ESPN article references support within B1G & SEC leadership to leave NCAA

Fuck ND. They overplayed their hand years ago and should go down with the ship. The SEC and the Big Ten = Legitimacy.

The ACC was always the 3rd or 4th fiddle at best... They are basically a slightly stronger Big Ten West. The NCAA is a relic of the past and honestly, going in a different direction will be a benefit for all the schools that choose to do it. The NCAA can still manage the leftovers but not sure why any big conference is still tied to them

It wouldn't lack legitimacy. It would be missing a couple of big schools but have the vast majority of crucial ones. 

The B1G and the SEC have, in football, all of the clout they need. 

Michigan is not going to leave the B1G and is not going to threaten to leave. 

Any sort of legitimate chance that had of happening, died many years ago. The ACC committed suicide when they signed their television deal with ESPN. Whomever in the Big Ten had the foresight to sell a controlling interest in the Big Ten Network was a genius. With FOX running the television negotiations the Big Ten is now on Fox, CBS and NBC. The ACC is tied at the hip to ESPN. ESPN is still the flagship for the SEC. 

Even if ESPN decided to give up their sweetheart ACC deal, they don't have enough money for a big-time contract with both the ACC and the SEC.  

The rest of the Big Ten would laugh their asses off at Michigan as they bring in $20 million less per year in television revenue by joining the ACC. 

+1.  I know you're not a fan of the idea.

A thought argument, for those who like this idea:

Let's say the B1G-SEC break off the NCAA, and then start their own post-season tournament for all other sports, not just football.  And then let's say the B1G-SEC decides that "to make our tournament more meaningful, we'll issue invitations for 4-8 other schools to participate in our non-football post-season tournaments."

Is the NCAA going to just go along with that?  I doubt it.  They'll apply their own pressure, and say "if any school does this, they're booted from the organization!"

Let's say some of those schools call the NCAA's bluff.  Kansas and UConn play in the B1G-SEC hoops tournament.  UND and BC play in the B1G hockey tournament.  Syracuse and Denver play in the B1G lacrosse tournament.  Et cetera.

But all those schools now need an organization for ALL their sports.  What to do?  Well, I suppose they could join the B1G-SEC's new organization as associate/partial members?

Doesn't that just mean we're going to go down the exact same road?  Call it a "new NCAA", but I'd argue that for college athletics to be meaningful at all: an organiztion that regulates college athletics at a national level across multiple sports is both inevitable and a necessity.

It would hurt the SEC and Big Ten in other ways.  For the SEC the big loss would be baseball.  Baseball is a big sport in SEC country while the Big Ten is a mid-major in baseball.

For the Big Ten, wrestling would take a loss.  The Big Ten is one of the premier wrestling conferences while most SEC schools don't have wrestling as a varsity sport.

From the link: "the presidents and chancellors in both the SEC and Big Ten are having conversations about whether to continue their NCAA membership."

That reads to me as though a full NCAA withdrawal is on the table.

Now maybe the B1G/SEC will try "we're leaving the NCAA for football only, remaining for everything else."  But the reaction (from anyone) to that isn't going to simply be "OK, that's fine."

My question, and this conversation as a whole, is 100% worthy of discussion.

Well, let's say the SEC and B1G break off and do their own thing, have their own governing body.

Not everyone there is going to be equal either.  There will be schools like U-M and Alabama and Texas, and schools like Rutgers and Arkansas and Mississippi State. 

And eventually, sometime down the line, it'll be a different but same argument.  Folks wanting to break-off into ANOTHER bureaucracy that is "looking out for the interest of the big boy schools rather than trying to make rules that also hve to apply to Podunk State."

And we'd get a 16-team SuperLeague as opposed to an organization representing the combined 34-team B1G & SEC (as opposed to an organization representing the 600+ NCAA member schools ...... it's "turtles all the way down").

I'm sorry ...... but IMO, the big boys who make more $$$ should attempt to play somewhat nice with the smaller boys.  Breaking off and excluding others, it's not the solution (again, IMO). 

I say that as an economic conservative, FWIW: in sports, though, I prefer more equality and "socialism."

I'm honestly surprised it took this long to finally come apart

They aren't far off in Japan where the HS baseball tourney is the biggest deal.

I don't think it's a terrible system either - the development path for sports being tied to education means the vast majority of athletes who can play at a high level but cannot make a career of it have opportunities in the workforce afterwards. Kids who spend their money at European soccer academies are sacrificing their childhood for soccer, and the essentially starting over when they give up the dream. This seems better. Unique maybe. Worse in a lot of ways. But not universally worse.