respected football coach, and 3 consecutive NCAA tourney appearances.

Our record against other p5 conferences in OOC games has been pretty good.

I don't by any means think that UC is being passive and waiting for an invite to fall in their lap. I just think that overall the programs that were picked before us were better in different aspects. Were it fan base, history, academic reputation or geographic circumstance.

The question isn't is UC doing all it can? The question is if UC does all it can, is that enough?

(01-18-2014 03:18 PM)BearcatsUC Wrote:  

(01-18-2014 01:33 PM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  Power five invite or not, this is not a good thing. Even if UC is part of the club, I am not going to defend this power grab. I keep hoping that common sense prevails before the attorneys get involved.

I may be wrong, but I think a club of 64 will lessen overall interest in college sports. Excluding so many so a few can prosper will have some unintended consequences who grabbed all the power.

I think this is exactly what happens.