Nice tournament you got here. Shame if anything were to happen to it.

These people…

Last month, the professional organization representing FBS athletic directors issued what amounted to a veiled ultimatum. The “overwhelming majority” of those ADs at a Lead1 Association meeting in Washington D.C. had a “strong preference” the NCAA continue running major-college football if the association “can be more streamlined and less bureaucratic.”

Or else … what?

The answer has opened the door to perhaps not a breakaway of major college football and basketball but at least a forming picture of what a new structure would look like. A growing number of those ADs believe they have a unique and powerful hammer as leverage if the NCAA doesn’t clean up its act.

“If not,” a Lead1 executive said. “We would explore other options.”

Among those implied options, CBS Sports has learned, is leveraging schools’ participation in the NCAA Tournament. While a separate basketball tournament operated outside of the NCAA isn’t likely anytime soon, the ADs’ realization they could create such an event provides a picture as to how the NCAA’s two biggest sports will be run in the future.

I wouldn’t put it past them to try.  Not because it’s a guaranteed slam dunk… quite the opposite, in fact.  Can you imagine the same people who can’t get their shit together hiring and firing coaches thinking they’re just the folks to remake one of the most popular events in American sports?  Maybe you and I can’t, but I bet they do.