MAKE IT STOP!

thats not gonna happen Larry. Congress wont let it. Football is as far as this goes and the gov't might break that up. Remember these institutions are funded publicly and can't play by rules of private business to form their own leagues. Besides, in basketball, who wants to be named the national champion of 60 BCS schools? If they break off into their own super league, their accomplishments wont be legit. Look at the past 20 years of NCAA Final Fours, and there are quite a few teams that were not BCS schools. Also, you need more than 60 teams for all your super powers to have a freakin scedule. You need the Charlotte's, Xaviers, Gonzagas, and Memphis of the world for your so called super 60 to fill out schedules. There are just too many mid majors that are better in hoops than the big powers. Romping thru a tourny filled with South Carolina, Clemson, and Fla St. is flimsy at best.

 

It only exciting for the smaller schools!

 

yeah just think, if UNC didn't have to play smaller basketball schools, you would of been like 8-15 a couple years ago instead of 8-20.

 

Yep, very exciting for the smaller schools indeed. Binghampton looked fucking thrilled a couple of years ago.

 

So did Davidson!

 

And Hampton. And the EA Sports All-Stars. IT'S IN THE GAME!!!

 

no not really they have a big alumni base in the northeast and UM and Notre Dame have a big rivalry going.

 

yeah that would be cool, although it's kind of hard to imagine that despite all the tv bucks and no player salaries that college athletic programs are running out of bucks.

 

Why Notre Dame is looking at a safety net
J
IM LITKE, AP Sports Columnist
Thursday, November 13, 2003
©2003 Associated Press


Going it alone is never easy.

So it's hard to blame Notre Dame for making another round of inquiries about tying its future to this conference or that. Given the shifting alliances and cutthroat deals being cut in college football, the people in charge at South Bend would be irresponsible not to take a long look.

The security that a move to the ACC or Big Ten would bring is tempting. There is strength in numbers -- a valuable commodity when it's time to sit across the bargaining table from the TV networks. The money would still be good and the headaches considerably fewer.

But here's the catch: It would also drain most of the magic out of one of the few remaining magical programs in sports.

Independence is what made the Irish. At the start of the last century, Notre Dame became the focal point for a country fast filling up with immigrants and just beginning to fall in love with sports.

The Irish rode the trains to both coasts and stopped off at any point in between. They might be in Yankee Stadium one weekend, Soldier Field the next, and the Coliseum the weekend after. In the days before television, a cheap ticket and a subway ride -- hence "subway alumni" -- was usually all it took to cheer, or boo, the Irish in person.

And for all the things that are different at the start of this century, it would be a shame if Notre Dame lowered its profile now.

In 1999, when talk of joining the Big Ten actually was put to a vote of the university's board of trustees, the late Dan Devine was asked how he'd cast his ballot if he had one.

Devine had coached the Irish for five seasons, winning the national championship in 1977. Nobody knew better what made Notre Dame special, or how tough it was to keep it that way.

"When you grow up playing sports, you love the idea that a team would go any place and play anybody at any time. That was what Notre Dame always stood for," he said. "I don't think it should change now."

Nobody at Notre Dame is saying that it's about to change now, either. In a statement Wednesday, athletic director Kevin White said there were no plans to change a thing. "However," he added, "we are continuing to monitor the landscape."

And anybody looking closely has reason to be nervous.

Conferences are devouring each other at a furious pace. As a result, the next time some old rivals meet will be in a court instead of on a football field.

What the conferences are doing is positioning themselves for the end of the 2005 season, when the TV deal that gives the Bowl Championship Series a chokehold on the lucrative part of college football's postseason is up. So is the exclusive, even more lucrative TV deal Notre Dame struck with NBC.

"In my heart of hearts," Gene Corrigan said, "I'd like to see them stay the way they've been. But I'm not sure that things haven't changed significantly enough that even a place like Notre Dame needs to look at things in a different light."

Corrigan has a better perspective on Notre Dame's dilemma than almost anybody else. He used to be the athletic director there, before becoming commissioner of the ACC and president of the NCAA from 1995-97. Corrigan knows how much clout Notre Dame still carries. What no one knows is how long it will last.

Last year, though few noticed it and even fewer mentioned it, Notre Dame lost its vote as a member of the BCS. The Irish no longer carried as much weight as the six major conferences that are also BCS members.

Practically, it made no difference. The Irish still get special consideration from the poll voters when they're good -- and sometimes, even when they're not. Their strength of schedule always gives them a chance to contend for the national championship, and they get bowl invitations just because of the size of the traveling party.

Yet Notre Dame is spending more and more every year to hold on to its independence. Soon, even the Irish will have to take out a mortgage.

When a new TV deal is struck, nothing short of a playoff will break the major conferences' grip on the national championship. And some of those conferences are still smarting over Notre Dame having its own TV network. The price of a seat at that table is only going to go up.

Two big college football independents chose the conference route a decade ago. Florida State joined the ACC and has used it as a launching pad to contend for the national championship every year.

Penn State slipped comfortably into the Big Ten. The move has benefited both parties, but after some initial success in the conference, the Nittany Lions haven't jumped back onto the national stage since.

What made Notre Dame football the thrilling high-wire act it became -- and remains -- was that the Irish never used a net. It never required more nerve than now.

Notre Dame also has provided so many of the game's best moments that it says nothing good about the state of the sport that the school has started pricing safety nets now.

 

Yep, just like UNCC last year. Keep reaching back for that couple of years ago son. Your little world is about to get a lot worse.