BC, this is real, or reportedly so.  I posted this in the General Discussion area earlier, but my feeling is this is going to be the death of the PAC 12 as a Power-5 conference.  If I'm the Big 12 right now, sitting at 12 schools once Texas and OU join the SEC, I go after Stanford, Utah, and the two Arizona schools.  That would leave the PAC 12 with just 6 schools.

I hope everyone who let the (loud)mouthpieces at the networks convince us that, instead of having teams play a season that ended satisfyingly with a bowl trip, we "needed" a National Championship game (because we members of the public are too mentally limited to debate, discuss and appreciate on any level other than a definitive "yes-no" dichotomy) are happy now. Basically, we now have schools with teams (a group GW is in), teams with schools (see umASS, WVU, etc...) and pro franchises (SEC and Big10).
College sports are dead, except where TV money pays for the illusion it still exists. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
[Will the remains of the Pac12 poach Nevada-Reno, San Diego St and (perhaps) Hawai´i, or will some schools (Oregon, ASU, Colorado) get snatched by either the Big10 or SEC with the other pieces of the carcass getting absorbed by the Mountain West and Big Sky?]
 

Last edited by GW Alum Abroad (6/30/2022 6:43 pm)

danjsport wrote:

GWAA- college sports were dead long before the NCAA went to a Championship game. It's just that now everybody is being open about it and we're seeing what happens with that. Ben Simmons didn't go to LSU just because. Reggie Bush didn't go to USC just because. Louisville? The Fab 5? You think Carmelo didn't get a bag to go to Cuse?

Under-the-table money has been around since Knute Rockne, but before every now-and-then there would be room for a non-traditional to get its grubby hands on a star (Jason Kidd at Cal, for example) and occasionally a school does things right and is very competitive (UCLA under Wooden or Tara VanDerveer at Stanford). But now, the tier structure is cemented, driven by football money and NCAA complicity and about all the major teams will have in common with the universities they are supposed to represent will be bookstore merchandise and colour schemes. The Reggie Bush thing should have gotten U$C the "death penalty", Baylor´s men´s hoops should have been disbanded, UNLV and Lousiville should have been kicked out of all collegiate sports. But there was too much money involved to do something like take the high road or displaying any moral conviction. Today, the NCAA reaps what it has sown, choking on its own 24 carat vomit. 

College sports are a total mess. Nashville's Sports headline today was "Vandy lost heavy in transfer portal". Vandy baseball had 15 players enter the transfer portal this offseason.  But since they are in the SEC they can reload. Still, why even recruit if players won't stay.? Make players pay for the coaching instructions they get?  This present situation is just too unstable.   

GWRising wrote:

This is the beginning of the end for schools like GW ... the end being big-time basketball. Soon most of the power 5 will break away from the NCAA and leave the rest to pick up the pieces with an inferior tournaments and bowls. JK predicted this long ago. The only question that will remain for GW is whether athletic scholarships are still worth it to play in an inferior product. Could see a Hartford move in the future - why spend so much money for something that most will no longer support? Money ruins most everything and it's about to ruin college sports as we knew it and came to love it. But don't worry a few hundred football and basketball student athletes will be smiling all the way to the bank while most student athletes lose scholarship opportunities and sports. Sad really.

I think it's a problem for all A-10 schools except maybe Dayton & VCU that have national brands. I posted this in the thread Barry made in the General Discussion section. I think scheduling is going to get harder and harder.  We just have to accept that we probably aren't going to get UVA, Seton Hall, Georgia, etc. coming to the Smith Center anymore.

Once the super leagues are formed, what incentive is there for the big boys to schedule any games against the A10's of the world?  Just play teams from the NEC, 1-2 MTEs amongst themselves, and then their conference schedules. I think it makes it almost impossible for the A10 to get 4+ teams in the tournament.