I guess I lack Dennis Dodd’s galaxy brain, because his take that the P5 conferences are about ready to break away from the NCAA because schools are saying, ‘This is amateur sports? This whole charade is coming to an end.'” does not make much sense to me.
Besides, if they really want to end the charade — I know, but work with me here — they don’t have to leave the NCAA to do it. They’ve pushed the organization when they’ve wanted to before. Mark Emmert still has value as a front man; it’s why he gets paid the big bucks.
You guys see something I don’t here?
Get The Picture 
The break is going to happen because smaller schools that don’t play football have the majority in the NCAA’s one school, one vote system. There are 130 schools in FBS. There are roughly 220 schools that play D1 basketball that don’t play football or are in the FCS. 220 > 130.
If the Power 5 came to the realization they could make more in a restructured basketball tournament, the NCAA would vanish in a flash.
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You and I had this discussion a few years ago. I disagree that the P5 schools would be able to not the same with a “restructured basketball tournament. ” There aren’t enough teams, unless it is open to all power 5 teams.
There could be a 1978 style restructuring, though.
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Who says you need 66 teams in a tournament? Go to 16-24 and play series like the NBA does (not best of 7, but best of 3). Get to a Final Four and play it like it is today over the first weekend in April.
With fewer conferences/schools at the table, the total payout may not be the same, but the payout per conference/school may be the same (or more).
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Making a lot of sense today my friend.
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I’ve always thought the value in the NCAA Tournament is in the Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, and UCLAs of the sport. It isn’t in the Villanova, Wichita State, Butler, and Gonzaga type of schools. Maybe that’s putting a Stewart Mandel type of Montana bias on college basketball, but that’s the truth.
That’s not to say that latter list of schools doesn’t play good basketball … they do. They don’t have the TV power of the first list.
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Maybe he’s thinking back to when schools formed the “CFA” to break loose from the TV broadcast limits.
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They didn’t form the CFA to break loose from the NCAA limits. The Supreme Court did that. The schools then tried to sell television rights on their own and found that unmanageable so they formed the CFA to handle their television rights.
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I would want a better front man than Emmert. He seems to have foot-in-mouth too many times.
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He’s Olympic-class at drawing unwanted attention, though.
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I think the conferences want the NCAA and Emmert as a PR firewall. The NCAA seems to me to be almost universally reviled – mocked, at best – by the public. For that reason, it takes all the arrows for the conferences. Eliminate Emmert, and that vitriol will just be directed at the conferences instead.
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I agree with this. P5 leaving the NCAA suddenly makes them the bad guys for no real gain. Fans are happy, they are getting coverage from state legislatures and even the feds and definitely the Courts, so leaving just creates a problem that doesn’t need to exist. The threat of maybe leaving is actually a little bit of leverage that they just give away if they do leave.
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Good point actually
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Idk whether it will happen or not, but I’m all for it. P5 doesn’t need G5. As a fan I have very little interest in G5 athletics. They could all keep just enough women’s programs to offset men’s basketball and football and cut every other program that loses money. Those programs suddenly become club teams and everyone is saving money.
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