If the other conferences were smart and NOT short-sighted (and we know this to be untrue), all non-SEC/Big Ten conferences would cozy up to the punching bag that is the NCAA and present a unified front to the SEC/Big Ten. Basically, tell them to eff off with their football demands and let them know that if/when they choose to break away for football, they'll be unwelcome to participate in any other NCAA sports (including the men's b-ball tourney cash cow).
People just do not understand the level of infrastructure necessary to provide administration/structure to dozens of sports. It's easy to crap all over the NCAA - and, rightly so in many cases - but what they do isn't easy. The SEC league office probably has about 30ish employees. The NCAA has more than 3,000.
Telling those two leagues to administer/govern 30+ sports would stop them in their tracks because no conference has the infrastructure in place to do it and it'd take many, many years and tens of millions of dollars to get to that point.
Agree for the most part. Prob, is, most of these dudes making the decisions give no fucks about the other sports anyway. They'd be happy to rid themselves of the Olympic sports that cost them money.
I'm not doubting that's true, but you still have to work around Title IX and if you had only a football program, you'd still have to have at least 3-4 women's sports to have equity balance. And, that's to say nothing of the massive revolt that would happen if a school like, say The Ohio State, cut 30ish sports of the 36 it currently offers.
Having said that... the NCAA is the governing body that mandates schools have at least 14 total sponsored sports to be D1. If those schools setup their own infrastructure, they could do whatever they want (within the boundaries of Title IX). But, still, a wholesale cutting of sports would be an enormous shitstorm that no university wants to take on - especially if they were bringing in loads of football $$$. Optics on that are terrible.
