I just think it would be good for us to come to some kind of agreement on why we even have collegiate sports. What's the point? I think I know, but I worry that the lawyers in the NCAA have their own ideas...
The NCAA mission statement about mens sana in corpore sano* is great, but then they sign a billion dollar TV contract for de facto pro football league that only 25 schools are really part of and the remaining 200,000 college athletes have to suffer the consequences.
We are flying 100 football players from UW to play against Ohio on a Wednesday night, getting home Sunday, why? Oh, money.
In the meantime, thousands of cross country runners are getting cut for no good reason. It is stupid.
* A strong mind in a strong body
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
I just think it would be good for us to come to some kind of agreement on why we even have collegiate sports. What's the point? I think I know, but I worry that the lawyers in the NCAA have their own ideas...
The NCAA mission statement about mens sana in corpore sano* is great, but then they sign a billion dollar TV contract for de facto pro football league that only 25 schools are really part of and the remaining 200,000 college athletes have to suffer the consequences.
The NCAA has no football contracts in D1, so does not benefit from the big money football deals.
The NCAA does have the $1billion+contract for the basketball tournament. That deal covers all ncaa costs, and profits are then sent back to the member schools.
The big money football deals are directly between conferences and TV provider. That's SEC, Big10, ACC, Big12, and Notre Dame private contract.
The College Football Playoff is separate and is between Bowl Game Organizers and TV Provider, with payments made to Bowl charities and the CFP schools.
The ncaa is bypassed by both regular season football and cfp payments.
The ncaa is mostly just reacting in the case of football moves. The big schools that get the big football money are reluctant to share it with the smaller schools, and this will shortly drive the P4 schools out of the ncaa to have their own private football playoff, and basketball tourney among their 64 to 80 schools.
Whether you are a football player or a cross country runner who gets cut, it doesn't matter to you how many other athletes are in your sport across the NCAA.
Or join the football team and stand on the sidelines holding a helmet all season. Sucks to be you all, but the time is now for the detonation of the NCAA.
A lot of people are forgetting about basketball. That is another huge source of revenue and more important to mid-majors than football. Opting out means that you sacrifice revenue sharing from March Madness. A good example is Gonzaga. They don’t have football, but their men’s basketball team is elite. They will opt in because of that and, unfortunately, that means 10+ athletes in XC for both men and women are going to get cut.
Let me summarize for all of you what will and/or can happen.
1. Eastern Michigan has to drop to 17 x-c on the roster, but it doesn't have to provide 17 full scholarships. It must drop down to 17 runners, but it could also drop down to 2 full scholarships from the 4 fulls it currently provides. Remember 4 fulls can easily be distributed to 8 runners.
2. Arkansas has to drop down to 10 x-c on roster, but it does not have to provide 10 full scholarships, although financially it probably can.
And remember - Arkansas can have fewer than 10 on its x-c roster. The NCAA numbers are maximal AKA cannot exceed. There is nothing in there about minimals.
Arkansas can provide FEWER than 105 football scholarships. It doesn't have to provide that many. And it can have fewer than 105 players on its roster.
Are we agreed?
Now - what is the future incentive for mid-majors to sponsor football with the professionalism now in the college game? Why don't all mid-majors go the Gonzaga route, and put all their resources and NIL $$$$ into basketball.
Where exactly do these college club teams compete? I mean for x-c and track. WHERE do they compete? No mention of this in 6 pages.
A lot of people are forgetting about basketball. That is another huge source of revenue and more important to mid-majors than football. Opting out means that you sacrifice revenue sharing from March Madness. A good example is Gonzaga. They don’t have football, but their men’s basketball team is elite. They will opt in because of that and, unfortunately, that means 10+ athletes in XC for both men and women are going to get cut.
Let me summarize for all of you what will and/or can happen.
1. Eastern Michigan has to drop to 17 x-c on the roster, but it doesn't have to provide 17 full scholarships. It must drop down to 17 runners, but it could also drop down to 2 full scholarships from the 4 fulls it currently provides. Remember 4 fulls can easily be distributed to 8 runners.
2. Arkansas has to drop down to 10 x-c on roster, but it does not have to provide 10 full scholarships, although financially it probably can.
And remember - Arkansas can have fewer than 10 on its x-c roster. The NCAA numbers are maximal AKA cannot exceed. There is nothing in there about minimals.
Arkansas can provide FEWER than 105 football scholarships. It doesn't have to provide that many. And it can have fewer than 105 players on its roster.
Are we agreed?
Now - what is the future incentive for mid-majors to sponsor football with the professionalism now in the college game? Why don't all mid-majors go the Gonzaga route, and put all their resources and NIL $ into basketball.
Where exactly do these college club teams compete? I mean for x-c and track. WHERE do they compete? No mention of this in 6 pages.
As always, I will take your answer off the air.
Best, most accurate take on this thread. G5 conferences will certainly still chase the fleeting chance to get crushed by P4s in the CFP. The sport is still a significant fundraising venue for them. Why wouldn't everyone else in D1 just drop to FCS?
College club teams can compete in open meets and invite meets organized by other clubs. They will have to hold fundraisers to rent vans to travel to open meets within half a day's drive of campus and maybe to a club conference, regional, or national champs. Or have exorbitant membership fees to seed their kitty. Or both. Easier to fund the equipment and training facilities for xc than for track. Easier to do in the travel in the NE than in New Mexico, certainly. Could see championship meets clustered in the NE to drive participation. I could see many choosing to chiefly compete in road racing.
The irony is that on an different thread, someone said:
"Why don't the colleges start up clubs? The clubs can have competitions to see which schools are best. They could be organized sort of by size and region. Only actual students (no pros or grown-ups) are allowed to join, just college age kids who are in good academic standing."
I was thinking, yes, that is what the literal NCAA was 100 years ago. We just need to recreate the thing we used to have before everything changed.
Spending millions of dollars to coach and fly a team of 27 year old Kenyans with a 2.0 GPA to Ohio from the west coast as part of the "Big 10" is insane way to run college sports.
ya
at least age limits. freshman with 19 years old max.
I remember 20 or 21 year old Rudy Chappa closing a 5k in 56, which was pretty good at the time for a college kid or anyone else, and peak years Sidney Maree closed in 52,
Hilarious. You doubled down and now look like a fool. Stating that a 14:30 guy would be top 5 on all but the top 5% of teams? This kid ran 14:06 yesterday. So the 5th man on a team that finishes nearly dead last in the B10 every year runs 14:06 but you are still living in your head from tines of 30 years ago. This shows how fast of guys will get cut. Kids faster than this will get cut from better teams and then will cascade downward.
Mid-major conferences in American college sports at the NCAA Division I level are athletic conferences that are not among the power conferences. The grouping is most commonly used in men's college basketball to describe confe...
Most of you don't want to believe that many mid majors will opt out.
I think this will depend on whether or not schools will lose March Madness money. There's been talk that opting out will reduce or eliminate a schools share of that money. I haven't seen the actual language in the settlement that would prove this, though. It seems like blackmail, tbh.
"Gee, it would be a shame if you lost these march madness monies, wouldnt it? If only there was a way for you to opt in to getting these monies..."
I think distance runners have the least to complain about when compared to the rest of event groups in track.
Id say less than 1/3 of teams even try in the pole vault/ jumps/ Multis. Those events are a LOT harder to do on your own. Same with long throws (recreational hammer thrower?)
At least these distance runners are GUARANTEED roster spots.
But those that are motivated will have opportunities in college. It’ll take full commitment in high school to be good enough. Those that don’t get the opportunity can still train, find a coach or club, run races etc
I think distance runners have the least to complain about when compared to the rest of event groups in track.
Id say less than 1/3 of teams even try in the pole vault/ jumps/ Multis. Those events are a LOT harder to do on your own. Same with long throws (recreational hammer thrower?)
At least these distance runners are GUARANTEED roster spots.
But those that are motivated will have opportunities in college. It’ll take full commitment in high school to be good enough. Those that don’t get the opportunity can still train, find a coach or club, run races etc
Agreed. Hearing from a number of coaches, numbers in many of the event groups are going to be very minimal or even non-existent. Especially at the more distance oriented programs.
We need local (geographical, regional, corporate) clubs not tied to schools like they have seem to have much more of in the UK and Australia. Basically competitive rec leagues with facilities and standings and seasons, like there is sort of with adult softball and other sports. More local track nights in communities. I think it's possible. People want to get out and get back to traditional entertainment and touch grass and breathe fresh air. In America, we view sports too much through the lens of school and youth. Let school be about schooling (i.e., education), and separate out sports.
These exist in NYC, Boston, and the major West Coast cities. The problem is that everywhere else doesn't have enough interest in running for more than one club (ok sure maybe Boulder and Flagstaff do) so there isn't much competition. It works in the UK because pretty much everywhere is within a 5 hour drive of each other. The furthest any major cities are from each other is 8-9 hours in the UK - and a train will get you there and back on the same day.
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