Coming Soon: The Big 80
Now comes Martin Manley, blogging in the Kansas City Star, harrumphing that all the football schools can do all the expanding they want. When all is said and done, that will leave the Jayhawks, K-State, and about 78 other basketball schools to form their own superconference for basketball, so nyaah nyaah. Then, football schools, just try getting into March Madness.
I think he means the Jayhawks, 78 other basketball schools, and K-State. Slight difference in word order, big difference in meaning.
Anyway, there's about 10,000 leaps of logic required to go from "Nebraska leaving the Big 12" to "inevitable death of the NCAA." That's not bordering on the absurd, that's jumping into it with both feet.
How do these writers even show these articles to their editors without being fired? Just unbelievable.
What would you do if the SEC gobbled up the ACC, and Virginia joined the Big 10 and was placed in a division with Michigan.
Puke. Unless it was a 16-team Big Ten, heavy on the eastern schools like Syracuse, Rutgers, and UConn, UVA would be doomed to Northwestern status in the Big Ten. And that kind of Big Ten would also make me puke just for aesthetic reasons.
But I don't worry about the SEC gobbling up the ACC. I don't see it happening at all.
Although it is a leap in logic, there has been speculation for sometime that if we get to four 16-team super conferences...why would they want to continue sharing money and cutting their own resources to articially prop up the mid majors sports departments?
I hate falling into the absurd. The stains never come out.
The NCAA, like it or not, handles thousands of mind-numbing administrative duties that make college sports possible, and they are generally perceived as doing so (please don't laugh) in an even-handed way that creates an even playing field for all. If the Mega Conferences kill the NCAA, they will only have to turn around and create another similar organization to undertake most of the same functions. I am not sure what they would expect to accomplish by doing that.
They would expect to accomplish keeping more money for themselves. Or perhaps with the fruition of restructed conferences they could back the NCAA into changing some of its rules and money sharing.
As the expansion process has gone on, one thing is clear: Nobody cares about Kansas. Nobody at all. Missouri was probably tainted because they have Kansas City, that's how much nobody wants Kansas.
What all this proves, once again, is that college basketball is only relevant in March.