ESPN article references support within B1G & SEC leadership to leave NCAA

Pete Thamel using unnamed sources should be a drinking game

Maybe a B1G/SEC alliance could be better than the NCAA or maybe it would be about the same.  A change means upheaval and an opportunity for different players to seize more power.  As it stands right now, U of M gets shit on by the B1G and the NCAA.  If a change is made, I hope Michigan will be ready to grab a more advantageous position.  What that looks like is Ohio State and others being punished for stupid things like cheeseburgers and grainy iPhone videos.  Unfortunately, I don't think the people in charge at U of M will have the "Game of Thrones" mentality if changes do come about.

While I hate the NCAA as much as anyone, I really worry about what the ramifications of this will be for any sport that isn't football (and to some extent, basketball). Let's be real: football is what's dragging all of the other sports through this, whether they come willingly, or kicking and screaming. 

I don't know that it would be the worst idea in the world for football, and possibly basketball, to just break off and do its own thing. Meanwhile, the remaining sports can stay within the NCAA and you can re-establish original, more geographically-based conferences that help limit travel for these non-revenue sports. Can't imagine how much of a living hell its going to be for a member of the women's volleyball to look at her schedule and say "I've got a match at home against MSU on Monday, practice on Tuesday, fly out to LA on Wednesday for a match against USC, turn right around for a match on Friday at home against Purdue, then I'm getting right back on a plane the next day or two to go to Nebraska, then on to Washington, and then back to Michigan. 

I'm guessing my solution falls under the category of "Sorry, but its not that simple, Perkis." Maybe, but what's also not simple is what we're moving towards. 

Football is driving this train. Let football run on its own track so everyone else can stay where they are, in a place that clearly makes more sense. 

I feel fairly confident in saying we will hate NCAA2 as much or more than NCAA1. It's all the same empty suits running these things, except now they can just chase TV money till they really run the sport into the ground

Thanks for the informative post and not just a link because I will not give that chode any page views.

Football and Men's basketball (and hopefully women's bball) need to taken out of the NCAA's purview.

The NCAA is just a governing body that the 350 or so NCAA div. 1 members want in place.  As a successful football school and recently successful Bball school do we really want small schools with tiny budgets controlling the organization that Michigan is part of?  

The alleged sign stealing issue wouldn't even exist if the NCAA didn't create a rule to protect schools with less money.

For non-revenue sports the power 5 should probably create their own organization because the NCAA has lost all credibility.

Would hate to see March madness get killed 

Thamel link is auto downvote from me. I’m sorry. Those are the rules. 

The new league should not include MSU. That is all.

This is a stretch, honestly. The article is almost entirely about playoff stuff, etc. One small section, in the middle, suggests that there are talks about whether to continue NCAA membership. Thamel does not say whether this is football only or all sports, nor what else is going on. He just quotes one person saying that "conversations are happening," and that some people feel strongly about it.

That doesn't mean that the B1G and the SEC are about to blow up the NCAA. It could mean a lot of different things. Without context, we don't know what it means, and people are supposing a lot.

But if withdrawing from the NCAA were a serious possibility, it would be headline news. That it's not shows you that even Thamel, who includes the quote, doesn't think this is something that's in serious motion right now.

So maybe let's pump the brakes a bit.

I'm not saying this will never happen, and it seems clear that the B1G and SEC are throwing their weight around quite a bit, but right now the main thing that's happening is that they're shaking down the playoff for concessions. The rest of the stuff is just talk, if it is even that much. 

The NCAA is a corrupt, vindictive, and hypocritical organization.

That said, a lot of the people cheering for its abolition are about to find out that the anarchy of no rules is a lot worse than the injustice of selectively enforced rules.

I love this Big Ten/SEC alliance.  

Do it. And get both conferences up to 20 teams.

B1G Conference, with two 10 team divisions.

SEC Conference, with two 10 team divisions. 

Play 9 game division schedules + 2 non-divisional games + 1 non-conference game.

1 conference championship game per conference.

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2 automatic bids (conference champions). Those 2 teams get byes.

7 team playoff in each conference, just like the NFL. 2v7, 3v6, 4v5.

Get your 3 winners + 1 conference champion (coming off a bye) and that's your quarterfinals.

Final 4 are your semis, then you have your version of the College Super Bowl.  Except you put it on a Saturday so everyone has Sunday off.

Finally, all non-playoff teams play 1 bowl game against each other, regardless of record. The bottom feeder bowls just get played on a campus as one additional game for those guys...opt outs are welcome for guys going pro, early enrollees are eligible.