WHAT IF…NCAA Armageddon?

Just when we thought we had covered all the potential realignment scenarios, another mega scenario emerged.

What IF…the NCAA implodes... ARMAGEDDON?

How might this happen? It’s not a surprising scenario for there are many enemies of the NCAA. Over the last two decades, the NCAA has been embroiled in countless controversies, from realignment, mass revenue gaps, name-images-likeness, transfer portal regulation to court battles that never seem to end well for the NCAA.

A record of gross mismanagement.

There has been much speculation that the NCAA will breakup under these constant pressures.

About a year or so ago, there was a report that a powerful group of people were planning to launch a new college athletic association consisting of seventy to eighty schools. As fast as that rumor emerged, it went dark. Crickets!

What IF that group re-emerges? Seventy to eighty schools braking away from the NCAA and formeng a new governing association? How might that happen? Could that scenario become reality? What might that look like? All good questions.

Our team at CaneReports took a deep dive into forming a new association. What we found was a catastrophe for the NCAA. Such a move would probably sound the death null of the NCAA, relegating it to an Olympic sports management arm.

Still, we plowed on.

We looked at options for 48 schools, 60 schools, 72 schools and 80 schools. It was exhausting. We should note that we found no perfect solution but finally settled on a 72-school model that closely met our goals.

STRATEGIC PLANS:

We set three strategic goals for our exercise.

Level The Playing Field:

Most college fans will tell you that only about a dozen schools have a realistic chance to win a national championship due to human interference. Polls basis, closed selection committees voting, network influence and journalistic bias have plagued college sports for decades. We needed to find ways to eliminate the external HUMAN FACTORS.

Close the Revenue Gap:

Major college athletics (men’s football and basketball) has been at war for over twenty years. Athletic programs struggle to keep up with the financial arms race created by media rights money. The revenue gap between the Power Four conference continues to grow each year. We to find a way to find financial parity or our sports will ultimately die.

Back to the Future:

Bring the Game Back to the fans, coaches and student-athletes. The move to maximize media exposure resulted in conferences racing to a national footprint strategy more than a decade ago. It has resulted in student-athletes, coaching staffs and our fans being subjected to the stress and expense of cross-country travel. in the process, game attendance has dropped for almost a decade now. Fan bases are no longer traveling because of the negative financial and physical impact of travel. The bowl system has already begun to collapse. We need to recover our most loyal fans before our games are played in half-empty stadiums.

TACTICAL PLANS:

1. Reduce the number os schools competing at the Division I level. Today, 134 schools compete in division one. Reduce that number by 40%. Form a new association of 72 schools. Establish a true division two with their own tournaments and championships.

2. Form a new association governed by a central management team. Get rid of the existing conferences structure. Centralize all management functions under one executive management staff. No more separate media rights contracts, enforcement, legal, sales & marketing, media rights . Standardize all operational protocols. Reduce operating expense by 50%.

3. Hire a Chief Executive and a senior management team. Do not consider any current NCAA senior leaders. They had their chance.

4. Establish a national headquarters in the central part of the country.

5. Reorganize into divisions reporting to ONE chief executive officer. Each division will report to the CEO. No more in-fighting between “conferences.” Divisions will not control anything beyond rules & enforcement, game management and game officiating. Divisions will not control media rights agreements.

6. Reorganize into regional playing divisions (6). No more national footprint strategy. Reduce the travel costs and work-life stresses on fans, coaches and player-student-athletes. Lets’go back to the future!

How might the new Division Structure look?

• Seventy-two (72)schools

• Six Regional Divisions, each with twelve (12) schools.

• Each school will play an eleven-game division schedule with one out-of-conference game (to preserve rivalries or support local schools)

  
  

North Division:

1. Rutgers

2. Penn State

3. Pittsburgh

4. West Virginia

5. Notre Dame

6. Syracuse

7. Connecticut (UConn)

8. Boston College

9. Army

10. Navy

11. Maryland

12. Virginia

South Division:

1. Virginia Tech

2. North Carolina

3. Duke

4. NC State

5. East Carolina

6. Wake Forest

7. Louisville

8. Clemson

9. Georgia Tech

10. Florida State

11. Central Florida (UCF)

12. Miami

Midwest Division:

1. Ohio State

2. Cincinnati

3. Michigan

4. Michigan State

5. Indiana

6. Purdue

7. Northwestern

8. Illinois

9. Northern Illinois

10. Wisconsin

11. Minnesota

12. Memphis

Mountain Division:

1. BYU

2. Utah

3. Utah State

4. Boise State

5. Nebraska

6. Kansas

7. Kansas State

8. Colorado

9. Colorado State

10. Air Force

11. Wyoming

12. North Dakota State

Central Division:

1. Tulane

2. Houston

3. UTSA

4. Texas State

5. Baylor

6. SMU

7. TCU

8. Texas Tech

9. Oklahoma State

10. Iowa

11. Iowa State

12. New Mexico

    
    

Pacific Division:

1. Washington

2. Washington State

3. Oregon State

4. Oregon

5. USC

6. UCLA

7. San Diego State

8. UNLV

9. Arizona

10. Arizona State

11. Stanford

12. California

    
    

Media Rights Agreements

The association will entered into multiple media right agreement for each division. A network can bid on up to two divisions. Revenue from these right contracts will be split equally between the member divisions schools.

National Championship Tournament:

The six division champions will participate in a national championship tournament using existing bowl games. The stadium game revenue (ticket sales , etc) will be kept by the host bowl with the media based revenue split equally between the schools, bowls and the association. Win-Win-Win.

Bowl Games:

The association will enter into contract with 10 existing bowls. the combined revenue (attendance and media rights) will be split evenly between the association, hosting bowl and the participating schools.

OTHER Issues:

Other national issues such as N.I.L. and Transfer Portal will be covered by separate legislation and/or court action.

BOTTOM LINE:

Our new association addresses out of our goals. Schools will earn championships on the field of play. The revenue gap will level out but reward the most successful teams. We are giving back the game we love to our fans, student-athletes and the coaching staffs. No more cross-country travel. Rivalries will return. The bowl games will be revived. Management waste will be eliminated. No more “arms races” between conferences and schools.

WIN-WIN-WIN!

GO CANES!