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Interesting article in USA Today that certainly makes it sound like there are ADs and schools willing to look at breaking away from the NCAA and starting their own oversight body. For football it could happen pretty swiftly since they don't control the bowls anyway. Some references to basketball changes that could occur too. If I can find a link online I will post it.

Makes plenty of sense. The NCAA needs football, but football doesn't need the NCAA at all.

I mean, if the NCAA told members that anyone going to the Football League would have all their NCAA sports punished (assuming football starts alone), most football schools would take the bullet.

DumpsterFireA10 wrote:Makes plenty of sense. The NCAA needs football, but football doesn't need the NCAA at all.

I mean, if the NCAA told members that anyone going to the Football League would have all their NCAA sports punished (assuming football starts alone), most football schools would take the bullet.

NCAA makes almost nothing off football. Most of their money comes from the NCAA tournament. They do need the football schools for their basketball programs, but if football ceased to exist tomorrow it wouldn't really affect the NCAA.

marquette wrote:

DumpsterFireA10 wrote:Makes plenty of sense. The NCAA needs football, but football doesn't need the NCAA at all.

I mean, if the NCAA told members that anyone going to the Football League would have all their NCAA sports punished (assuming football starts alone), most football schools would take the bullet.

NCAA makes almost nothing off football. Most of their money comes from the NCAA tournament. They do need the football schools for their basketball programs, but if football ceased to exist tomorrow it wouldn't really affect the NCAA.

You just made my point for me. They need those schools for their marquee money-maker. CBS isn't bidding billions of dollars for March Madness with all the current BCS teams doing something else.

marquette wrote:

DumpsterFireA10 wrote:Makes plenty of sense. The NCAA needs football, but football doesn't need the NCAA at all.

I mean, if the NCAA told members that anyone going to the Football League would have all their NCAA sports punished (assuming football starts alone), most football schools would take the bullet.

NCAA makes almost nothing off football. Most of their money comes from the NCAA tournament. They do need the football schools for their basketball programs, but if football ceased to exist tomorrow it wouldn't really affect the NCAA.

Yes and no... if the football schools leave... they will be able to run their non revs as they choose... and well if recent history is any indication the answer is that they choose not to have them. Which means they will fail to meet NCAA basketball qualifications so the football schools will have to set up their own BBall tourney, which would make the NCAA tourney about as relevant as the NIT tourney.

Yup, if they leave with 64+ teams they could setup a 32 team tourney that probably makes as much money as the current one does. All the games will be marquee matchups, in some sense, plus now all the money is funneled to their much more select group. I'm not sure they would have any reason to include conferences like the Big East. There's just not enough name basketball programs outside the power BCS conferences for them to worry about a competing tourney.

Hey, I'm not predicting anything, but I do think it makes a lot of sense for those 5 conferences to split and call their own shots across all sports. They could just declare themselves the top division and have all the championships in all sports. There's no worries about other teams just deciding to join them.

yorost wrote:Yup, if they leave with 64+ teams they could setup a 32 team tourney that probably makes as much money as the current one does. All the games will be marquee matchups, in some sense, plus now all the money is funneled to their much more select group. I'm not sure they would have any reason to include conferences like the Big East. There's just not enough name basketball programs outside the power BCS conferences for them to worry about a competing tourney.

Hey, I'm not predicting anything, but I do think it makes a lot of sense for those 5 conferences to split and call their own shots across all sports. They could just declare themselves the top division and have all the championships in all sports. There's no worries about other teams just deciding to join them.

Again I agree. Although i could see them inviting the top few conferences with them. The BE does have quality names in basketball so it should make the cut. Plus you have to add a few teams for buy games "beat downs"

My guess is that you will see- ACC, SEC, B12, B10, PAC, MWC, BE, AAC, SB,CUSA for sure and maybe one or two more. The real problem with splitting with the NCAA has nothing to do with sports revenue and everything to do with Navy, Army, and AirForce you cannot split without taking those two schools. The service acadamy's get insane exposure and advertisement for the buck by being involved in the FBS football. This is equal to millions of dollars in advertisement revenue that the government cannot afford to lose. If any split happens without those three schools the Fed Gov will for sure step in and argue anti-trust, and since all of the schools in the big 5 conference are essentially welfare schools (we just call it federal student loans) they will have to bow down to fed gov wishes.

The reality is that the schools don't need the NCAA. But the NCAA needs the schools. I won't be surprised if both football and mens basketball completely break away and get their own TV deals for tournaments.