Thought this was interesting

[untjim1995]

I've spent a lot of time harping on the probable schism of college football. Even though this pertains to college basketball, the point remains that America really loves the underdog story. Maybe someone will recognize this within the BCS cartel...

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/86870/study-everybody-loves-a-cinderella

[Harry]

I've spent a lot of time harping on the probable schism of college football. Even though this pertains to college basketball, the point remains that America really loves the underdog story. Maybe someone will recognize this within the BCS cartel...

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/86870/study-everybody-loves-a-cinderella

I think they recognize it and don't really want it to go away; but they also want to keep a majority of the money and be able to implement their governance and policy. Right now every school at the D-I level has a vote which means the smaller, less funded schools have a majority when they band together. I thought Tulsa Coach Bill Blankenship made a great point when he said if Tulsa was in their (The BCS) shoes they would probably want the same things.

The real evil component on this is TV...they whisper to the BCS conferences in terms of making realignment moves that will drive TV revenues and on the reporting side proclaim the outrage of the same moves they support behind closed doors. ESPN has been such a dominant monopoly that it has allowed them to become way too powerful. My hope is with the creation of Fox 1 there will finally be some competition which would be good for all involved.

[FirefightnRick]

I think they recognize it and don't really want it to go away; but they also want to keep a majority of the money and be able to implement their governance and policy. Right now every school at the D-I level has a vote which means the smaller, less funded schools have a majority when they band together. I thought Tulsa Coach Bill Blankenship made a great point when he said if Tulsa was in their (The BCS) shoes they would probably want the same things.

The real evil component on this is TV...they whisper to the BCS conferences in terms of making realignment moves that will drive TV revenues and on the reporting side proclaim the outrage of the same moves they support behind closed doors. ESPN has been such a dominant monopoly that it has allowed them to become way too powerful. My hope is with the creation of Fox 1 there will finally be some competition which would be good for all involved.

Yup, competition is good in the free market.

Rick

[untjim1995]

I think they recognize it and don't really want it to go away; but they also want to keep a majority of the money and be able to implement their governance and policy. Right now every school at the D-I level has a vote which means the smaller, less funded schools have a majority when they band together. I thought Tulsa Coach Bill Blankenship made a great point when he said if Tulsa was in their (The BCS) shoes they would probably want the same things.

The real evil component on this is TV...they whisper to the BCS conferences in terms of making realignment moves that will drive TV revenues and on the reporting side proclaim the outrage of the same moves they support behind closed doors. ESPN has been such a dominant monopoly that it has allowed them to become way too powerful. My hope is with the creation of Fox 1 there will finally be some competition which would be good for all involved.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to see the AQ cartel take the NCAA Tournament away--that would kill the basketball tournament's love with the country and it would literally kill the NCAA, who gets 90+% of its revenue from the TV money that the tournament brings. It may still happen, but I just can't wrap my arms around a tournament that does not have Cinderella in it. On a side note, this is actually why I love college basketball more than College football, because everyone has a chance in college hoops.

I think you are dead-on about ESPN and their influence. I will say this, ESPN is losing their ass on that LHN, but it does keep the Big XII together. because Texas is gone without that network, which gives ESPN a lot of airtime. Sure, they could fill up the space with other conferences, but the Pac-16 is pretty much a Fox conference, which would give Fox a major foothold in this state, should Texas, Tech, OU, and OSU move westward.

I do think that that the Big XII will eventually die and ESPN and Fox will be the parties that tell each conference who to take. I see that working well for Texas, Tech, OU, OSU, KU, and probably K-State and WVU. But Baylor, TCU, and Iowa State are gonna be in trouble. When that happens, it will definitely be interesting to see how that will affect us, SMU, UH, UTSA, Texas State, UTEP, Tulane, La Tech, ULL, Arky State, Rice, and Tulsa. How cool would it be to have a conference with 14 teams within the four states for travel AND included those old SWC heavyweights? I know, those 5 will never have that, since they themselves barely get along with each other. But its still cool to think about--you would have a presence in DFW, Waco, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Houston, New Orleans, Lafayette, Shreveport, Little Rock, and Tulsa. Surely an entity like FSSW would have a major interest in a conference like this?