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The Table.
If you spent the past two months listening to the powerbrokers of college athletics try to make sense of the ACC's raid on the Big East, you heard about the Table.
A seat at the Table -- or a voice in the process when the Bowl Championship Series contract is redone in 2005 -- is everything.
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| Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski isn't too proud with how the ACC has handled itself.(AP) |
"Obviously we haven't distinguished ourselves in how we've gone about this," Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
But the ACC is at the Table. Commissioner John Swofford was hell bent on remaining there and give him credit -- he may have irreparably harmed college athletics and tarnished the perception of his league, but he got it done.
In a test of wills with Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, Swofford won. His league took the Big East's two most important football pieces (Miami, Virginia Tech) and in the process left Tranghese's group wondering how long it will remain at the Table.
Whether the Big East does or doesn't just may determine the future of college athletics. That's how high the stakes are now.
If you are in the BCS, you are a major player. If you aren't, you aren't. It's that simple because of how seats on the NCAA's powerful Board of Directors are doled out. The BCS leagues can control almost everything.
The revenue generated by the BCS bowl games provides the big money that allows for the big coaching contracts, the facility improvements and the support staff that are needed to build winning programs. You can put together some good seasons outside the BCS -- Marshall, BYU and others have proved that. But for how long?
Louisville has done everything possible to upgrade its football program. It spent and spent. It built a beautiful facility. It marketed to fans. It played games on weeknights just to get on TV.
It has fielded a more successful and stable team the past decade then, say, BCS league entity Michigan State. But when the Spartans wanted to hire U of L coach John L. Smith, it was done before halftime of the Cardinals bowl game last December.
That's what the Table does for you.
And it is only getting more dramatic.
College athletics needs the Table to be turned. It needs more leagues to have access to the BCS, not less. Because unless college football creates a system that crowns a true national championship -- yes, a playoff -- then everything hangs in the balance.
In the end the Table will be bad for everyone -- even those sitting at it. College athletics has grown insanely popular and profitable over the years because of its uniqueness, its diversity, its innocence and its unpredictable nature. It is a place where teams can come from far outside the big cities, the power structure or even the wealthy states of the country.
Nebraska (with just 1.7 million residents) can have a powerhouse football program. Marquette (a Jesuit city school) can reach the Final Four. Rice (tiny and academically rigorous) can win the College World Series.
That's the beauty of college athletics. It is why it is popular in nearly every nick and corner of the nation.
The pros are about the same 30 or so franchise, big city entities, the same uniforms and faces. It works for them. It won't for college sports. There isn't the shared revenue that keeps the Bengals and the Clippers alive. For the top to thrive in college sports, the bottom has to have a reason to believe it can one day get there.
But the Table wants 60 or so schools in Division I. No one else plays for the football title and, if it has its way, no one else plays for the basketball, baseball or field hockey titles either.
College sports will lose out as that slowly becomes the reality.
It's not that Michigan won't fill its stadium or Alabama-Auburn won't mean so much or UCLA basketball will put the balls away. But the casual fan that brings in the mega TV contracts and the coast-to-coast media that promotes the action won't be there.
A network such as CBS isn't going to dole out $11 billion to broadcast a men's basketball tournament that doesn't include schools in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and other major markets.
Turning college sports into Pro Sports Lite is a recipe for long-term disaster. The golden goose may not be killed, but it isn't going to lay as many eggs as the national passion wanes.
"You also have to look at principles, values, tradition," said Krzyzewski. "You're part of a bigger sphere out there than just the ACC. You're part of intercollegiate sports."
The ACC's raid of the Big East -- unprofessional, unseemly and leaving a wake of destruction in its path -- proves that isn't a consideration anymore. The fact that NCAA president Myles Brand is fiddling as the East Coast burns just exacerbates the problem.
Which is why it is long overdue for a grassroots rebellion from the non-Table sitters. Already Tulane president Scott Cowen is mounting the challenge, vowing to overthrow the BCS. He has a teleconference scheduled with over 50 school presidents.
It's a start because the BCS is the core problem and it needs to go for the long-term benefit of everyone. Former NCAA president Cedric Dempsey estimated that just college football is turning its back on huge revenue because the Table doesn't want to share its power.
"The current process is currently generating about 50 percent of what the value is," Dempsey said.
Why would it do that?
"That's power driven," said Dempsey. "Power driven and control. Conference offices (have the power and control). (By going to a playoff) they lose control. They lose control of the process, control of dollars."
A 16-team playoff has to happen before college athletics hurts itself.
Forget the argument about missed class time -- there aren't many university presidents left that can make that argument with a straight face. You don't create oversized, stretched out conferences or allow some teams to play 15-game football seasons, and then argue a playoff system that works in I-AA, II and III hurts the "students" in I-A.
Just tighten up the regular season so it concludes before Thanksgiving, play the first round on the final weekend of November, the second round the first weekend of December, break until around New Years and finish up with a Final Four, that will be hyped and anticipated beyond belief.
Give the five Table conferences an automatic bid and let the other 11 teams get selected at-large. This allows a 10-1 Boise State team a chance to dream, but is realistic enough to know that virtually all of the bids are going to the top conferences. Divvy up the revenue based on who gets in and who wins, just like in basketball.
Seed the teams 1-16, let the high seeds host the first three rounds for more revenue (No. 16 Boise at No. 1 Miami) and stage the title game in a rotating spot.
Let teams 17 through 50 play in the remaining bowl games so small communities such as El Paso and Shreveport can keep their tradition and lots of teams can celebrate a good season.
It is a fairly simple plan. Obviously there are hundreds of others that can be debated, too.
But what isn't debatable is something has to give.
It is a matter of long-term survival. The Table has to add seats, not take them away. The BCS has to go. The leaders of college athletics have to be forced to think nationally. Personal interests, backroom deals and performance bonuses to conference commissioners are going to kill college athletics in the long run.
The absolute absurdity and embarrassment of the past two months is all the proof you need. High-minded institutions of higher learning humiliated themselves in a power grab that will one day look quaint if things don't change.
Desperation is sinking in. It's time to step back and rethink things before it is too late.