Re: USC and UCLA to the Big Ten by 2024?
Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 1:51 pm
Jasper67 wrote:The P2 will be all about football, so I don’t see them getting all the top basketball talent. At worst, we might be looking at a split national championship or co-champions. But I really don’t see the P2 walking away from the current system in basketball.
In the case of a P2 breakaway in basketball, I think saying "at worst" we'd have a split championship would be too optimistic. That'd be more an "at best" scenario. If this were to happen (again, neither of us think it would) then the P2 would do everything possible to ensure that their tournament and programs would be viewed as the most desirable for recruiting and would pour whatever money is needed into making that happen. That'd be an extremely difficult task and it'd be much easier to simply invite schools from the Big East and other top basketball conferences rather than try to erase national fanbases and programs, but regardless the P2 would not settle for being viewed as equals to the NCAA as that'd just fracture the fan bases and thus viewership. Either they'd create the premiere tournament or they won't do anything at all.
The NCAA Tournament is lucrative as it is so they'd really have to have everything in line for a breakaway to happen. That IMO means including the Big East and a bunch of programs that likely will never be fully admitted as a P2 member (Kansas, Duke, Syracuse, UNC, Gonzaga). Add those programs to a P2 tournament and the NCAA Tournament would essentially be dead and thus no longer competition for the P2 tournament. That said, we ultimately agree that the P2 won't walk away from the current system in basketball.