TheHall wrote:I think you guys are under estimating the powers that really prop the NCAA's up. Seems like you can't picture a world without the anti-trust protected NCAA; EVERYTHING would be different. In Europe, sub-NBA ball is hugely supported & profitable. ESPN televises hs fball & bball regularly now not because there in no market for this level of competition, its exactly the opposite,
Also, most college grads support their schools because of & through the sports programs, not donations related to other departments. Also most college sports fans aren't necessarily graduates or even connected to the schools themselves. That's one reason why when a school sucks support wanes and vice versa. The billion dollar beast that is minor league bball & fb need a home true but it doesn't have to live in the NCAA structure. The NCAA structure just happens to be the most profitable (low cost labor). Don't get it twisted without the best ballers in the country going to these schools "college pride" would be more like high school pride, which is cool but doesn't create or support an ESPN. How many our your high school games do you think you will go to over the next 20 years? Would we really be posting in this forum if the best players in the country/world for their ages, weren't playing in college.
Alright, I said I was done but you raise a couple more points. The sub-NBA leagues in Europe are the highest level of ball in those countries. The NBA is on at 3am there, good luck getting the 18-34 demographic (most sports fans) to watch at that point. There is also the fact that those leagues "huge popularity" tops out at about 8-12,000 fans per game. Not really a great comparison imo. If you look at the lower leagues in basketball over there, they draw sub 4,000 crowds. Soccer in England draws 60,000/game at the top level. Tops out at 20,000/game at the next level down. This also doesn't address either the players who are forced out after 4 years or the alumni who fly across the country once a year or drive across the state every week for a minor league team. Nobody would do that.
Yep, it's easy to buy a ticket to support your team, instant results. Nobody, and I mean nobody (especially not a regular fan with no other connection), is going to donate $2 million in order to help a minor league team win a minor league crown. Forget about it. These are private enterprises and in the US we let private businesses stand or fall on their own merit. Nobody leaves their estate to the Packers, despite how rabid the fanbase is. People leave estates to schools all the time. People do want to be associated with their schools more when they are doing well. That's a pretty basic fact. D1 ball also did pretty well from the '70s through 2006, when players could go to the NBA right out of high school. College pride isn't going anywhere because we choose our college (and our college chose us). We weren't forced there by our parents or district. We saw something we liked there, and said "I want to invest 4 years of my life and thousands of dollars in that institution." You massively underestimate this commitment, and the loyalty that people feel when their lives are enriched by a degree from an University.
There will be a market for lower level ball of all kinds, but you can forget it being anywhere near what it is now.