Dick Rosenthal {l Wrote}:bcshater {l Wrote}:I would have a lot more respect for ND if they joined a conference, which is unlikely to happen.
I hope they break the conference stranglehold on college athletics and show the other great programs they don’t need the corrupt conference model to be profitable. With the way the delivery of athletic products are going (much cheaper to produce and can be delivered a la carte to subscribers directly from the content producers (ie the college athletic programs) it is heading in that direction. ESPN 3 is the last gasp—when Alabama or Notre Dame or Texas or USC work out the few remaining kinks and realize they can charge viewers through a subscription model and cut out the middle men which allows them to maintain better control of their branding—have homer announcers and turn the broadcast into an infomercial for the school—they will do it in a heartbeat.
Dick normally I would agree with you. But on this one, I am going to have to concur with 2001Eagle. This is not good for 85% of the rest of college football. And if you think about it, its not good for these powerful schools either (not long term anyway.)
There is "network effects" in college sports. The big schools are most valuable so long as they have really good opponents to PLAY. NBC does not pay big dollars to Notre Dame so that people can watch the band. They pay big money to Notre Dame because people like to watch Notre Dame play opponents. That is what makes them valuable through "network effects."
Yes the Baby Rapists are all powerful mostly because they have such a vast and lucrative alumni association that are so focuses on athletics. How many living Ohio State alumni are there in the world? 1,000,000? 1.5 million? They marry each other and breed more Ohio State fans who watch Ohio State sports. Of course a school like Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, Alabama, USC, of course they could spin up their own internet, subscription only, broadcast model and at least 20% of their 1,000,000 or so alumni would buy it and pay (what?) $300 a year to watch every single football game and men's basketball game (and maybe even baseball?) That is only $25 a month. At $300 a pop for 200,000 subscriptions, that is $60 million a year for a school like Ohio State, just internet broadcasting. They don't even need to sell a game day ticket. Unlike Minnesota and Arizona State (schools who also have gigantic Alumni Associations that are NOT sports focused) Ohio State could do that.
The problem is, Rutgers could NOT do that. Neither could Illinois. And neither could Northwestern, Maryland, Purdue, and probably not Indiana (even with their gigantic alumni base that is so hoops focused.) The dollars and subscriptions just aren't going to be there. And if Ohio State bails on the Big-T(14)N, are those schools just going to line up to get their asses kicked by an "independent" Ohio State?
I think Notre Dame's financial success in their independence model is predicated mostly because they (and BYU) are
independently-independent. So long as Notre Dame is the only Baby Rapist to remain independent and as long as they (and BC) remain as the only two Roman Catholic FBS teams, they will not struggle at all to find opponents. But if everyone did that (everyone = Ohio State, Half of the SEC, Texas, USC, Oregon, Penn State, Michigan, Oklahoma, Florida State, and Clemson) then other than EACH OTHER, who are they going to play?
BYU went independent because the Mountain West couldn't offer them anything. No $$$$$. There was no reason for BYU to stay in that conference. But there would be a HUGE reason to join a conference like the Big-XII if Texas ever gave them the nod. (Likely, they wont.) In any event, they are an outlier. And they are just hoping that Texas and Oklahoma will give them a chance.
In a true, free-market capitalist system, it would be wise for all the Baby Rapists to break off from their conferences and go full Notre Dame. Just get their own internet broadcasting companies spun up and sell the subscriptions. Free money. But the NCAA can't hold a gun to the head of all the other universities that do not have that athletic clout or alumni base to be able to pull something like that off and FORCE them to line up and play these new independents. The Baby Rapists are only so valuable because of "network effects." They have to play people. I think if they all broke away to maximize their own individual financial interests, they would wind up almost playing each other entirely. Either that, or the Baby Rapists will have to cut their former conference members a really big-ass game day check. And that check will come straight from all that annual subscription money which kind of defeats the purpose here.
Feminism: Eve eats ALL the apples, gives God the middle finder when He confronts her, and has the serpent serve Adam with an injunction ordering him to stay away from her AND to provide her food and shelter because he dragged her out of the Garden.