As the NCAA settles into the new reality of "autonomy," what of the other conferences?
As for the C-USA, commissioner Britton Banowsky accepts that there is now a distinction, but he says it may not be as much as people think, and that at any rate, his conference is not too far behind. Banowsky tells ESPN that you can "[call us the second five", and note there’s 32 conferences.
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He does have a point when he says that "…having 60 schools is not enough for them to have a base from which to operate. You need a bigger base."
That’s already been an issue as the conferences attempt to stop scheduling the traditional warm-up games with lesser foes. No offense to Wake Forest, but we’re pretty sure the Deacs could get on any major team’s schedule just by asking. Vandy may be in the same boat (pun intended) too if major slippage occurs with James Franklin now at Penn State.
However, there is an important development in this story which Banowsky acknowledges, and he may not even realize he did it. We wonder if you noticed?
It’s when he says "our five conferences and their five conferences…"
It’s no longer one thing, one group. It may take time to realize, but that’s a loss.
The SEC and Big 10 can prattle on about emerging industry and autonomy and whatever other terms are being tossed about, but there’s a trump card that has not yet been played, and the richer and more powerful the big boys get the more likely it is to be played: taxation.
Currently, and this appears more ludicrous as the pigs push the piglets from the trough, Alabama and Ohio State, to pick two prominent examples, are running tax-free commercial enterprises.
Given the amount of revenue being produced, and in an increasingly populist era which also features massive debt, that can’t go on much longer, least of all when the academic fig leaf is cast aside for naked ambition.
Don’t doubt that it’s being discussed now and will be in place before too many years go by - and don’t be surprised if someone like Banowsky testifies before Congress about the differences between the power five and the smaller conferences, points out the massive revenue being missed, and urges Congress to take a cut. But not from the smaller conferences, which,it will be said, still honor academics and aren’t making enough to tax anyway.