The power conference may well reshape college athletics in their image
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SEC, Big Ten 'advisory group' stands as coded threat to NCAA: Figure it out, or we'll go off ourselves
The power conference may well reshape college athletics in their image
The SEC and Big Ten delivered a coded, read-between-the-lines message to college athletics in a 259-word release on Friday:
We got this.
Essentially, the two most powerful conferences on the planet told everyone else to step aside. They're going to figure out the future of college athletics themselves. They're done waiting for Congressional intervention or NCAA action.
The future of college athletics will be at least influenced -- but probably dictated -- by the SEC and Big Ten. They have most of the money, talent, recruiting, facilities and brands at their disposal.
If the process hurts feelings or damages egos, so be it. If that means collectively bargaining with players and paying them for their athletic ability through revenue sharing ... well, that's on the table, too.
The SEC and Big Ten are among those who have waited too long. Now they have the ability to change the landscape themselves.
The joint announcement used careful wording like forming an "advisory group" to address "significant challenges in college athletics." This isn't the announcement of a scheduling agreement or another version of an ill-fated "alliance." The duo is targeting some more significant matters; they made sure to reference "recent court decisions, pending litigation, a patchwork of state laws."
That's really what this is about -- eliminating the consternation about an endless conga line of litigation regarding name, image and likeness, antitrust, transfers, etc.
In essence, the two leagues are aiming to remodel what is left of the collegiate model. Don't like it? Well, you don't have to. If NCAA membership doesn't agree to
their reforms, the SEC and Big Ten have the leverage to take their 34 teams and stage their own national championship. The networks and the market itself have told them that is possible, and it's a path which SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has already hinted at in the past.
If that means a velvet hammer -- Friday's release -- leading to a chaotic breakaway of the two leagues, that's an option, too. It's just unlikely to be one that is explored right away. Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti would certainly like to affect change within the system first.
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