(03-25-2015 06:29 PM)murrdcu Wrote: (03-24-2015 06:04 AM)JRsec Wrote: (03-23-2015 10:52 PM)murrdcu Wrote: (03-22-2015 01:09 PM)JRsec Wrote: So, we quit calling our debt "National" which can be declared bankrupt followed by the issuing of a new currency as nations such as Brazil have done in the past. Instead we opened up our trade again (and protected our biggest corporations from being attached) by making a legal change in the distinction of that debt by calling it "Sovereign" debt. With "Sovereign" debt the creditors of our nation may directly attach the savings, retirement, and common checking accounts of the citizens of the nation to collect. Ask the Greeks what they think about this? Although the riots in Greece over their sovereign debt issue were reported here, the motivation of those riots was not. Over one long weekend the German bank levied a flat 10% reduction against all of the citizens of Greece and deducted that levy electronically from all forms of their personal assets. Since 2008 this has become a possibility here. So not only do we face the possibility of hyperinflation, but also the possibility that foreign creditors will take levies against our holdings personally while the very politicians and corporations that created the fiasco walk away free and clean.
Yeah, I would have to say, if that ever happened here in the U.S., the safety of our recent politicians would be questionable to say the least. How this all relates to conference realignment? My guess would be a need at the state/federal level to quit supplementing educational athletic programs that lose money as part of a need to cut federal spending to pay off national debts. I'm sure some schools would try to writes these losses off as advertising or something creative. Still I would not want to see C.R. started due to major economic issues due to our national debt problems.
I do think that we would see a reduction in minor sports and that most schools would only offer scholarships for football, basketball, and baseball for men, and soccer, softball, and basketball for women. Olympic sports would have to depend upon corporate sponsorship if they could get it. But such a calamity could prove very damaging to Title IX.
If funding or revenues hit rock bottom, invented emergency measures would be made regardless of Title IX.
That is everyone's first assumption, but it misses the main point. The dollar as a monetary unit is in real danger. If King Dollar falls the mess would be so expansive and the societal adjustments so radical, that all bets would be off as to what did survive. Imagine that tomorrow you wake up and a foreign entity to which our country owes money has seized 10% of your savings, retirement portfolio, and your checking account assets. Then imagine that the 90% you have left is worth just over 1/3rd less in its purchasing power. Then absorb that the seizure has been by just one foreign entity that is owed, and not by all, and that each may attach your accounts for up to 10% per year until the debt is collected. That's what the switch from "national debt" to "sovereign debt" does to you legally. If you want to see it in action then just study what is happening in Greece.
A few years back Obama's talking points were centered around how Americans needed to learn to be happy with less. He's not the creator of the crisis. It has been building since the Federal Reserve truly seized control in 1963. We are about to downsize everything, including the number of colleges and universities. That's why realignment has been taking place. Those with guaranteed revenue will be positioned to survive. Some smaller schools will be placed under the umbrella of larger state schools. Some will be technical schools. Others will simply vanish. This would have occurred without a fiscal dilemma. The small colleges grew exponentially to supply baby boomers with an education. With the death of the boomers and the diminished fiscal reach of their children established, the need of these schools has simply passed. So like small branches and streams in a river complex, until their is a flood again, they will dry up. Add to that the ability of technology to provide remote learning and a series of lessons that shall only be taught by a recorded professor and you have eliminated the need for campus buildings and a large staff. Then add to that the declining number of jobs that pay skilled and educated labor sufficiently to justify the expense of college and you have driven a nail into the coffin of the small state schools, and eventually the private schools as well.
Realignment has been the collectivizing of large state schools and the nation's largest and best known private schools. The PAC, Big 10 and SEC are secure because each only has a single or at most two privates to deal with. The Big 12 and ACC on the other hand are in a much less desirable position in that regard. Notre Dame and Duke will make the grade from the ACC if they choose to make it. I doubt that Wake Forest will. Miami, Syracuse, and Boston College should make it, but there is at least some doubt. Pittsburgh is a hybrid and with state funding should be fine. There will be no problem for Georgia Tech, Clemson, N.C. State, Virginia Tech, or Florida State. But look at the Big 12. The snub for Oklahoma State and Kansas State is for a reason. In a financial crisis both of those small states might well keep both campuses operational, or they might be forced with drastic cutbacks to merge their respective state schools to cut down on duplicated fields. The same is true in Iowa and that is why a great school like Iowa State may be in jeopardy. In Texas, A&M and UT will always be safe. T.C.U. and Baylor not so much. If it were about sports Baylor and possibly T.C.U. would both be fine, but it is not about sports. It is about formulating strategies for contending with an impending financial mess and states generally will protect only those institutions for which they have oversight and that excludes privates. A mess, I might add, that will be hastened in its onset by our European allies abandoning the dollar for a safer gold backed Renminbi, which by the way on March 18 in Chile they (Italy, France, Germany, and England) expressed their desire to do.
So in the wake of the kinds of changes I'm talking about, Title IX would be the least of our worries, and therefore a very likely casualty along with many many non revenue producing minor men's sports.
Therefore television networks will wait for the casualties of funding and will then be able to take advantage of this crisis more fully by consolidating the largest alumni bases, and most recognizable brands into a very competitive and comprehensible regional setup. Why? Because in a severe economic crisis it will be cheap entertainment to produce and professional sports franchises won't likely survive. So college ball becomes a replacement for professional sports and scholarships and stipends become a greatly reduced payout for that entertainment rather than million dollar payouts for pro salaries.
IMO the remaining schools to be realigned are: Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, and N.C. State. I could see UVa getting out of major college football altogether and keeping their academic high road. They'll be fine with what they have to offer. Notre Dame will be fine either way. Duke is another that may eventually choose to abandon football even as could Vanderbilt and Northwestern. Louisville, West Virginia, Cincinnati and a few others could be right back on the in or out bubble. We'll see.