Smoke your cigars and enjoy the band while you can....

[MadCat]

https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3424447/the-dumbest-and-worst-thing-to-happen-to-college-sports-would-be-this-report-about-the-ncaa-tournament-cutting-out-mid-majors-coming-true

Full Quote - “A couple of people from the D1 council called me and said Sankey kind of talked down to us a little bit and made it look like the NCAA Tournament may not look like the NCAA Tournament in a couple years, meaning the little guys might not be involved anymore.”

“I called a couple more guys on the committee who said (they) think they heard it wrong. All I’m saying is don’t be surprised if there’s a push from Greg Sankey and some of the big boys to not include the usual and that would be awful. That would be the worst thing to me for college basketball.”

Let's get right to the point here. FUUUUUCCCCKKKKK THIS. I love Greg Sankey. He's a genius. He's the best commissioner in the game. But cutting out mid-majors? Absolutely not. As much as I want to punch Saint Peter square in his stupid face, mid-majors is what makes the NCAA Tournament. People tune in to see Cinderella and if they can actually win a game. That's how it's supposed to be.

[Pete]

If what its “supposed to be” and what makes the most powerful organizations richer are different, guess which one wins.

[Pete]

These god damn democratic socialists fighting the rich getting richer need to move to Europe.

[MadCat]

Anyone trying to prevent the big 10 vs SEC national basketball tournament should stay in their lane.

[DQ12]

i really don't think "cutting the NCAA out" of the NCAA tournament is realistic at all for the reasons set forth in the below dialogue:

https://twitter.com/Dlew56/status/1546878288622239749?s=20&t=W1wzwEbCF7c6WtPqM0coHw

[MakeItRain]

People are completely ridiculous. There is no one trying to get rid of the basketball tournament or the NCAA as it exists. The CFP is going to take over the entire sport on the FBS level, but the NCAA not running FBS football is not in any way a new concept, they haven't since the OU sued them in the 80's. They aren't breaking away from the NCAA in the other sports, nor are they kicking conferences out of the tournament. The people ruining college football aren't the same people who would be involved in the decision to ruin the basketball tournament, completely different governance.

[sonofdaxjones]

Different governing bodies, but that still doesn't change the fact that Greg Sankey is wholly disingenuous when it comes to anything outside of the SEC.  I get he's the SEC commish, but when he starts talking about olive branches and working with other conferences he's completely full of crap, and doesn't mean a word of what he's saying publicly in that regard.

[MakeItRain]

Different governing bodies, but that still doesn't change the fact that Greg Sankey is wholly disingenuous when it comes to anything outside of the SEC.  I get he's the SEC commish, but when he starts talking about olive branches and working with other conferences he's completely full of crap, and doesn't mean a word of what he's saying publicly in that regard.

Agreed

[ChiComCat]

It's pretty clear that the SEC/B10 just want to foster complacency so they can pick off teams when the timetable works.  ACC/PAC/Big 12 can't keep pretending that it's not going to continue.

[Pete]

Different governing bodies, but that still doesn't change the fact that Greg Sankey is wholly disingenuous when it comes to anything outside of the SEC.  I get he's the SEC commish, but when he starts talking about olive branches and working with other conferences he's completely full of crap, and doesn't mean a word of what he's saying publicly in that regard.

Agreed

Agree, and that’s why I suspect that he would absolutely be OK with trashing the NCAA tournament if the alternative made his conference members $1 more.

[Pete]

The $ lost by destroying the NCAA tournament is NOT a problem for the big 10 and SEC if, IF, the abomination they replaced it with made the big 10 and SEC more money than the current state.

There is no one “in charge.”  There are only capitalists maximizing profits.

[Pete]

People are completely ridiculous. There is no one trying to get rid of the basketball tournament or the NCAA as it exists. The CFP is going to take over the entire sport on the FBS level, but the NCAA not running FBS football is not in any way a new concept, they haven't since the OU sued them in the 80's. They aren't breaking away from the NCAA in the other sports, nor are they kicking conferences out of the tournament. The people ruining college football aren't the same people who would be involved in the decision to ruin the basketball tournament, completely different governance.

You have no basis for doubting that the big 10 and SEC would fail to attempt to make more money. In fact, you have been given a great deal of evidence to suggest that they will do nearly anything to make more money for themselves.

[Pete]

Sankey’s job is to make his conference rich. His job is not to be a steward for the NCAA.

If he can make more $ by leaving the NCAA, he will do it, because that is his job.

[GregKSU1027]

Hi everyone, been a minute. Hope the offseason has been treating you all well. Also Horns Down.

https://www.theringer.com/college-football/2022/7/12/23205250/college-football-realignment-mess-usc-ucla-big-ten-sec

[star seed 7]

I've never been more convinced that jayhawk takeover is a dlew sock

[DQ12]

People are completely ridiculous. There is no one trying to get rid of the basketball tournament or the NCAA as it exists. The CFP is going to take over the entire sport on the FBS level, but the NCAA not running FBS football is not in any way a new concept, they haven't since the OU sued them in the 80's. They aren't breaking away from the NCAA in the other sports, nor are they kicking conferences out of the tournament. The people ruining college football aren't the same people who would be involved in the decision to ruin the basketball tournament, completely different governance.

You have no basis for doubting that the big 10 and SEC would fail to attempt to make more money. In fact, you have been given a great deal of evidence to suggest that they will do nearly anything to make more money for themselves.

There's just no reason to discard the NCAA tournament.  If Big 10 and SEC want to have a bi-conference tournament near the end of the season, go for it.  But any grand plan is to replace or (actually) compete with the NCAA tournament with 30-50 teams, it's never going to happen -- at least not anywhere close to the tune of a billion dollars.  The monetary juice from the NCAA tournament comes from brackets and cinderellas -- that's what "march madness" is.  The vast majority of the march madness audience doesn't give actually give a crap about college basketball.  It's the cultural phenomenon of March Madness.

Meanwhile, they'd face quite a bit of political backlash, as they'd be effectively killing the hundreds of millions of dollars in scholarship money the NCAA tournament provides.  The move just doesn't make any sense economically or politically.

[DQ12]

I've never been more convinced that jayhawk takeover is a dlew sock

I have 8 (i think) twitter accounts, but NONE of them is JHTO.  I do like bantering with him though.

[TheHamburglar]

The “breaking away with the NCAA tournament” talk is just saber rattling to get more concessions for the larger conferences from the transformation committee.

[Pete]

People are completely ridiculous. There is no one trying to get rid of the basketball tournament or the NCAA as it exists. The CFP is going to take over the entire sport on the FBS level, but the NCAA not running FBS football is not in any way a new concept, they haven't since the OU sued them in the 80's. They aren't breaking away from the NCAA in the other sports, nor are they kicking conferences out of the tournament. The people ruining college football aren't the same people who would be involved in the decision to ruin the basketball tournament, completely different governance.

You have no basis for doubting that the big 10 and SEC would fail to attempt to make more money. In fact, you have been given a great deal of evidence to suggest that they will do nearly anything to make more money for themselves.

There's just no reason to discard the NCAA tournament.  If Big 10 and SEC want to have a bi-conference tournament near the end of the season, go for it.  But any grand plan is to replace or (actually) compete with the NCAA tournament with 30-50 teams, it's never going to happen -- at least not anywhere close to the tune of a billion dollars.  The monetary juice from the NCAA tournament comes from brackets and cinderellas -- that's what "march madness" is.  The vast majority of the march madness audience doesn't give actually give a crap about college basketball.  It's the cultural phenomenon of March Madness.

Meanwhile, they'd face quite a bit of political backlash, as they'd be effectively killing the hundreds of millions of dollars in scholarship money the NCAA tournament provides.  The move just doesn't make any sense economically or politically.

The economics make great sense for the big 10 and SEC. I am very confident they would make more of their own exclusive national championship tourney/playoffs than they make off the current NCAA tournament.

I do agree that political pressure would be large. My feeling is those conferences and their stakeholders like money more than they dislike political pressure.

[nicname]

They should just use the courts to create a governing body that oversees media distribution, create a luxury tax that disperses extra revenue over a certain amount to be distributed to different sports/schools, reigns in coaches’ salaries, and promotes the scholarly aspect of college sports.

This will never happen if it’s left up to those that can benefit from TV money windfalls.

College sports, and thusly all sports will be better off in the long term. Sports shouldn’t be treated like a zero-sum game as corporations are.

[wetwillie]

I don’t see how it’s feasible to create a viable alternative with just those two conferences teams.  You leave way too many quality basketball programs off the table to put together something rivaling the excitement of the current product.

[bucket]

I don’t see how it’s feasible to create a viable alternative with just those two conferences teams.  You leave way too many quality basketball programs off the table to put together something rivaling the excitement of the current product.

Ya, but isn't that what we would have said about football too before super conferences came along? I realize they're different but wouldn't that be the next thing they set their eyes on?

[Pete]

I don’t see how it’s feasible to create a viable alternative with just those two conferences teams.  You leave way too many quality basketball programs off the table to put together something rivaling the excitement of the current product.

What the eff does that have to do with making the big 10 and SEC more money?

Guys, they don’t give a eff if they ruin everything you love as long as it makes them more money.

[Pete]

Here’s how to predict conference expansion and related fall out. Ask yourself “What change could make the most powerful 2 conferences richer?”

[wetwillie]

I don’t see how it’s feasible to create a viable alternative with just those two conferences teams.  You leave way too many quality basketball programs off the table to put together something rivaling the excitement of the current product.

What the eff does that have to do with making the big 10 and SEC more money?

Guys, they don’t give a eff if they ruin everything you love as long as it makes them more money.

The two conferences putting on a tournament only including their teams wouldn’t make more money for them IMO. It would be a vastly inferior product.  The P6 teams minus the SEC and big 10 would make for a larger draw.