SEC forum posting..Hoops to follow FB ..squeze out

[OldTimer]

Will BCS take aim at hoops?

Commentary by TIM STEPHENS

BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD

What is the limit of greed?

If you're a watcher of college sports and you think it stops with football, you might be wrong.

The Bowl Championship Series cartel has seized complete control of the finances of major college football from the NCAA. As they move toward realigning the conferences — getting the most marketable teams under their umbrella — they're setting the stage for a much-anticipated football playoff.

Will they stop there?

A football playoff probably still remains several years away, but the point of any realignment will be to narrow the field of prospective participants and maximize market value. We're already seeing that with the Atlantic Coast Conference's looming raid of the Miami, Syracuse and Boston College from the Big East. Without those three, the Big East likely will cease to be a major factor in football. The marketable teams probably will be absorbed, and the others will be thrown into the trash can known as non-BCS land.

Miami's invitation is expected to come during a conference call with ACC athletics directors on Monday. The Hurricanes will accept, and Boston College and Syracuse soon will follow.

This is, and has been, a done deal for a while. The campus visits, etc., were window-dressing.

The Big East schools left out understand this, and that's why they filed suit against Miami and Boston College on Friday in an attempt to stop the inevitable destruction of their programs if they lose BCS status. Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Rutgers and Connecticut say they have invested millions in their programs in part based on promises of Miami and BC officials to stay in the league.

That lawsuit will be very interesting to watch. But it probably won't stop the depatures, which are part of a cunning plan to keep the big schools out from under the NCAA's thumb and to keep all the money in their hands.

The ultimate payoff? A Division I football playoff worth billions.

Those schools organizing it will want to pare down the field (translation: schools that share in the money). That takes time.

They must absorb the teams that add market value (see Miami, Boston College and Syracuse).

They must kill off some teams (see Tulane, which could drop football on Tuesday).

They must legislate out others by raising I-A requirements (see Sun Belt and Mid-American Conference teams that are in danger of being demoted when new rules passed by the BCS majority and I-AA leftovers go into effect before 2005.)

Or they must separate themselves so clearly through cumulative financial inequities (see BCS money vs. non-BCS money) that no one left outside the inner circle has a legitimate complaint.

This is the way of big business — a hostile takeover of the marketplace.

The BCS schools are winning on that front. When an 0-11 Duke football program that draws less than 20,000 in attendance per game can build a $20 million football complex while a much more successful East Carolina program swims in red ink, you can see what BCS membership means.

Eventually, it shows up on the field because it shows up in recruiting.

Ah, but will the BCS schools stop there?

Enboldened by their successful coup of college football, might they next try to hijack the NCAA basketball tournament?

Before you say it won't happen, you should know it has already been discussed in high places. That has always been the threat of the big schools whenever they feel like the little guys are infringing on their turf.

Before, it was chest-thumping to get what they wanted — control over football. But this time, the big schools — i.e. the BCS, a revival of the old College Football Association — pretty much get whatever they want. So why do it? If this collection of schools ever moves to break off from the NCAA and hold their own hoops tournament, it will simply be about greed.

Nothing more.

"The direction is clear," CBS basketball analyst Billy Packer told The Washington Times. "When you put the five leagues (ACC, Southeastern, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pacific-10) on paper, you have to imagine one of the commissioners will see the road map. The group of five conferences made up of 60 teams will play for the football national championship and eventually for the basketball championship."

Sports fans like to get warm and fuzzy over the Gonzagas of March Madness. The little-guy-who-could is one of the reasons the NCAA Tournament has become so popular during the past 25 years. The annual upsets are a big reason CBS is paying the NCAA $6 billion over 11 years to broadcast the tournament through 2014.

The 70 or so BCS schools — a likely number by the time realignment shakes out — don't like sharing this money with other Division I basketball programs. Currently there are 326 schools in Division I, a number that has swelled with a number of schools — including Birmingham-Southern, Jacksonville State and Troy State in Alabama — joining the ranks in the past decade.

The big boys smile and grit their teeth whenever a Gonzaga or a Butler advances in the tournament. They steam whenever a Troy State gets an automatic bid while one of their also-rans goes to the National Invitation Tournament. To them, it's money coming from their pockets.

The way they see it, no one would care about Gonzaga or Butler if those schools weren't on the same stage as Duke and Michigan and Alabama.

And they'd probably be right. Take away the opportunity — remove the competition and exposure — and you marginalize the little guy. You don't play him at all, or when you do, it's at your place with your refs.

As proof, when's the last time you watched the Division II tournament? Thought so. A breakoff would marginalize all other Division I teams, just as it has done in football.

Ah, but what about Cinderella? Wouldn't we miss these David vs. Goliath shows?

Well, picture this: Maybe everyone in the BCS makes the new BCS hoops tournament. To their way of thinking, you'll get your Cinderella stories from the crummy 7-22 Baylor team that gets hot and advances a couple of rounds.

Birmingham-Southern Athletics Director Joe Dean Jr. doesn't believe it would come to that.

"It's easy to talk about (a superconference), but it's very difficult to actually put it together," Dean said. "It makes for good fodder, good discussion, but everything has worked very well to this point. There are always going to be changes of any organization, but I think (the BCS schools) can have their cake and eat it, too. ...

"What the Big South Conference gets out of NCAA Tournament compared to what BCS conferences get is miniscule. ... At some point, the presidents of the BCS schools are going to have to ask themselves, 'how much is enough?' They're getting the lion's share of all the money now."

One problem Dean sees for the BCS schools: scheduling. If they were to pull out of the NCAA, it is unlikely those left behind would schedule BCS programs.

"(A breakoff) defeats the spirit of college athletics and I think the public would rise up ...[Message truncated]

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