The B1G and SEC are expanding for the sole purpose of muscling out the NCAA, who have been making some unpopular choices the last several years.
Eventually, the B1G and SEC will have 32 teams each, then they will merge, self govern separately from the NCAA and you will have a CFB Playoff scenario unfold, with a "National Championship" independent of the NCAA.
After that, you will see some sort of relegation similar to European Soccer, where the elites play the elites and the bottom feeders get relegated to a consolation league.
That is how I see it, and I hope IU isn't one of those relegated downward.
Agree. Total power play.
Although I think it will be an AFC/NFC situation where they create a playoff where it’s B1G vs SEC in some form or fashion.
Isn’t the NCAA comprised of the institutions that compete on intercollegiate athletics? Doesn’t it exist as a rule making and enforcement body of its member schools? Isn’t it comprised of representatives from those schools? And doesn’t it function at the direction of those schools?
The schools are the NCAA.If it’s replaced, it’s the schools that are replacing something that’s already totally under their collective control. They wouldn’t be “leaving” anything.
the NCAA used to negotiate tv contracts for all of college football as a single monopoly negotiator.
in the early 80s, OU and UGa wanted to be able to negotiate their own tv deals, so sued the NCAA under Sherman and Clayton Anti Trust acts, which prohibit group acts that restrain or prohibit open competition and trade.
fast forward a few decades, and Jim Delany and probably others realize that while what happened in the early 80s might have been good for schools in the early 80s, it was now handcuffing what Delany wanted to do in today's pay tv - internet media landscape.
Delany realized college fball was way out selling the NFL at the gate every wk, and doing as well with eyeballs on tv.
but the NFL had a much better tv contract than conferences could get.
why? because the NFL was negotiating with tv as a monopoly seller, thanks to an anti trust exemption, and the conferences weren't.
and the conferences were even competing against each other for tv money.
so Delany and the PAC and the SEC decided to try and kill off the B12 and ACC, and get down closer to a monopoly as possible at the time.
to do that, the SEC took Mizzou, A&M, the B10 took Neb, then UMd, and the SEC took Colorado, as their opening moves.
but the PAC went hard after Texas and OU as well at the time, and Delany went after more than just UMd from the ACC.
Delany even gave UMd very preferential financial terms, hoping UMd would act as the first domino to fall in bringing down the ACC.
he hoped UNC and UVa, possibly others, would fall as well.
they didn't..
in the end, the PAC, B10, and SEC, had failed to bring down the B12 and ACC, but damage had been done, and they weren't giving up.
targets got re-set.
taking USC and UCLA isn't about USC and UCLA, or the LA tv market.
it's about taking out the PAC.
same with Tx and OU to the SEC.
for the SEC, that's about finishing off the B12, more so than getting Tx and OU.
and yes, good schools, good markets, but the real pot of gold is negotiating as a monopoly seller, like the NFL, which gets everybody all the tv markets and best schools anyway.
remember, the NCAA has already been barred from being the monopoly tv negotiator by the UGa-OU antitrust suit in the early 80s, so OU and UGa already blew up that route to negotiating as a monopoly.
so just find a different route.
duopolies generally can and do effectively operate as a monopoly, because they can, and it's tough to stop them. (people wondering about current inflation are looking in the wrong place. being intentionally misdirected).
getting things down to the B10 and SEC, (regardless of how many schools are in each), gives member schools that duopoly that can negotiate as a monopoly.
going all the way back to the SEC adding Mizzou, the PAC Colorado, and the B10 Neb, UMd, this was always the real end goal.
negotiate as a monopoly seller like the NFL. and don't expand the playoffs till you can.
as i said in my other thread, it's corporate consolidation 101, has been for over a decade, and still is.
but the prize is getting closer for the corporate raiders.
just telling everybody the truth about what's been going down for more than a decade, and going down as we speak.
those saying it's not, are lying or wrong. (lots of both going around).
as to what i really think of all this, don't even get me going.
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