DESTIN, Fla. -- The Southeastern Conference sent a strong message to the NCAA on Friday: provide the Big Five some autonomy or they'll form their own division.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said if the Big Five conferences - which also include the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 - don't get the flexibility needed to create their own bylaws, the next step would be to move to ''Division IV.''

''It's not something we want to do,'' Slive said on the final day of the SEC meetings. ''We want to the ability to have autonomy in areas that has a nexus to the well-being of student athletes. I am somewhat optimistic it will pass, but if it doesn't, our league would certainly want to move to a Division IV. My colleagues, I can't speak for anybody else, but I'd be surprised if they didn't feel the same way.''

http://sports.ca.msn.com/ncaa/football/n...ivision-iv

The good news is that Mike Slive's wife is hooking up with their entire landscaping crew, and making some damned fine amateur movies to document it.

(05-31-2014 01:48 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  The good news is that Mike Slive's wife is hooking up with their entire landscaping crew, and making some damned fine amateur movies to document it.

To think he was a major part of CUSA a decade ago and now doesn't even care if we exist.

As a fan of an ACC team, I can only see bad things happening with this whole posturing effort. The $EC is hated almost universally between the other P5 conferences, and I think and hope their attempts to scare the rest of the NCAA will backfire. I hope the ACC works with the NCAA to fix the problems rather than throwing a hissy fit when things don't go their way like the SEC usually does.

(05-31-2014 03:45 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  As a fan of an ACC team, I can only see bad things happening with this whole posturing effort. The $EC is hated almost universally between the other P5 conferences, and I think and hope their attempts to scare the rest of the NCAA will backfire. I hope the ACC works with the NCAA to fix the problems rather than throwing a hissy fit when things don't go their way like the SEC usually does.

The problem is that the only P5 league that has shown much of a capacity for thinking they don't need anyone else is the Pac-12 and that's because they don't have any other P5 schools nearby and most of them tend to play some less heavily adopted sports and interact far more with non-P5 leagues in those sports.

let them go. phuck 'em. let college football be about college football, and not some freebie minor league for the nfl.

in fact, we should just expel them. the sec and their fluffers at espn have nearly destroyed college football.

(05-31-2014 04:46 PM)EagleX Wrote:  let them go. phuck 'em. let college football be about college football, and not some freebie minor league for the nfl.

in fact, we should just expel them. the sec and their fluffers at espn have nearly destroyed college football.

I couldn't agree more. They are going to get what they want anyway you look at it, so let them go. There's not much damage left for them to impose on G5s at this point. The separation has already happened. Just make it formal, then sue them for collusion and have the government tax them as for-profit athletic institutions. Tax the hell out of them! Force them to either pay taxes to the government or pay retribution to the rest of us. It's absolutely sickening that what has happened over the past 20 years in college football is even legal. They're trying kill us all off!

(05-31-2014 04:46 PM)EagleX Wrote:  let them go. phuck 'em. let college football be about college football, and not some freebie minor league for the nfl.

in fact, we should just expel them. the sec and their fluffers at espn have nearly destroyed college football.

agreed.. if they want to run away and try to prove they're not an academic institution and are a semi-pro league, let 'em do it and let the chips fall where they may.

Heck, when Alabama is struggling to find teams to get on their schedule.. This threat is nothing but being the wolf that huffs-and-puffs and hopes that college football fandom backs down.

Yep, let em try it.

It would last four or five years before they realize that 50% of his league can't finish above .500 and those coaches start whining.

This is will not work for the SEC. Ole Miss, MSU, Vandy, and Kentucky will be lucky to win 6 games once per decade and go to a bowl game. Their fans will get pissed off and look to move somewhere else. I can't believe all of the SEC schools want this to happen.

Frack them. Let them go play pro ball. I won't bother to watch it support one second if it. It's semi-pro now with the SEC, especially in the state of Alabama where those two schools give money to the same guys they are recruiting. Let them go.

What a difference a few months makes. I suggested a long time ago that these guys should just form their own league and pay their players.

And it seemed that a lot of people were not keen on this.

I hate the SEC just as much as the next guy but we can't expect to compete on their level.

Let the big boys have their championship bowl series and let the mid majors have a playoff system.

What some of you are missing once we have three different letter by our name than the P5 we become 1aa or FCS

For the most part FBS is in name only but it still connects us. Some of you who played at the 1aa level are forgetting how hard it was to get ANY media attention and fan support. Others that never did play 1aa...

well you don't want to know the difference

If you think it's bad now, separation will be worse. We will never be on the same footing as the SEC...never have been. Nope, never. But the only thing in each of our power is to win, win often, and make each program too important too be forgotten. With that we still wont be talked about in the same light as the SEC....

but it's about the best you can hope for. And it's always been that way, with the BYU exception 30 years ago .

(06-01-2014 12:41 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  What a difference a few months makes. I suggested a long time ago that these guys should just form their own league and pay their players.

And it seemed that a lot of people were not keen on this.

I hate the SEC just as much as the next guy but we can't expect to compete on their level.

Let the big boys have their championship bowl series and let the mid majors have a playoff system.

We've already done that. It was called Division I-A and I-AA.

I don't want to voluntarily just give in and go back to that. I would not be willing just to cave and go my separate way. We had to make too many sacrifices and put up a lot of money to get this far.

If they want to try to force it then I look forward to them trying to: 1) actually pull it off and 2) enjoying all the unintended consequences they seem to be unable to visualize if they do pull it off.

Kick all their other sports out of our conferences, too. Don't need to be a parking garage for sports that don't have a place in the P5.

(06-01-2014 03:58 PM)MUther Wrote:  Kick all their other sports out of our conferences, too. Don't need to be a parking garage for sports that don't have a place in the P5.

Or let them stay if they want to pay membership dues of $5 million to $10 million per sport.

I want USM to compete at the highest athletic level, and I think we should drop any sport where we cannot.

(06-01-2014 06:36 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  I want USM to compete at the highest athletic level, and I think we should drop any sport where we cannot.

How do you know which sports you can and cannot compete at the highest levels in though?

(06-01-2014 06:41 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(06-01-2014 06:36 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  I want USM to compete at the highest athletic level, and I think we should drop any sport where we cannot.

How do you know which sports you can and cannot compete at the highest levels in though?

Yes = we are allowed to compete for the national championship. Maybe we go 0-12, but it's against the best teams, and if we go 12-0 instead, we don't go to the Little Seizures Valium Bowl or the Hearts of Palm Bowl, we go to the (real) championship game.

No = we compete for some lesser championship.

This is basically the test Howard Schnellenberger suggested when he left Louisville. USM football has been borderline with respect to this test for about 20 years.

(06-01-2014 07:50 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  

(06-01-2014 06:41 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(06-01-2014 06:36 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  I want USM to compete at the highest athletic level, and I think we should drop any sport where we cannot.

How do you know which sports you can and cannot compete at the highest levels in though?

Yes = we are allowed to compete for the national championship. Maybe we go 0-12, but it's against the best teams, and if we go 12-0 instead, we don't go to the Little Seizures Valium Bowl or the Hearts of Palm Bowl, we go to the (real) championship game.

No = we compete for some lesser championship.

This is basically the test Howard Schnellenberger suggested when he left Louisville. USM football has been borderline with respect to this test for about 20 years.

Yes has NEVER been on the table for S. Miss...

NEVER