04/25/24
April 20, 2010
Former AD: The BCS Conferences Will Leave the NCAA: The Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Southeastern Conference will form 16-team conferences and leave the NCAA, killing the Big East and other conferences and leaving "utter turmoil," the former athletic director of Syracuse predicts. "If you look at the history of what's been going on for the last decade, I think it's leading in that direction," said Jake Crouthamel, who led Syracuse from 1978 to 2005 and helped create the Big East.
I sort of wondered similarly how they'd fill out the Big 10, but since the Big 12 wasn't mentioned, you'd have plenty of logical choices in the Midwest to add. Iowa State, Nebraska, and Missouri come to mind. You could also add some Big East schools like Pitt, Notre Dame (Big East in basketball at least), and others.
That being said, I like things more or less as they are, and hope Crouthamel's prediction is wrong. I would like to see the Big 10 (or 11, as the case may be), add one more team, but that's about all.
posted by TheQatarian at 12:59 PM on April 20, 2010
Can there be much of a downside if it kills off the NCAA?
posted by wfrazerjr at 02:00 PM on April 20, 2010
I don't know that there's an upside, from my perspective as a University of North Texas alumnus. I guess it's possible that if the four biggest conferences take their ball and go home, UNT and the rest could either go it alone or rejoin the old I-AA. I wouldn't mind being in a sport settled by a playoff.
posted by rcade at 02:22 PM on April 20, 2010
The Big East is fine after teams left. They found new and exciting upstart teams such as USF.
posted by bperk at 02:35 PM on April 20, 2010
Does this mean an eight team play-off? Four conferences, with championship games, leave four teams in contention for the national title.
posted by Aardhart at 03:38 PM on April 20, 2010
Aardhart brings up a good point, but I'm thinking more along the lines of: What will the bowls think about this? If the move is about money, well, the bowls are paying a big chunk of that.
posted by billsaysthis at 03:55 PM on April 20, 2010
As soon as I saw leave the NCAA I got excited about this idea.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 07:05 PM on April 20, 2010
Colin Cowherd is claiming that Colorado and Utah going to the PAC-10 is a done deal.
posted by rcade at 01:05 PM on April 21, 2010
This whole thing has the possibility of becoming a case of competing national championships. If the major conferences leave the NCAA, the NCAA might just take the remnants and put together a post-season playoff system (much like the FCS, or former Div. 1-AA playoffs). Then the NCAA can say it has a legitimate champion and have done with it. Of course the "super-liga" schools will say that it's not so, we can beat anyone else, and will start their own tournament. Now we're back to the old days of college basketball when the NIT and NCAA tournaments competed with each other. At one time, the NIT was considered to be the more prestigious tournament, and the NCAA champion was definitely "second class". It all got sorted out in the end, but there was some pain before it got done.
posted by Howard_T at 04:34 PM on April 21, 2010
If Crouthamel is correct about the four conferences expanding to 16 teams each and leaving the NCAA it will be the final nail in the amateur athletics/players are here for an education bushwa.
In writing that sentence I kept debating between the word teams and schools. But there being a school attached to the team will have lost all relevance if this happens.
I wonder who'd join the Pac-10 to get them to 16. Boise State, Fresno State, University of New Mexico, New Mexico State seem like four high probability candidates but who else? Everyone loves a trip to Hawaii, so maybe them.