Conferences 7-31 will do just fine with a smaller pool of universities for FCS Football, The College Cup, 
the NCAA Basketball Tourney, CWS and the rest. 

No way that the Big 6 wouldn't be missed. They have most of the history, most of the money, and most importantly the biggest following of all schools. Do you really think the majority of fans would care about the NCAA with a split like this occuring? Sure, alums would still root for their schools, but you have to remember that between the 64-72 schools that could split, the alumni base is probably close to as large as the rest of the D-1 schools combined! Sure the NCAA would still have some large state schools, but you have to realize that those schools have only risen to prominence recently. The NCAA fan base would be much, much smaller with a split. The top 64-72 athletics schools are also most of the top research universities, and that is where the real money comes from. With many of the land grant schools and flagship universities included in the Top 64-72, how would the NCAA compete with that type of funding? And they would obviously still bring in the most talented kids because they have the history, the exposure, and likely fewer rules. Cheering for an NCAA Division I school would be like currently cheering for a D2 school. Many fans root for a D2 or D3 school, but they also have their D1 team because D2s and D3s are lacking in all of the things I already mentioned.

The NCAA would not get anywhere near the type of TV contract the break-off league would. And if you think otherwise, you are fooling yourself. If and when the split happens, the rest of the NCAA becomes as irrelevant as Division II currently is. That said, I really hope the split doesn't happen. I love the NCAA tournament as is and would hate to see little guys not get their chance. The split would ruin a lot of big money athletic programs at the expense of the elite and would really undermine everything that college athletics should be about.The NCAA needs to trim back on some its rules before things are too late. While I do not think players be paid by the university beyond a scholarship, they should be allowed to capitalize on their college athlete status on their own. Do music students become ineligble for events because they play a concert or sell merchandise outside of their school band? I don't think so. Why should athletes not be able to sell their game worn jerseys or bowl game gifts, or accept a free meal? The current recruiting rules and player rights rules don't make much sense and maybe if the NCAA backed off a little, we would all be spared the hell that will arise if the Top 64-72 split from the NCAA! I know that these schools probably don't want to split right now because of the political issues that it would cause, but it is always a viable option financially and the NCAA needs to be aware of it and do its best to prevent it so that the NCAA can remain prominent.

 I'm not sure why the guy  who just commented thinks Babe Ruth is the best player of all time.  He is the most "legendary" player for sure, but do you think he could hold a candle to Puhols, Griffey jr., or some others, hell no!  I didn't see this coming in regards to the NCAA.  I know that all the conference switching is nausiating, but I never thought this was a possibility.  Could college teams really think of leaving the NCAA?  What a concept.  This could be huge, and I can't wait to see if this is true or just a bluff.

Just remember, there is only one John Wooden. Coach Wooden is the greatest college basketball coach of all time, no question. Coach Wooden is the greatest coach of all time. Period.

It is similar to the "argument" about the greatest baseball player of all time. There is no argument, it is Babe Ruth. We can argue who the 2nd, 3rd, 4th... greatest baseball player of all time may be, but the greatest baseball player of all time is Babe Ruth.

Similarly, we can argue who the 2nd, 3rd, 4th... greatest college basketball coach of all time, and Krzyewski would be right there, but Coach Wooden is the greatest college basketball coach of all time.

No need for the "arguably", Coach Wooden is in the number one slot and Coach K is in one of the next two or three slots.

There was only one Babe Ruth. There was only one John Wooden.

You are an unpatriotic hippie commie - go back to Britain with all the other "Losergan Hooligans"

The Big 6 Conferences SHOULD Leave the NCAA.  Do it ASAP.  

Take your BCS football, your wanting your own Basketball tourney...Go.  PLEASE GO.  Form
your own organization for policing your greed.  Bye bye, so long, farewell!  And good riddance.

Conferences 7-31 will do just fine with a smaller pool of universities for FCS Football, The College Cup,
the NCAA Basketball Tourney, CWS and the rest.  The current NCAA TV Contracts will support it's continued
operations and the 'lesser' conferences will bump up their media contracts.  Actually the NCAA will improve
without the nepotism, greed, and rulebreaking of the Big Sixers.

Leave today, leave tomorrow, as soon as possible - PLEASE LEAVE BCSer's, Please!
 
 

A lot of these kids come from families where $3,5000.00 per year is a substantial amount of money, but if they take a bag of groceries and they are suspended.

I am not totally sure how that factors in.  Not to be heartless, but we are a heartless people.  Most of us have no desire to pony up the tax dollars to send poor kids to college.  Why should poor kids who can play ball be given a free ride?  I come from a middle class family and I took out lots of loans.  If I can't pay for college, none of the people here would give two rat turds.  Life sucks, but America is not a fair place.  Not by a long shot.  If the families of these kids can't swing 3500 for a college education, room, board, etc maybe they shouldn't go. 

Mind you, this is not the way I see things.  I believe the government should heavily subsidize college education and give out super low interest loans.  In the UK, student loans are repaid as a portion of your regular income tax.  If you don't make enough to pay them off, the loan is written off.  But of course many Americans would call me an unpatriotic commie for thinking the government should spend more.  People here need to stop the hypocritical sanctimonious bull.  If you really cared about poor kids you would be more politically active.  What you really care about is poor kids who can help your team win.

Let's keep the facts straight.

Student athletes can have jobs, most don't due to time constraints.
Student athletes can get financial aid just like any other students, most choose not to.

When I was in college, $280 per month ($3500 over a year) on top of tuition, room, and board would have been a ton of money.  Very few of my friends had that kind of money.  If you think that this $3500 is potentially some form of just altruism, then you are misguided.  It is simply a way for the "have" schools to differentiate between themselves and the "have nots".  The bulk of the scholarship today is payment in kind as tuition, room, board, scholastic supplies, and sports equipment (clothing).  If the living expense $3500 goes through, that is cash straight off the bottom line of the athletic department.  There are 85 football players, assume just as many other male athletes (85), and about 120 female athletes.  That comes to 290 athletes or about $1 million per year.  That is no big deal for Texas, Ohio St, Duke, or Florida St.  On the other hand, for bottom tier athletic departments, it is huge.

douggie, how are you defining "winningest"?  If you define it as championships, I don't think Coach K is close.  If you define it as total wins I don't think it is meaningful, they play a lot more games now than they did in the past.  If you define it as winning percentage you may be onto something, but strength of schedule should be considered.  Many teams now schedule many extremely poor teams early in their schedule.

If the schools left I am sure they would form some other entity to make sure everythign stayed competitive.  The NCAA just wont change, they are stuck in some outdated rules of morality.  For instance, did you know that a athlete on full scholarship falls short on living expenses by about $3,500.00 per year.  The NCAA precludes schools from covering this as part of the scholarship, the athletes cannot get financial aid, and they can't have jobs.  A lot of these kids come from families where $3,5000.00 per year is a substantial amount of money, but if they take a bag of groceries and they are suspended. 

Parents would send their children to the schools that offered them the best opportunity for success.  Depending on their priorities, that could be athletic success or scholastic success.  If there were enough big schools to leave the NCAA they wouldn't have an issue getting students on scholarship.  Furthermore, if they  made a full ride scholarship truly a full ride they would probably get more students.  The solution is to get the NCAA to be more flexible.

Coach K says that schools" COULD" leave the NCAA, but he should have said they need to leave the NCAA immediatlly. The only thing the NCAA has done in the last 25 years has caused the fans a lack of quality in all of the college sports, mostly college football. The NCAA in a nonprofit Organization and is supposed to be there to help these kids get the correct education. But if you look at this Org. close it is a money hungry corrupt buisness, where the president of this nonprofit org. has a 7 figure salary. So in this case we now have criminals overseeing our kids. And these guys are suspending kids from games for some "booster" buying them a cheeseburger or a pair of $80 sneakers. They need to get a life.   CROOKS!!!