On the bright side...

[MUMac]

I guess that everything is just so f*cked up now with what looks like to be 4 superconferences that nothing will surprise me and i'm trying to disregard and preconceived notions of what college sports should be.  That's where my head's at at least.

I was kidding.  Your comment just reminded me of the line from Dumb and Dumber.

[4everwarriors]

I "could" strip off my clothes in the office and run around naked down the the hallway - but I'm not going to.

Thank you. Bad visual

[JTBMU7]

You guys are getting way off track. Here's how it will shake down:
-Schools will align into new, 16 team conferences, this will apply to all sports
-The BCS will "contract" to include only these 4 "super conferences" in FOOTBALL
-The rest of the varsity sports are entirely unaffected (competitively) by the BCS in any way.
So, for example, Syracuse women's golf will now play against Duke and Virginia, but there will not be a "BCS of Women's Golf". Similarly, there will not be a "BCS of College Hoops"... the NCAA already owns and runs the best non-Football TV product in the Tournament and makes a killing off of it. If you'll notice, current BCS alignment has NOTHING to do with who makes the field (theoretically).

Therefore, conference expansion/realignment/goat-f*cking will eventually force MU out of the "BCS Conference", but not out of any kind of ability to qualify for the tournament. The idea that the BCS will somehow spread to any other sport than Football is absurd.

[TJ]

Therefore, conference expansion/realignment/goat-f*cking will eventually force MU out of the "BCS Conference", but not out of any kind of ability to qualify for the tournament. The idea that the BCS will somehow spread to any other sport than Football is absurd.

I'm not saying it will happen, but why is it so absurd?  Money and greed is driving all of this, right?  When the 4 super conferences are done with football who is to say that don't look around at what else they can take?  You said yourself that the NCAA owns, runs, and profits from the Tournament - what if the 4 conferences with the biggest 64 schools decide that they don't want to share that money anymore either and breaks away from the NCAA entirely, forms their own association, and makes their own 64 team basketball tournament with most of the teams that people really wanted to see anyway.  Is there anything forcing these institutions to remain affiliated with the NCAA, and if not why does an NCAA contract with CBS mean anything?

[Tribby]

You guys are getting way off track. Here's how it will shake down:
-Schools will align into new, 16 team conferences, this will apply to all sports
-The BCS will "contract" to include only these 4 "super conferences" in FOOTBALL
-The rest of the varsity sports are entirely unaffected (competitively) by the BCS in any way.
So, for example, Syracuse women's golf will now play against Duke and Virginia, but there will not be a "BCS of Women's Golf". Similarly, there will not be a "BCS of College Hoops"... the NCAA already owns and runs the best non-Football TV product in the Tournament and makes a killing off of it. If you'll notice, current BCS alignment has NOTHING to do with who makes the field (theoretically).

Therefore, conference expansion/realignment/goat-f*cking will eventually force MU out of the "BCS Conference", but not out of any kind of ability to qualify for the tournament. The idea that the BCS will somehow spread to any other sport than Football is absurd.

It's not at all out of the realm of plausibility that the four superconferences secede from the NCAA entirely and form their own 64-team confederation. Besides keeping ALL the revenue for themselves, they can do away with pesky things like NCAA violations and academic rules and whatnot. I'm not saying this will happen, but you're wrong to dismiss the concept out of hand.

[MUMac]

Therefore, conference expansion/realignment/goat-f*cking will eventually force MU out of the "BCS Conference", but not out of any kind of ability to qualify for the tournament. The idea that the BCS will somehow spread to any other sport than Football is absurd.

It may be absurd, but 5 years ago, these moves were all considered absurd as well.  I expect there will be discussions, possibly overtures to leave the NCAA and go on their own.  Money will be big for them with less sharing.  Will they call it the BCS?  No.  Many, including I, are using this term as a placeholder name, not the ultimate name.

It may not happen, as you suspect.  To call it absurd, though, is to become like the ostrich.

[JTBMU7]

Points taken, but i still disagree. Mainly for the two reasons:

1) College football never had an NCAA-sponsored championship, so molding the current Bowl system into the BCS was fairly simple... there was nothing standing in their way since all of the bowls were/are run by the Conferences and their sponsors
2) $$$$$$. Every other sport loses money (including a lot of hoops programs).Having to take on the responsibility to manage/run/fund/etc every other (or ANY other, including basketball) varsity sport is so far past the reach of the BCS conferences it's not even an option. They won't take on hoops because in the long run they will lose $ trying to figure out how to manage it.

Additionally, you'd have to convince all the same university presidents (not AD's) to create, fund, and run a new tournament to crown a champ, when one already exists where they make plenty of dough. The infrastructure and relationships already existed for the BCS to stamp it's name on it, not so with the tournament.

The great Myth is that the BCS is some governing body that rules and makes decisions similar to the NCAA. There are no headquarters, there is no president (just a rotating "coordinator" i.e one of the member schools presidents), there are no employees, there is just a computer, and a brand name, that's it.

None of this has anything to do with basketball. It will affect it, but it's just not in anyone's interest to try and overhaul the system that exists in hoops. I will agree that it's "possible", but it's so unlikely and so far in the future i don't think it's worth bothering with.

[JTBMU7]

one more thing... the schools that are really getting screwed in all this are the ones that have football programs but arent going to be invited into any of the new superconferences... South Florida, Baylor, TCU, etc are really going to be screwed in all this as they will be left holding the bag in dying conferences but not be aligned with any shot at a title in football...

[muwarrior69]

one more thing... the schools that are really getting screwed in all this are the ones that have football programs but arent going to be invited into any of the new superconferences... South Florida, Baylor, TCU, etc are really going to be screwed in all this as they will be left holding the bag in dying conferences but not be aligned with any shot at a title in football...

That is where I see Washington stepping in. If your cut out, no money to offer athletic scholarships, not only for football, but all the other sports, depriving kids an education who don't get into those 64 schools. Will MU be able to offer women basketball schollies if thy can't find a league with a good TV contract?