BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Baring significant expansion, the SEC/Big 10 red wedding doesn’t have the credibility to claim a breakaway “national champion” in basketball. Kentucky and Michigan State aren’t nearly enough to make up for the Big 12, ACC, Big East and the universe of mid majors.

 

The problem with that is that it translates as the bigger conferences are seeing that getting more of that money means taking it from the smaller, less powerful conferences. More teams from the middle third of the Power conferences in, and more of the have-nots muscled out. No more Cinderella teams is fine with fans of Enormous State, but it's a finger in the eye of Joe Fan who loves those first and second round upsets in the dance and watches in hope of seeing them.

 

I can't fucking wait for the spin from the dipshits when the NIT title game is still played to tumbleweeds at Butler and the ratings are still subterranean. They'll express surprise that power conference fans don't give a shit and tune out when their team isn't in the NCAA Tournament.

 

The biggest of the big want bigger slices of the pie. Ohio State wants a bigger slice than Purdue.

 

NIT = Not in tournament, and I say that as a fan of a team in the NIT final last year. No one much gives a shit afterward.

 

Yeah, but for the mids, it is a fun tournament b/c it still has some prestige. And I suppose it still will, once it's kept afloat as the Division I-AA national basketball championship game.

 

The only issue this new alliance is trying to solve is how to keep the current party going as long as possible. If they can't forbid employee status and bargaining rights, the game is up. The B1G/SEC are trying to spin this as "How can we transition to giving legal rights to all our players?" when the discussion is really "How can we prevent that outcome, but with a solution that doesn't need to factor in the needs of all the smaller schools?"

 

Or the smaller sports.

 

More like "How can we skim the cream so we maximize what we get paid while leaving everyone to sink or swim as best they can?"

 

Arizona hires new AD.

 

Pac-12 appoints Teresa Gould as commissioner to lead future success of conference | Pac-12

And the Pac-12 has a new commissioner.