Know thy enemy.

Arrogant?  Certainly.  Hypocritical? Definitely.

But Jim Delany, dumb? Hardly.

If you honestly believe that his threat to take his BCS ball home is an empty one, or one that if carried out would hurt the power conferences as much as the mid-majors, you may be in for a big shock in the near future.

TCU and Utah didn’t jump at Big Six offers out of a sense of vanity.  They did it to make sure they wound up on the winning side.

16 Comments

Filed under BCS/Playoffs, It's Not Easy Being A Mid-Major, It's Just Bidness

16 responses to “Know thy enemy.

  1. TennesseeDawg

    Utah & TCU have nothing to complain about any more as they are now in the Big 6. If Boise State wants big boy bowl games and money then move to a big boy conference and shut up.

    Like

    • Ben

      Or beat someone from a big boy conference in their own backyard with the whole country watching; that’s how WVU arrived back on the scene, right?

      Like

      • TennesseeDawg

        And West Virginia plays in a Big 6 conference. Boise does not.

        Like

        • Ben

          Yes, I know. It was more of a reference to my uneasiness about the game in September and how UGA has served before as a team that validates the legitimacy of other teams.

          Ultimately, though, that comment was simply my own cynicism and attempts to not be too excited about the upcoming season lest I get disappointed again.

          Like

      • biggusrickus

        They beat Va. Tech last year in Virginia, and while it’s not saying a lot, they were the ACC champ.

        Like

    • biggusrickus

      Nobody wants them. They’re currently good at football. That’s all they have going for them, and they average less than capacity at their games (which makes their expansion to 53,000 seats kind of funny). They’re like Georgia Tech without the history and academics.

      Like

  2. Bob

    Actually I can empathize somewhat with the author’s point. But my goodness, is it full of errors. He implies that Wisky got to keep their full Rose Bowl Share while TCU had to split theirs. Unless I am mistaken, the Big Ten has a sharing concept much like the SEC does. He repeats that error when discussing the Hawaii take and the Georgia take. Georgia shares with the other 11 members of the SEC.

    If you are going to argue a point, ensure you know what you are talking about.

    Like

    • Dawgfan Will

      Yeah, I noticed that too. I agree with the author that Delany is a tool, but he isn’t dumb. (I was starting to wonder if “dumb” means something different in Idaho since everyone in the comments seemed to agree with the author.)

      Like

  3. JasonC

    But really there are two issues at play here: 1) competing for titles 2) earning big $$$ and the 2 are not exactly the same. Frankly, Delaney would probably let Boise St have a few shots at the titles as long as it didn’t mean that they got more of the money (and it didn’t force a Big 10+2 team out of the title game).

    Like

  4. 69Dawg

    Boise is too busy dodging the NCAA at the moment to be worried about the BCS. By the way anybody seen the latest from OSU about the 50 car deal. Seems a OSU booster has been furnishing rides to OSU players for quit a while.

    Like

  5. Hogbody Spradlin

    Every so often it’s good to have somebody like Jim Delaney, who will tell people to go pound sand.

    Like

  6. shane#1

    Delany could definately take his ball and go home. The problem is that the Big 12 and the Pac 12 might go with him. If that happened would the SEC be far behind? If the Boise States keep pushing for an equal cut of the BCS pie it will spell the end of the BCS, and probably the end of the NCAA.

    Like

  7. After reading the write-up over at OBNUG, I realize they don’t understand the argument. They have no frame of reference. The 1902 referenced is only tangentially related to the Rose Bowl. It is more about the Big 10 brand and what that brings to the marketplace. I understand that they want Boise State football to matter as much as Big 10 or SEC football. But, it just doesn’t. That’s not to say they don’t play good football. They have produced a few high quality teams that do well nationally — TCU, Utah, BYU, Boise State — but that doesn’t mean it draws eyeballs to televisions (or asses in seats in their own stadiums).

    Big 10 football is worth more than WAC or MWC football like the Yankees are worth more than the Seattle Mariners. Baseball tries to level the playing field (somewhat) between those two teams because it is better for the league as a whole. To some degree, the Yankees need the Mariners to exist to maintain their own value, so it is in their best interest to pay a luxury tax to help the Mariners be a MLB team. The Big 10 derive no value from the existence of the MWC, so they have no incentive to limit their own competitive advantage to help keep them afloat. That is basically what the Non-AQ’s are asking for. They want to be placed on even footing with leagues and teams that are worth far more because of decades of history and tradition without bringing anything of value to the table.

    What fans of Non-AQ’s do not understand is that there is nothing they can do short of joining an AQ conference or going independent and using your own TV network to sell to millions of religiously affiliated “fans.” Unless Boise gets a nationwide following that draws millions of eyeballs and they have to expand their stadium to 90K, they have little economic value. The market dictates that those who produce no value get no reward. Only through government intervention and wealth redistribution can those with little value get more than they are worth. What is yet to be determined is whether the government will intervene successfully. I have my doubts.

    Like