guncurug

Conference roulette rolls on with VCU leaving the CAA for the A-10 and Big West open to Boise State joining along with SDSU (ESPN)

FAMUBoard of Trustees suspends marching band for at least the upcoming school year in the wake of band hazing death (Orlando Sentinel)

Key to the Northwestern soccer dynasty may be summer camps in the Northeast (NYT)

Bodemeister is 8-5 in post 7; I'll Have Another at 5-2 in post 9 . My money is on Went the Day Well and Creative Cause with I'll Have Another in the Exacta box.  Bodemeister may just be too tired.(WaPo)

For MOT soccer fans, a guide to the Champions League Final (Forward.com)

Remember Skechers toners endorsed by a Kardashian? Surprise, FTC says they won't make you thinner (The Post Game)

Big XII and SEC champs to meet in bowl game if not in football playoff: "good for the game" (Statesman.com)

Boise State remains committed to Big East (Hartford Courant)

Saints Vilma sues Roger Goodell for defamation over bounty case (SI)

Minnesota Senate gave final approval to Vikings new $975 million stadium (Star Tribune via Sports Business News)

Is Florida State heading to the Big 12 as conference roulette rolls on? (Yahoo, Orlando Sentinel)

Is Boise reconsidering its move to the Big East? (CBS Sports)

Fresh on the heel of the Lingerie Football League, we have the Bikini Hockey League (Bob's Blitz)

The USFL returns, but as a minor league on par with the NBA D-League (Sports Business Digest)

New York Times sells remaining interest in Fenway Sports Group, owner of the Red Sox and Liverpool FC (Yahoo)

ESPN is bringing back 30 for 30 for a new season of 15 documentaries starting this fall (NYT)

USA Today is out with its annual database of collegiate athletic finances (USA Today)

Why sports TV rights fees keep growing (Eric Crawford)

The Rick's blog is back as he humorously discusses what the Cards need to do in offseason (Rick Pitino)

ACC-Big Ten Challenge matchups announced featuring Maryland at Northwestern (ESPN)

Is Madison Square Garden ($MSG) a buy right now (Insider Monkey)

The post Derby honeymoon didn't last too long in either Derby City or at Churchill Downs. By Monday morning, the bloom was already off the roses, except for shareholders of Churchill Downs.

Derby sets attendance, on track and all source wagering records, remarkable for a race with less than normal pre-race buzz (DRF)

TV ratings were also up; third most watched since 1989 (Business First)

$CHDN reports record revenue and net earnings for first quarter (DRF)

Full Preakness field with plenty of newcomers awaits Derby winner who arrived at Pimlico yesterday (WaPo)

Groom found dead in stall at Churchill Downs on morning after Derby in apparent homicide (C-J)

Winning trainer has a somewhat less than illustrious past on the racetrack; winning owner's fortune arose from sub-prime lending and legal loansharking (Eric Crawford)


In news unrelated to the Kentucky Derby:

Stop me if you've heard this before, NHL announces tentative deal to sell Coyotes (ESPN)

Why college football should be banned, and he's not totally wrong (WSJ)

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto is forced to resign (ESPN)

Big XII presidents agree to 13 year, $200 million TV deal with ESPN/Fox (CBSSports)

With TV contract settled, new commissioner and long-term stability, will the Big XII now look at expansion and do we get to play more of the who goes where game? First bet still Louisville; most intriguing new rumor: Clemson and Florida State  (KC Star)

Before I dive into the topic of the post, let me first say a word or two about the absence of recent posting.  I realize it's been a while and I want to apologize for that.  A combination of health issues, all now since resolved, thank you, and family matters have consumed my time for the last couple of months and I just haven't been able to devote any time to the blog.  However, with most of that behind me, I hope to resume posting on a much more regular basis.


In my absence, it seems that college athletics is engaged in another round of conference roulette, touched off, in part, by another ACC raid on the Big East, grabbing Pitt and Syracuse.  Has there ever been a more insecure conference commissioner than John Swofford?  This time, of course, the SEC joined in the fun early with Texas A&M longing to get out from under the huge shadow cast by its Austin rival, jumping from the Big XII.  The final shoe has yet to drop as Missouri is readying itself for a move to the SEC, with the Big XII then having to decide whether to just replace Missouri and stay at ten members or invite three schools and go back to 12.  By all reports, there is no consensus yet, although the Big XII presidents meet this week.

The Big XII decision has ramifications for the Big East, which is trying to salvage itself with a plan to expand to 12 football members by adding Boise State, Air Force and Navy for football and Houston, SMU and UCF for all sports.  Since Louisville and West Virginia are widely thought to be two of the three leading candidate to join the Big XII, all the Big East can do now is wait it out.

Aside from your favorite school may be playing next year or in 2013, there are two interesting undercurrents to all of this "ring around the rosey".  One is the unseen hand of ESPN; the other is the potential effect this maneuvering may have on the NCAA's and its members' tax exemption.  Let's take ESPN first.  To accept what I'm about to discuss takes a little bit of belief in conspiracy theories.  While I'm no usually prone to believing in them, this story has too many coincidences not to give at least a little credence.  First, a little history.  Within the past year or two,  three major conferences have signed new television agreements for football and men's basketball: the ACC, SEC and Big XII.  Both the ACC and SEC signed very lucrative long-term deals with ESPN, which created branded "ACC on ESPN", and "SEC on ESPN" networks among other enticements, like hundreds of millions of dollars.  The Big XII spurned ESPN and signed with Fox, its previous media partner.  Earlier this year, the Big East, in the final year of its existing ESPN contract, rejected an almost $1 billion contract in favor of negotiating next year, when all the other conference deals will have been completed.  Leading the charge to reject the contract was Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg.  The two conferences most adversely affected by all of the school movement so far:  Big XII and Big East.  One further bit of evidence is the comment by the ever lovable athletic director at Boston College, who, in discussing the admission of Pitt and Syracuse, said "It�s 85 percent football money. TV - ESPN - is the one who told us what to do."He later apologized and said he misspoke but what would you expect him to do?

The tax implications of the realignment game are potentially far more impactful than any monetary gain a new conference and new TV contract may provide.  For more than five years, Congress has been "interested" in the tax exempt status of the NCAA and the athletic programs of its member institutions.  For any number of reasons, members of Congress have thought that athletic programs sporting budgets  in the tens, and even hundreds in the case of Texas and Ohio State, of millions and making decisions based on business necessity not the welfare of the student athlete were being operated as businesses and should be taxed accordingly.  In 2006, the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to the NCAA asking it to respond to various questions and justify its tax exemption.  While the issue has been on the back burner since, comments like these from our voluble friend at Boston College certainly don't help the NCAA cause.  When schools are jumping to leagues with questionable geographic and academic ties (see ACC or Boise State to the Big East) it becomes increasingly easy for the opponents of the NCAA to question its right to a tax exemption.

When the primary justification for a conference switch is to access a greater pot of TV money, or even to gain access to the BCS, without regard for the welfare of the student athletes who must do the far flung travel while also keeping up with classwork, can it honestly be said that such a move is furthering the academic mission of the university. Before you say football is only once a week and they generally charter planes at this level anyway, remember that most of these moves are all sports moves requiring the Olympic sports, which do not have the budgets enjoyed by basketball and football, to make the same trips.  Olympic sports generally travel commercial if they must fly and those are all day trips in both directions.  We all know how pleasant the commercial flying experience has become.  Athletic department actions which are so blatantly commercial, as jumping conferences for a share of TV money, may go a long way towards solidifying the argument that the NCAA and its member institutions are not engaged in activities that further the academic mission of the school, but are commercial enterprises that deserve to be taxed like ones.  Should that happen, not only would there be tax to pay, but donations to the athletic department would likely lose their charitable deduction, significantly decreasing the attractiveness of many season ticket packages.  As has been the case so often in the past, when it comes to college athletics, decisions are often made for all the wrong reasons or are not carefully thought through.  Athletics seems to attract emotional decision-making more than any other aspect of university life and, as a result, the entire enterprise of college athletics as we know it may be placed in peril.

Eight of the schools that will be remaining in the Big XII next year recently held a meeting with Learfield Sports, a multimedia rights management company which holds contracts with about 50 university athletic departments.  They met to discuss the viability of a Big XII network.  The results of the meeting are unknown although all involved have characterized it as just preliminary.


There are many hurdles to forming a conference network, one of the most significant is ensuring that the network will have an attractive inventory of football and men's and women's basketball games  In Big XII country I would add baseball to that list.  The problem faced by the remaining members of the conference is only partly the negotiations that will take place in 2011, about the existing contracts with Fox and ESPN which are expiring.  The biggest problem will be with Texas, which wants to form its own network and will want to keep as many of its games off the Big XII network and reserved for the Longhorn Network as possible.  The removal of Texas games significantly decreases the worth of the package to any prospective partner and national advertiser.  How the conference handles its Texas problem will be the key to whether it is able to proceed with a network of it own and deliver on the $20 million in television revenue it promised to the six schools which it induced to stay rather than jump to the Pac-10(12). Good luck with that network Mr. Beebe and lots of luck dealing with the Longhorn Monster you helped create.

The Great Conference Realignment appears to be a small shift by three schools at least for now.  With Nebraska going to the Big Ten, Colorado to the Pac-10 and Boise to the Mountain West being the only moves for the time being, armageddon in college sports has been avoided and everyone can thank TExas for that.  As had been widely predicted all along, Texas was indeed the key to wholesale realignment and when UT turned down an invitation from the Pac-10, the other schools in the Big XII South followed suit and thee league survived to play another day.


That survival did not come without a cost however.  Texas negotiated is now clearly the top dog in the conference and the league will continue to distribute revenues unevenly.  Texas also won the right to retain local media rights, which the Pac-10 was unwiling to give it.  This will allow Texas to pursue its idea of a University of Texas network, an idea which it has been considering  for some time.  The Pac-10 needed all schools local media rights to facilitate its launch of a Pac-10 network modeled on the Big Ten Network. 

Based on preliminary discussions, Big XII Commissioner Dan Beebe believes Fox is willing to pay substantially more for its television rights when the current contract is up for renewal, even with the defections of Colorado and Nebraska.  Now, that will only be true if ESPN bids for them and if the departure of Nebraska really is that meaningless, two contingencies I don't really believe.  Nevertheless, on those assumptions and assuming a successful launch of the all Texas, all the time network, the Longhorns should be taking home between $20-$25 million per year in media income, or roughly what the Pac-10 would have been paying.  So Texas will get roughly the same amount of money, in a league with no championship game and with only Oklahoma to contend with on the field.  I don't think they had to deliberate too long about this one.

This morning's papers were full of the stories that broke yesterday announcing Nebraska's imminent move to the Big Ten, a move which  no doubt filled the DeLoss Dodds and the other folks in Austin Texas with a mixture of glee and sadness.  Glee that at long last they were rid of the Huskers continual whining about the bad deal they were getting from the Big XII anad sadness that Texas' sweet deal is about to end.  Of course, Dodds and the Longhorn faithful can console themselves with the thought of all the money that a new, expanded Pac-16 TV Network will bring them.

The first entrant in the new and improved Pac-10 will be Colorado, which is taking no chances and leaping now before the Pac-10 folks get a chance to reconsider expansion and change their mind.  Actually, even if the Pac-10 stops here, it's not a bad move.  They will have added the Denver market which should help get the network off the ground plus help pay all the additional travel costs.  However, with Nebraska and Colorado both gone, the Big XII is toast and I expect it to be formally laid to rest this weekend when the three Texas public schools and the two Oklahoma schools join up with Colorado.  Where Baylor, the Kansas schools and Iowa State go is a really good question.  Who would have thought a basketball program like Kansas would be left twisting in a great plains cyclone.  Oh well, there is always the Mountain West.

One thought to ponder is what happens to the BCS contracts when the Big XII and possibly the Big East implode.  Those contracts run through 2015 although I'm sure there are clauses calling for renegotiation in the event of a substantial change in circumstances, which the disappearance of two out of six conferences surely is. The BCS Commissioners may just try and substitute a reconstituted Mountain West for one of the two and call the other spot an at-large spot and see if they can convince ESPN to go along.   I don't see them giving the spot to any of C-USA, WAC, MAC or the Sunbelt.

On Sunday, the Big Ten Presidents met for four hours and discussed expansion for at least half that time.  What was decided, if anything, has not yet been announced, although it appears that no vote has been taken.  What is clear is that the deadline the Big XII gave Nebraska and Missouri has accelerated the Big Ten timeline.