Take a picture, because you’re seeing the end of the NCAA, or at least as we know it.
With the SEC’s conditional acceptance of Texas A&M, the world of college sports is once again in tilt.
It’s looking like, with just A&M’s departure, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech are headed to the recently-expanded Pac-12 Conference. The SEC will snap up at least one more team, possibly three, to get to an even 14 or 16 members. The Big East and ACC will have to duel as they scavenge the defunct Big 12 for Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri, while also fighting off raids from the SEC.
With the legitimate fear of being on the outside looking in, the University of Baylor is threatening to sue the SEC if it takes Texas A&M and leaves the Big 12 buried in the Dust Bowl.
Yes, an institute of higher learning is trying to sue an amateur athletic conference. Say it out loud, it sounds even more ridiculous. But that’s the sports world we live in, and like I said, that world is in tilt.
It’s seeming like the winners of this expansion mayhem will be the Pac-12, SEC, the very quiet Big Ten, and either the ACC or Big East. The losers will be everyone else.
You see what I’m getting at here?
Bottom line is the idea of four 16-team superconferences that control college football, and in turn all collegiate sports, is coming to fruition quickly. Even if it doesn’t happen in this storm, it will eventually.
And you better bet your bottom dollar these conferences will band together and leave the NCAA, leaving it as a desolate collection of non-competitive, mid-major schools lingering across the country.
Ridiculous, right? Wrong.
Heard of the Amateur Athletics Union? That’s right, AAU. They were pretty big for a while too. Older than the NCAA, AAU used to be a driving force in preparing athletes to compete in the Olympics, as well as having a part in college sports at the turn of the 20th century.
Now, they run summer basketball leagues.
And why would these superconferences want anything to do with the NCAA? All it does is take money, keep programs from making more money, punish coaches for making too many phone calls, limit practice hours during the semester, and take away past wins and national titles for some, but not for others.
Like the United States, the NCAA only has power based on the power its members give to it. So, if the members with power leave, the NCAA won’t have any more power. And by power, I mean a product. And by a product, I mean money.
Plus, with the NCAA out of the way, these superconferences can finally shed the monkey known as Amateurism off their backs. The players can finally get in on the billion-dollar business, and the athletic departments can stop lying through their teeth when they act like any of their concerns have to do with academics and preparing young adults to enter the world.
With this expansion comes exposure. With exposure comes influence. With influence comes control. With the willingness to throw century-old rivalries out the window, these conferences want to control bigger and bigger chunks of the country to use as bigger and bigger fan bases.
It’s not about competition. It’s not about regional rivalries. It’s about dollars. The Boise States of college football will surely be left out of whatever post-season these superconferences agree to if they can’t finagle their way in.
The NFL makes billions of dollars a year with its national reach. I wouldn’t be surprised if college football is doing the same thing by the time our kids are in college.
None of this means the NCAA will disappear. At least they’ll still have the Memphises, Montanas and the Utah States.
