Texas A&M’s move to SEC evidence of NCAA’s lost mission
NCAA's Mark Emmert talks a good game, but mission of college athletics continues to implode.
A few days after NCAA president Mark Emmert reached for his talking points and attempted to assure the masses (suckers) that university presidents were “focused on what really counts, and that’s sustaining the collegiate model,” we must ask two questions:
What is that model and when did it mutate? Because all wonderful sound bites about integrity, academic standards and returning to the mission of college athletics notwithstanding, somebody just ran to the ATM again.
Texas A&M reportedly intends to leave the possibly crumbling Big 12 for the ivory towers of the SEC, with an announcement coming as soon as Monday, after banks open.
It’s understandable why A&M would want to escape Texas’ shadow in the Big 12 and come to the SEC, where member schools split a record $220 million in a revenue-sharing plan this fiscal year. I’m not quite as sure why the SEC wants A&M, because other than getting its toes into the state of Texas — assuming College Station counts — this is like a high-end mall expanding to add a Walgreens.
The bigger issue, however, is the continuing conflicting messages being disseminated by the hypocritical suits that run college athletics. They say it’s about academics, but they sign off on 12-game regular seasons, late-night kickoffs and “special edition” school-night games because, well, the checks cash. They say they’re about the big picture, but really they’re about only the picture that they’re in.
Tradition is gone. Perspective is gone. Any sense of tradition, doing what’s right or maintaining some semblance of the fabric of what has made college athletics so great and unique has been obliterated by the potential of the next TV deal.
There is no common good in college football, any more than there is in boxing. There are only independent contractors — college presidents, athletic directors, conference commissioners, bowl pooh-bahs — scrambling to fill their own pockets. Squint, and they all look like Don King.
University of California-Riverside chancellor Tim White, one of the NCAA’s chosen mouthpieces at last week’s presidents’ “retreat” in Indianapolis, referenced “the ecosystem of university life.”
It kind of makes sense. They’re just redefining “going green.”
White touched on “integrity” and “academic reform” and concluded, “We want to make sure that the entire ship is doing well, that the students are not being taken advantage of inappropriately, recognizing they’re student-athletes, not athlete-students.”
And then he jumped onto his unicorn and rode away through a field of towering yellow and purple flowers toward a rainbow.
Texas A&M’s move would be a significant domino to fall. That’s ironic considering the Aggies won their lone national championship in football in 1939 and have two bowl wins in the past 20 years (those in the Alamo and Galleryfurniture.com Bowls). Florida State, Clemson, Missouri, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech all are swirling in the SEC expansion rumor mill.
We’re on a path toward an Orwellian landscape. Three college football superstates: Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia (with Notre Dame as an independent).
College administrators say they embrace the ideal of the student-athlete. If that were true, they wouldn’t base every decision on the potential for a new indoor practice facility.
The gap between the ruling class and the commoners is wider than ever. How does it go over in the rest of the Big 12 when Texas and ESPN partner to form the Longhorn Network?
The NCAA dumps on kids for selling a jersey or an autograph or taking cash from an agent. But they won’t give the quarterback a share of his jersey sales in the campus bookstore?
Presidents talk tough about raising academic standards for bowl and NCAA tournament teams. To borrow from Penn State president Graham Spanier, “We are unanimous that we need to bring a higher level of integrity to the conduct of intercollegiate athletics.” But every move they make screams, “We’re here for the money! Which way to the next Fiesta Bowl golf junket?”
The SEC has refrained from commenting on expansion plans. But they see what expansion did for the Big Ten’s and Pac-12’s TV deals. They’ll welcome anybody that can help fill the coffers. It’s not about nurturing, improving and improving college athletics. It’s an arms race. The collegiate model isn’t being sustained. It has been detonated.
By Jeff Schultz
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478 comments Add your comment
Thomas Brown
August 15th, 2011
7:53 am
‘Navy has done better than Texas A&M the last 11 years.’
“What a stupid, ridiculous stat. Does anyone care what a team did 11 years ago?”
Thomas Brown
August 15th, 2011
7:53 am
Does anyone care what a team did 11 years ago?
Uga'91
August 15th, 2011
7:57 am
The first rule of “journalism” used to be to get the story right. This guy rights a column based on a rumor and the rumor turns out to be wrong. It reminds me of the old SNL skit with Gilda Radner ranting about some perceived injustice only to be told she was wrong…at least at the end of the skit she would acknowledge her mistake by saying “never mind”. Here we get no retraction, no explanation about why the whole premise for the article was flawed and no apology to the readers, the NCAA, college presidents or anybody that would expect basic standards from their news source. Fox News has ruined our society.
Sam Robards, Dawg Fan
August 15th, 2011
8:34 am
UGA’91 said:
“Fox News has ruined our society.”
If you knew anything about the news medium and internet advertising, you’d know internet columnists, especially ones for the slowly-dying newspaper industry, write yellow headlines and articles in order to get page hits because that’s how internet advertising pays. The more people look at your page, the more the ad company gives to the website. It isn’t quantum physics, but when you have an (idiotic) agenda, who cares, right?
Sam Robards, Dawg Fan
August 15th, 2011
8:37 am
So, to turn Jeff’s title around on him:
Jeff Schultz’s Overuse of Speculative, Yellow Articles Evidence of AJC’s Lost Mission
I’m technically four words too long, but it gets the point across.
Uga'91
August 15th, 2011
9:12 am
To Sam Robards: yeah, but what about standards? Shouldn’t there be some ethical standard to news gathering and reporting? Financial considerations shouldn’t replace getting the story right.
Etiquette by Leachman
August 15th, 2011
9:13 am
Gyod dog, son! Why do we need the NCAA? Jimmy Olson oughta do a story and trace the path of the money in NCAA Football.
That would be an eye opener.
The Leach
Uga'91
August 15th, 2011
9:23 am
This whole story was about how hypocritical college president’s in general and the S.E.C. in particular are, because they let A&M join their conference. It was based on a rumor and the rumor was wrong and up until 9:15 am the next day Shultz hasn’t acknowledged that he was just plain wrong, and in fact has written another column completly off the subject. I referenced Fox news only because they are the most succesful news organization using the model of making sensational claims to get viewers (most of the rest do it too but Fox is most successful). How about an apology/acknowledgement Shultz?!!
BS Patrol
August 15th, 2011
2:07 pm
Whoever has been posting all this tripe under my user name is an imposter. First of all I have never written a post as long as his. Secondly, I write stuff like this:
6.Speed of Sound
5.Speed of Light
4.Warp Speed
3.Ridiculous Speed
2.Ludicrous Speed
1.SEC Speed
Sam Robards, Dawg Fan
August 15th, 2011
2:13 pm
Uga’91:
I definitely agree that writers SHOULDN’T be allowed to publish half-researched nonsense, but it’s far from an ideal world.
As for this situation, most people who are in the know, so to speak, agree that the meeting of the SEC presidents was meant to erase the idea that we’re poaching A&M from the Big XII, which we aren’t.
A&M is courting us (their big meeting regarding it is this afternoon, if I recall), so if A&M asks, I don’t see the SEC turning them down.
It’s all about appearances.
Fire Mark Richt
August 15th, 2011
2:28 pm
Well, the move to superconferences will clear up the national title picture somewhat. In about 10 years, when the Pac 32 champ meets the winner of the 36 team SEC in the Chili’s Bar & Grill Bowl co-sponsored by UPS and GoDaddyDotCom (known as the Sugar Bowl in less enlightened times) for the national championship, who will deny the legitimacy of the winner? Especially after a grueling 18 game schedule. Makes perfect sense. My favorite part will be when the announcers have to state the entire official name of the bowl every time it is mentioned. Afterthoughts BYU and Notre Dame will play for the FCS title.
Ahh, the pagentry and tradition of college football.
Jimmy Crack
August 15th, 2011
2:51 pm
(In the above picture, NCAA president Mark Emmert shows how far the Horn of Tuition will be shoved up every student’s parent’s wazoo this year, only to be doubled in size next year.)
Note to all…College Presidents are lying HOOOORES.
Michael Adams is the ONLY ONE with any class. Just kidding, he’s the WORST of them all.
Jeff (not Schultz)
August 15th, 2011
3:19 pm
Some of you are forgetting some very important things… some of you are acting like YOU are the conference presidents, athletic directors, and TV executives! Yes, it’s alot about money, but EVERY decision doesn’t HAVE to be about money if some clear-headed people with think about a few things:
No. 1 — all the experts who study and report on the business of college football have said that conference expansion and realignment will ultimately help push things toward a playoff, which is a MAJOR positive. No more subjective, let’s-vote-for-a-champion issues… NCAA football is too big an event to NOT have a simple, clear-cut, playoff-path-to-a-champion ending.
No. 2 — anybody who things Missouri will “bring in the St. Louis television market”… you are KIDDING, right? Who the hel cares about that market anyway? Unless it’s a top 10 like New York, L.A., Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, or Miami, it doesn’t matter. And have you been to St. Louis? I have. It is NOT a bastion of college football. Those people care about the Cardinals and not much else. St. Louis is NOT a hotbed of college football, the way Atlanta is… Missouri doesn’t draw, it doesn’t move the NATIONAL meter (like Florida State or Oklahoma does) and it doesn’t galvanize a massive fan base and TV market like other teams do. It’s a boring team, a boring program, a boring campus in a boring part of the midwest… it wouldn’t benefit the SEC whatsoever to add Mizzou.
No. 3 — in contrast, adding a FSU or Oklahoma or Virginia Tech, for example, WOULD be huge for the SEC because of the comeptitive matchups that would have NATIONWIDE appeal. College football fans in the four corners know about the Sooners and Seminoles and Hokies… games with them and LSU and Florida and Alabama and Georgia and Auburn would be MASSIVE ratings-grabbers. Don’t look at things as a pro league would, with TV markets and “the NBA would love a Knicks-Lakers Finals instead of Oklahoma City-and-Detroit”, etc”…. it’s not LIKE that in college football. There are such things as national programs in college sports, and they would resonate with a huge audience. Do you really think if Mizzou plays Northwestern, even with two supposedly-important TV markets, that it moves the national interest meter at all? Yet Georgia vs. Florida, with cities like Athens and Gainesville, usually draws a huge audience? It’s because of the quality of the players on the field… that’s what still matters in college sports.
Finally… the truth of the matter is that the product on the field sells. If it’s great football — not good, but GREAT — it will generate national interest and draw a big following and put up huge TV numbers. That’s why the SEC has, consistently, for DECADES, been the best football conference in America, hands down. An LSU-vs.-Georgia game or a Florida-vs.-Auburn game or Alabama-vs.-Tennessee game has usually been a CLASSIC, great, competitive football game, which draws in fans and generates excitement. Watching Georgia and Auburn play on a sunny, 65-degree November day draws a helluva lot more interest than Michigan State slogging it out with Wisconsin that same day under drizzle and snow flurries and 34-degree weather. And nobody stays up until midnight to watch Arizona play Oregon State in front of 48,000 fans.
One of two things is going ot happen, folks… either the rise of the superconferences and some changes like a bigger NCAA (bad) and college football playoffs (good)… OR we are going to see the collapse of the NCAA in a few years and the starting of something new, from scratch, with about 50 to 70 major schools calling the shots, re-organizing, and creating a new NCAA. Either way, I’m afraid the college football landscape has changed forever, and we’ve lost the games and unique college football culture that our parents remember from 20, 30, or 40 years ago.
Pitbull
August 15th, 2011
4:34 pm
The SEC presidents voted yesterday to leave the SEC as a 12 team conference.
So Jeff, you wet in your panties all over nothing.
Personally I would like to see Texas A&M and Oklahoma added to the SEC
East: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vandy, Kentucky, Auburn
West: Alabama, Ole Miss, Miss State, LSU, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma
Nine conference games a year: 6 dividion rivals plus 3 from the other division.
UGA dropkicks Tech off the schedule. They need us MUCH MORE than we need them (which is not at all).
Sam Robards, Dawg Fan
August 15th, 2011
5:29 pm
Pitbull said:
“The SEC presidents voted yesterday to leave the SEC as a 12 team conference.
So Jeff, you wet in your panties all over nothing.”
From what I’ve heard, the SEC presidents put that out there because they don’t want to be legally liable for A&M leaving the Big XII (and breaking contracts as a result, hence potential liabilities). And, from what I’ve heard, A&M courted us. I think we’ll find out that the “secret” meetingthey had yesterday, which was leaked to the NY Times, was just an act.
In essence, we don’t want to be seen courting a married woman. We’ll wait until the ink on the divorce papers is dry and then shoot in for the rebound.
Now if A&M meets and says, “We want outta the Big XII,” which would clear the SEC from potential legal entanglements, THEN the SEC’ll come in and say, “Hey, how’s about a home in the Southeastern Conference?”
Either way, it’s another fascinating demonstration of collegiate politics. Quite interesting, when you look at the big picture.
savannadawg
August 15th, 2011
5:30 pm
WAIT! WAIT! OK. Lets not get carried away with this thing. Look, ALL points seem to be looking toward super confrences of 16 team schools. I am one that is not against exploring the possibility of adding some FCS teams if they can raise the money and expand thier stadiums to a specified number per SEC standards. I know its not a happy market idea. But it is an economical one in this day and age we live in. So hear I go. If Ta&m in the west then Georgia Southern in the east. i believe they are the only FCS team that can truely be motivated to realistically compeat on the next level. The money is there. And the players are there too. Then “IF” Oklahoma decides to follow suite and goes to the West the East must go after either FSU or VT. Of coarse florida is going to have a big say on any other team from florida coming in. I don’t know if i can really blame them though. As a Georgia fan I know being from the sec has helped our recruiting in florida. so im torn with this one. VT is strong but are they strong enough to play an sec schedule. hmmmm? All i know is this is fun. it is really exciting and the ramifications are tremendous. Slive needs to be on the cutting edge here and be the first to knock the door in.
Uga'91
August 15th, 2011
10:59 pm
Maybe it’s just me but I believe the current system is working pretty well for the SEC..we’ve won the last 5 NC’s and it I don’t see any reason to go changing just because. We don’t have to take some other conferences middle of the road team(s). As Sam Robards said they court us. The other conferences wish they could be like the SEC, we are the Yankees of CFB and we should be able to call some shots. The way I see it if it doesn’t make geographic sense then it shouldn’t happen…TCU in the Big East…really?!! There is no reason for the SEC to expand or change anything; WE are the reason other conferences need to adapt, the Yankees don’t lobby for a salary cap because the system works for them. We don’t need to expand because the current setup is like an SEC playground. If circumstances change then we should think about doing something different… but right now we are the lead dog and if your not the lead dog the view never changes.
Mtn Dawg
August 16th, 2011
8:29 am
Good story Jeff. The gap between the ruling class and the commoners is as wide as it’s ever been in every aspect of our society. How to level the playing field is the key question.
Gary
August 16th, 2011
11:34 am
@longhorn state
Not really sure what a tv deal will do you if no providers have picked it up….
BIG JOE
August 16th, 2011
1:29 pm
I have to say, perhaps you should have waited until Texas A&M actually MOVED to the SEC…??? Just a thought.
Goober Pyle
August 16th, 2011
3:55 pm
More inaccurate BS from Jeff – whaddaya expect?
Preston
August 18th, 2011
1:11 am
UGABugKiller, not sure I understand your logic. UGA competes with FSU constantly for recruits in north FL anyway…..so why would them joining the SEC change anything? And USC plays against and recruits against Clemson every year. And why would UGA have a problem with Clemson joining? The geographical portion of your post makes sense but the latter is senseless.
Tom King
August 18th, 2011
12:16 pm
Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas will join LSU, Arkansas, Mississippi and Mississippi State in the SEC West. The SEC East will be Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. SEC revenue will DOUBLE in 2012. University of Texas gets exactly what it deserves: it’s own sand box to have for its self serving hissey fits.
Cowboy
August 18th, 2011
10:11 pm
Sorry but the SEC needs to get over itself.
Doug the Jacket
August 19th, 2011
7:15 am
Absolutely correct! Great writing – the truth!!
yelojaket
August 19th, 2011
10:25 am
Greg post, Jeff(not Schults)! Whatever we can do to get a playoff (preferably NOT run by the current NCAA)!!!
Amateur?
August 20th, 2011
8:23 am
Do away with scholarships, let the NFL have farm teams, as college teams are now at no expense to the NFL, and just let students come out for football. The game would be just as exciting and the schools, not TV would, be back in control of college athletics. The guys who want to go pro can go to the farm team, take the money in the off season and go to college, if they want an education. Same for basketball and baseball. No more pro recruiters allowed on campus, ever!
BCWRECK
August 20th, 2011
7:44 pm
There is definately something wrong with CF when its leader has hair like that.