By
Denny O'Brien
©2013 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
Count me out if the self-proclaimed Power 5
conferences break away from the rest of the Football Bowl
Subdivision. My days of caring for or even closely observing
intercollegiate athletics would officially be over.
It will be the last straw in a series of events that
are quickly eroding the once strong foundation on which college
sports were built: intense rivalries, geographically-driven
conference alignments, and the resulting unshakable loyalty of fans.
It will be replaced by the equivalent of a
professional development league for the major sports, one governed
loosely by rogue administrators who constantly modify the rules to
give their leagues and schools a greater advantage.
Rest assured that will include the increase in
scholarships from 85 back to 100 in college football, further
depleting the talent pool available for the excluded conferences.
And don’t be surprised if it also includes the payment of players,
something most programs outside the “Big 5” simply can’t afford.
Recruiting? Don’t look for increased restrictions
there. You can bet many of them will be lightened to the point that
the process becomes a free-for-all that grants college coaches
access to high school athletes anytime they want.
Agents might get their run of college campuses.
Academics could become an afterthought, if not an unneeded
distraction.
To some degree, you can understand the motives
driving Big XII Commissioner Bob Bowlsby’s rhetoric on the topic. As
more schools make the jump to FBS, the voting power of Texas and its
conference mates is lessened.
Should Old Dominion or UNC-Charlotte seriously have
the same say on the direction of FBS as the Longhorns? Should
Florida Atlantic or Florida International be able trump the Gators
on key issues?
It certainly makes for interesting debate. I, for
one, at least can sympathize with the mindset that is driving the
discussion.
Bowlsby and his colleagues are 100% on the mark with
their stance that FBS membership has gotten way too easy. Too many
schools that have yet to prove they can afford to live in the
neighborhood have been given prime property.
Schools like Alabama-Birmingham, Charlotte, Old
Dominion, Texas-San Antonio, and many others come to mind. The
Blazers have next to zero support and are a competitive punch line,
while the 49ers, Monarchs and Roadrunners collectively have less
than five years of recent on-field experience.
Exactly what qualifies them to compete in the same
division as Alabama or Oklahoma?
Despite the NCAA’s undeniable flaws, a breakaway is
hardly the solution. It would essentially ruin March Madness —
arguably the greatest month on the nation’s athletics calendar —
among other events.
One potential solution is to establish a reasonable
relegation system that the NCAA strictly enforces. That system
should measure programs by how competitive they are, how well they
draw at the box office, and how well programs play by the rules,
both competitively and academically.
If a program can’t win ‘X’ amount of its conference
games over a four-year period, send it packing for the FCS. If it
can’t average 25,000 over that same period, drop kick it down a
level.
Likewise for renegade programs like North Carolina,
which have shown a blatant disregard for NCAA rules. Let the Tar
Heels hang out in the Southern Conference until they can get their
house in order.
So yes, I agree 100% with Bowlsby. Serious changes
are needed within the NCAA’s highest division.
But breaking away isn’t going to resolve what’s wrong
with college athletics.