Talk of ‘NCAA breakaway’ has been gaining steam at SEC Media Days | Yahoo Sports College Podcast
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss the trending idea that the Power 5 conferences could breakaway from the rest of the NCAA to form their own administrative body, and how extremely shortsighted that idea really is.
Video Transcript
DAN WETZEL: All right, Pete, what happened at SEC Media Day today?
PETE THAMEL: There's been some increasing momentum for NCAA breakaway. Mark Emmert came out this week and basically said, you know, the NCAA's useless. He sort of said what we all knew, because he knew, at Media Days, everyone was going to declare the NCAA useless, so he got out ahead of it. We've sort of been hearing for a while, but now, post Supreme Court ruling, have become a little bit more real. Yeah, a lot of playoff chatter. I mean, it's a Media Day, right? Like, there's--
DAN WETZEL: So, the breakaway, what are we talking? Are we talking Division I from everyone else? Are we talking Power Five from-- I mean, I've yet to hear how this thing works that makes any sense.
PETE THAMEL: Yeah, nobody, like, handed me a model, but the simplest version is Power Five football plus a handful go and start their own world, and then everything else falls under an umbrella, and that way, you don't lose the NCAA tournament basketball contract. And I really think that the biggest obstacles to some kind of breakaway have always been the NCAA tournament leaving its normal form, and it's been politics. If Indiana leaves and Notre Dame leaves, or, really, more Indiana, Ball State and Indiana State get pissed and sue them, and politicians get in the way, the same way that the Pac-12 expansion got blown up when they wanted Texas and Oklahoma, and the same way that Virginia Tech got wedged into the ACC back in the day. Politics matter at that level, when you go to boards and everything like that. So--
DAN WETZEL: All right, what is the benefit these guys are coming up with on why you would do just Power Five and, you know, whatever, Notre Dame and a few others? What's the benefit?
PETE THAMEL: So, the quote from Ross' story, which was excellent, on Pat's big city magazine website, SI.com, was basically like, we don't want some school-- We don't want Binghamton dictating what Alabama does, or whatever. We don't want some school up in the Northeast dictating what happens in Alabama. So they want more autonomy under the umbrella, and Emmert even said, like, the rules for field hockey shouldn't be the same as the rules for football. It's essentially further galvanizing what we've already known, is that football and basketball are their own two pods of moneymaking, and then everything else is either a giant money loser or a moderate money loser. And there are rare exceptions. But, for the most part, those are the lines of delineation. So, eventually, the pressure points are building for some kind of breakaway on those lines.
DAN WETZEL: At what point do these small schools have any control over the big schools?
PETE THAMEL: Well, they have a voice, and the point--
PAT FORDE: How dare they!
PETE THAMEL: --yeah, is that they shouldn't have any voice.
DAN WETZEL: They lose every vote!
PETE THAMEL: Yeah.
PAT FORDE: I mean, I agree that it's as bad as I've ever seen it for the NCAA. I just still want to see somebody come up with a plan of what would take its place, or how you drastically remake it, or how you replace it, and until I see that, then I'm not still convinced, or not yet convinced, that we are done with the NCAA.
DAN WETZEL: How the hell do you get rid of the NCAA? You just create another NCAA! Binghamton is not stopping Alabama from doing anything! Kent is not stopping Ohio State from doing anything! And if you're going to have a football league with 64 teams, you're going to have a bunch of teams that go 1-11, and unlike the National Football League, you don't get the number one recruit.
PAT FORDE: There is a lot of short-sightedness, and, again, that's why I said, let me see the plan for how you replace the NCAA, or how you break away, or how you just become a Power Five. Those games where Alabama beats Citadel, and Clemson beats Presbyterian, you know, every everybody plays those games, and we all complain about them from our standpoint, but here's what happens. You win 56 to 0, and everybody says, hey, we're pretty good. You know, they totally factor out the level of competition. They walk out of the stadium feeling excited. They see more of the players. They have reason to believe the backups are all good, and there's more confidence--
DAN WETZEL: You get eight home games!
PAT FORDE: Yeah. Yeah.
DAN WETZEL: You don't get twice as many home games in the NFL! It's equal. Well, now we're going 17. But over a two-year period, it's equal. This thing doesn't make any sense. I just--
If you're Purdue, if you are, you know, Mississippi State, you're one of these mid-level to lower level in your leagues, this is the worst idea to ever come down the pike. This thing makes zero sense. I don't even get this concept. We're breaking away. OK, then what are you going to do? Well, we'll create an organization that oversees the rules, and enforces the rules, and runs the championships, and all that. Well, that's the NCAA. So are you going to create something-- What are you going to call it?
PAT FORDE: Yeah, and then the SEC wants--
DAN WETZEL: It's like the BCS turned into the College Football Playoff, and it's the same guys running it. It's just like, oh, OK.
