GP1

The ncaa is a curse to everyone involved in it. It is truly the enemy within as it is a member institution and the members have turned it into the pile of crap it is. The bcs schools have seen the light and are actively discussing leaving the ncaa. They helped create the mess and now have enough money to get out of the mess. The non-bcs schools on the other hand.... bcs schools are now more than ever benefiting from what espn has taught them...which is, how to back up a Brinks truck and unload a bunch of money via television rights. even more, it has taught them that a conference can do better than a contract with espn by having their own network. even better, conferences can have their own network AND back the brinks truck up and unload some network money. they couldn't have it any better. the onset of conference networks was the final nail in the coffin of d-1a illusions for non-bcs conferences. some might say non-bcs schools have lost the battle. that isn't true. the non-bcs schools have lost the war and really need to have their own "Reconstruction" in the aftermath of this loss. the really good news is, world of possibilities exist out there for us if we would just take advantage of this opportunity. far brighter days are ahead of us if we take advantage.

Again, why does this have to be an either/or conversation. There is no reason cow tipping couldn't be integrated into tailgating before football games in Athens.

I don't have hostility towards the MAC. We can do better. I think the MAC, and conferences like the MAC, have sold themselves short of their full potential for years. When I say sold themselves out, I mean the Presidents and ADs (in order to pad their resumes) have sold us a bill of goods that is not good for the athletic departments of the universities or the general well being of those universities. Maybe the mothers of the MAC Athletic Directors and MAC commissioner see the league as smart and forward-thinking, but the rest of the country simply doesn't see it that way. If they were smart and forward thinking, they would be hanging their hats on things other than ESPN and at least one butt kicking a year by a BCS school to get exposure and become part of a real discussion about college football. If we were smart, we wouldn't be getting out paced by the BCS conferences. We need to stop trying to pretend to be something we aren't. (Hint: MAClike conferences could get national exposure during a period of the year when BCS schools are getting limited exposure and they could also have a national championship game.)

What evidence is there that it does? I see a lot of junk math (sample sizes are too small to be relevant) being thrown around on this topic along with a statement from one coach who is too humble to say what a good coach he is. ESPN has been a curse to non-BCS programs and nobody seems to see it.

I actually agree they will pay less than fair market value, which isn't a good thing for the MAC. Do you think the BCS conferences would accept less than fair market value? MAC schools will have more money, but the bigger schools will have proportionally more money and the downward spin of the non-BCS schools continues. The ESPN game is a dead end game for the MAC. Unfortunately, the question is posed as an either/or one for the league and that is the beginning of the downward spiral. There are far more creative ways for non-BCS leagues to make money, get meaningful exposure and be successful. The only path the conferences seem to take now is to play a couple of BCS teams a year to guarantee two losses and to sell their souls to ESPN. I'm still at a loss as to how that is a good thing. Maybe someone could do a better job of explaining it to me that I have seen so far on this topic. I'm not bitter about how the MAC runs things...It pisses me off to no end and there is a difference between being pissed off and bitter. It pisses me of the league openly negotiates failure and tries to pass it off as success. It should piss every MAC fan off.

Wow, you still seem to give as much credit to TV as Solich's excellent coaching. Winning is the primary reason for playing games. Solich does an excellent job of taking MAC talent and molding it into a very good football team. It's too bad a Zips fan has to do the job of defending the OU coach. Where I would give credit to TV for some success of OU would be playing in the MAC Championship and bowl games. Winning puts teams on TV in big games so the winning is more important that the TV aspect. Which statement to a recruit would carry more weight?: 1. Watch us on TV this coming Tuesday against Buffalo. 2. Watch us on TV this coming Friday as we play for the MAC Championship. I'm going with #2.

You are correct. Every once in a while, the talent lines up. Last year, it was lining up for SC and the SEC took a crap on them with the schedule. It isn't unusual for a league to do that to a program like SC

"Cast-offs and wannabes"? Are you sure you aren't talking MACtion? The league above has better teams at the top, in the middle and in the sewer than the MAC (please exclude UNCC from my comment). Quality of existing product is more important than what real or imaginary accomplishments are out there. Nobody says, "Let's watch the Akron vs. WMU game because NIU was in a BCS game last year." (one they got run out of the stadium in). Getting into the Top 25 is an opinion of others and not basis for real results. or "Let's buy some pizza and beer and watch that EMU team. I want to grade out their left tackle and send my recommendations to the Browns." My point is, the MAC had one good year after several not so good years. If you are a network, the bad bet is betting on the MAC to continue to be good. The MAC could probably get a raise up to around $700K per team. The sad part is, for every dollar increase, the morons who run the athletic departments will increase spending on the "building process" $2 million.

Not true. Just about any game can be viewed now because of products like ESPN3, or whatever it is called and the ability of fans to watch games via internet. I can watch games on Saturdays via Direct TV that would never make ESPNanything. Television as we know it today is slowly but surely going to become part of the past as there are more and more methods of watching events. My wife works at a company with a lot of really young recent college graduates. You all might be surprised at the number of them who don't have a television and watch programming on the internet on a regular basis.

I would be hesitant to connect the dots between ESPN weeknight games and winning. OU is getting better recruits because they are winning and not because of ESPN. Our basketball team is better for the same reasons. The mother of a now former player said as much on this board. First and foremost, kids want to win. It is a mistake to believe ESPN holds the keys to success for teams. Teams make their own success. Why in the world would Solich give credit to ESPN and not his excellent coaching? Solich is a great MAC coach with a great recruiting philosophy that includes finding the best kids who are going to fall through the cracks at BCS schools, not a product of ESPN. I can't believe an OU fan would even give a little credit to ESPN. If OU was as good as they are now and played on the weekends, they would have much better attendance than they currently do because more people could attend games in Athens. I've been to games in Athens when they were good and playing on the weekends. Each time, the stadium has been near full, if not completely full. It is a great place to see a college football game on a Saturday afternoon when they are good. I would say the word MACtion is used to describe both high scoring games and the embarrassment of some of these Tuesday night games. Most people around the country couldn't name four MAC schools. My guess is they don't say anything bad about it because it is like watching the runt of a litter fight for the last spot on tit row...pathetic, but still sort of cute. It's more sympathy than respect. ESPN may be renegotiating because there is nothing else to put on TV in the fall on Tuesday night. They see a sucker in the MAC and will easily pick their pocket at rock bottom prices.

This happens to teams in leagues who are not historically long term members of leagues. We get the short end because the league likes to take a crap on us. I'm not whining, because it happens to a lot of teams in a lot of conference as a result of the NCAA being such a weak governing body. For example, Lee Corso once said South Carolina would not win an SEC championship in 300 years (or something like that). Part of his reasoning was the SEC would take a scheduling crap all over them because they are not a long term member of the league like LSU, Alabama, etc. Last season, when SC was slated to have a very good team, the SEC fed them LSU and Florida in back-to-back road games. LSU on the road is an almost guaranteed loss for an SEC East team. Follow that with a trip to the Swamp after an LSU loss and a second loss in a row is almost guaranteed. The guarantee came true and one loss (SEC) Georgia won the SEC East even though SC ran them out of the stadium earlier in the year.

I respectfully disagree with your point...one that has been made many times on this board. Weeknight ESPN games are HORRIBLE exposure. Between the laughably bad attendance at many of these games and them basically being a vehicle for ESPN pimping their upcoming weekend line-up, it is a disaster for the MAC. Recruiting? Please see the point I just made. If I'm a recruit watching a game on ESPN in front of a 3/4 empty stadium, I want nothing to do with that school or the league they play in unless I have no other alternative. If the MAC is recruiting kids with no other alternative, then disgracing schools on Tuesday night ESPN football is a bad direction, because we were going to get the kids anyhow. You are right about money doing the talking. It will. The MAC will make a fool of itself again in the name of money and agree to $306K per school to continue to televise the ongoing disaster. Congratulations to the MAC Commissioner and ADs...all of you represent the kind of small minded thinking worthy of Tuesday night ESPN football. ESPN is not a friend of MAClike conferences. They see us as a $25 hooker that will allow any John to do anything he wants just so we can get enough money to survive and the ADs can hope to escape the life ASAP. Good grief, this is a bad league.

Play in the spring and be in a better position to negotiate price with multiple networks. It's all or nothing with ESPN, screw that.

Play in the spring and be in a better position to negotiate price with multiple networks. It's all or nothing with ESPN, screw that.

I just checked out the Cowboys' roster. All I can say is...Why not Dalton? Unless I missed something, there are currently only 4 QBs on their team. Tony Romo Kyle Orton Dalton Williams Nick Stephens (From a school I've never heard of) Dalton can throw the ball around and that is enough to at least be the #3 QB on that team. Because of insane NFL rules, teams only dress two QBs for most games. We may not see him on the sidelines in uniform next year, but there is no reason to believe he won't be on their roster next season as a scout team QB. Williams needs to have a really good rookie camp and eliminate any thoughts the Cowboys may have of bringing in another QB.

Link Please read if you want a serious article partly about the "building process" and what has happened in college athletics. It's all pretty sickening. This article is linked to in the Deadspin article and deserves its own link in my post. See the chart on the real value of a college football player and tell me if you don't think they deserve some of the money they make. At worst, they deserve much of the money the coaches and ADs make. I've said it before...cap coaches salaries and bonuses out at $1 million. Most of them are idiots who have no value other than coaching football and can't do much of anything that would allow them to make $1 million otherwise. $1 million is a pretty good gig for an idiot. Don't get me started on ADs....

:bow: Not an NFL player, but one of the top five Zips of all time because of his transformation of the team.

Good post. College sports has always been about money. The explosion of the money probably started around when ESPN started and athletic directors and conferences realized TV was a method of backing up the Brinks truck and unloading a pile of cash. An explosion of money, a product in high demand and a cheap labor force is a great method for a business to get rich. University presidents along with their athletic directors and coaches took advantage of their own cheap labor force and minted a pile of money for themselves. The pile of money was used to increase their salaries and build new arenas in order for them to add it to their resumes so they could at least continue at another school with a higher paying job. Someone would have to be almost blind not to see that. I'm not opposed to there being a ton of money in college athletics. I'm opposed to the uses of those funds. The funds are not given to the labor force in nearly the proportion their labor provides. See the South Park link above. South Park may be a cartoon, but it is extremely smart and the characters play certain aspects of our society. Cartman is almost always uses to portray horrible people or things. He is used in that link to probably portray a university president or athletic director. It's funny, but dead serious.

In 2004, the 51-0 beat down I had to watch us take in person almost killed me. Link However, the 2004 season gave me one of my all time favorite Zips. Look at the stats in the link above and tell me who the most valuable player on the team was. Hint, he didn't start until the third game and the Zips went 6-3 with him starting. The Zips were on their way to a laughable joke of a season before he was placed in the starting line up. The guy was a winner.

Article The one point I really agree with is if there is no NCAA, college athletics would not be much different than it is today. There is already a divide between the rich and poor in D-1A and that will not change. It will probably continue to get worse whether or not there is an NCAA. I would argue that the elimination of the NCAA would present universities with a variety of interesting possibilities that would make college athletics much better and not worse.

You could advertise it as, "All The Mashed Potatoes You Can Gum Down".

Nice. When I saw the post, I thought a starting time of 8 PM might be a little late for many on the board. Maybe GC44 could have an Early Bird Special for those folks.

When did they throw your 80th birthday party? I didn't think you were that old. I don't get the whole # thing either. I guess it has something to do with Twitter and I don't use that service either. Anyhow, I don't care what they put on the field and I really don't know what gives the NCAA the right to make decisions about this non-issue. Looking at a # tag on a field couldn't be any worse than looking at that stupid blue field in Boise. They should stick to regulating salmon on bagels. A secondary purpose of the NCAA (behind being an elaborate Worker Compensation avoidance scheme) is being a vehicle for universities to make money for themselves, athletic directors and coaches by what has now become shamelessly pimping out student ATH-O-LEETS. In their world, a # is just part of that shameless pimping.

I wonder if there is a # that says, #deathtothencaa. It would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that the NCAA is involved in an elaborate Workers Compensation avoidance scheme. They can't solve that, but they can solve # on fields. The NCAA has the lowest aim in the world...and that is why it keeps shooting itself in the foot. I wonder how many NCAA and Athletic Department employees will add a line to their resumes that says, "Eliminated the potentially crippling # problem in college athletics for the sake of the student-athletes competing on the field of play."

Link Can't resist posting a link associated with this topic that shows 2 minutes from a South Park episode. Enjoy.