New Superdivision, Different Rules for Different Sports?

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics provided some provoking thoughts with respect to further study of the wealthiest athletics programs (Michigan State among them) in the Big Five conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Pac 12, SEC) creating a new subdivision for Football Only.  The ES new title for such a division?  How about "Division I-Haves"?  You may recall the ES discussion on this earlier this year.

What is most interesting to the ES is the note to consider different rules or conferences for different sports, acknowledging the different realities of a football player vs a field hockey player.  Read here.

God forbid... #Hashtags on the football field??? What a disaster! Outlaw it!

Boy, is this stupid.  Eliminating hashtags on a football field?  Whatever for?   The NCAA Rules Committee rule states: "All other items, including social media designations such as URL’s and hashtags, are prohibited."


I guess the reason is that it can be viewed as advertising for Twitter.  This won't last, because you can't legislate behavior and people's willingness to use the most current technology.  Funny: the NCAA will allow institutions to post the NCAA logo, school logos, facility name, and corporate sponsorships... but not #NCAA or ncaa.org.  Someone from Twitter must have pissed off Mark Emmert.

It doesn't fit the edge of the Big Ten and social media... look here.

I think the Spartans should officially change their Name and Logo: "Michigan State #Spartans"

Man, the NCAA is logically unaware of the social norms. Love the post by Zac Ellis at SI.com:  "#dumb."

Region of Doom: Pick Izzo and #3 MSU in the Midwest

It's March Madness... and the ES has been AWOL for travel across the country the last few days. Sorry for the delayed response, Spartan fans. 

But, it was nice to see MSU get a #3 seed in the Midwest, in the "Region of Doom."  When you think about how close MSU was in its two losses to Indiana, its loss at Michigan, and its loss to Ohio State in the tourney... well, the Spartans really had NO bad losses and are good enough to make a deep run. We'll see if Gary Harris' potential shoulder issue hampers Michigan State, but the bracket is a good one... let's take care of business in the first stanza, and potentially oust Duke and Louisville to advance to the Final Four.  That would be a nice capstone to a great season in an outstanding conference.

Nice to see the Spartans end the regular season polls in the top 10, at #9 - they certainly earned it.  And, the ES is enjoying the amount of publicity Tom Izzo and the Spartans are receiving, with Izzo being the dean of B1G coaches and having a great team.  Particularly loving this quote: "I'm looking forward to playing anybody [else]," Izzo said. "I'd play the Lakers tomorrow instead of some of the teams I've played recently."

Previews: a Mid-Major preview of MSU vs Valpo here; the Chicago Tribune preview picks MSU as a 72-58 winner.  A quick preview from Bracketologyexpert.com is here.

Here is the ESPN preview of the Midwest region.  And, Jay Bilas picks MSU to beat Duke, and for Michigan to bow out early.  The ES hates Pitino, and everything about him.  He is a poor ambassador for college basketball.  Thank goodness Kentucky didn't make it - Calipari is just as bad, if not worse.  In this tourney, the ES will be rooting for MSU and rooting against Michigan and Louisville.

Can't wait for tipoff -- for once, MSU gets the early game, this Thursday at 12:15 pm against little ole Valparaiso University... with the game right here in the state of Michigan.  The Palace will be crazy this weekend with Spartan Green and White.

ES has MSU picked in his bracket to the Final Four, and put down $20 in Vegas for the Spartans to win the whole damn thing.  NEVER PICK AGAINST IZZO IN THE TOURNAMENT.  Never.  And, is the Big Ten for real?  We should find out.  It was certainly interesting watching college hoops all year, and certainly Michigan  State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Indiana pass the eyeball test - they've looked GREAT all year long, even as they beat each other up. 

Here's the bracket. 

B1G cans Legends-Leaders for East-West, Mark Emmert on the coals

So after watching the Big Ten network the other day and listening to the comments from Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, it seems reasonable to expect that Ohio State and Michigan will be in the same division when the Big Ten reforms its lineups upon the arrival of Maryland (lovely football attendance example at right) and Rutgers. I really do believe that there will be an East and West division, and the Spartans will likely end up in the West division. Here is what it would look like:

East: Maryland, Rutgers, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Purdue, Indiana

West: Michigan State, Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota

ES made a brief shout out to the Huge Show the other day in response to his question of whether Michigan State should be in the same division as Michigan. Let's get real, as Spartan fans we really don't care because this will be a protected rivalry and the Spartans still will always play Michigan in the same year... always giving us a chance to kick their tail.

Stealing from the ACC to grow B1Gger

Talking is growing lowder about adding more schools to the Big Ten conference. Schools that are mentioned the most as potential additions include Virginia, North Carolina, and Syracuse. Yes, these are all Atlantic Coast conference ACC schools and while the ACC does have a media contract worth $13 million dollars per school, it does not rival the Big Tennetwork and the Big Ten's media contracts which at last estimate was worth $19.3 million per year per institution and with a renegotiation from the addition of Maryland and Rutgers, it is expected to be worth as much as $27 million per year beginning in 2014. Reaching South from the New York and DC markets to cherry pick Virginia and North Carolina two the Big Ten makes sense from an expansion standpoint with the alignment of two additional high-profile academic institutions, competitive football and basketball programs, competitive nonrevenue sports such as soccer, lacrosse, golf, tennis, and track and field. Adding these two schools also will further enhancing the value of the Big Ten Network. Charlottesville Virginia is a DC Richmond constituency, while North Carolina has the Raleigh, Durham, Winston-Salem research triangle, as well as potentially the Charlotte area. Adding an additional 10-15 million viewers to the network would further raise the value of the Big Ten network to maybe 32 or $35 million annually.

Emmert is walking wounded

The days are drawing shorter for Mark Emmert at the NCAA. The academic scandals and recruiting nightmares that have occurred under the watch of NCAA president Emmert seemed to continue at a torrid pace. Recent commentary by Jay Bilas and on ESPN Take Down or other ESPN-ites seemed to begin dispel doom for Emmert's presidency. Ohio State, Auburn, Penn State, Oregon, Miami, and who knows what other scandals lurk in the shadows and are waiting to be unveiled. While Emmert seems intent on using his academic pedigree as former presidents at the University of Washington and provost at LSU, he seems to be completely out of tune with his own staff.

The state of Pennsylvania's suit against the NCAA does seem to have merits as Penn State was not given an opportunity for due process. At Miami, the fact that Emmert fired his vice president for enforcement because of “improper investigation techniques”seems to fly in the face from what his own staff and other former investigators seem to believe are consistent with previous investigations. Either Emmert doesn't know what's going on, or he has extremely bad public relations and should learn to keep his mouth shut instead of grandstanding his academic virtues.

Indeed, when one considers these scandals and how the NCAA's own academic performance measurements are watered down in favor of eligibility, one has to wonder why he is even grandstanding. Furthermore, on the horizon lies that Eddie O'Bannon's lawsuit, which most experts agree has the potential to be a complete game changer for the future of college sports as we know it. If the NCAA loses the suit, potentially hundreds of millions or billions of dollars may have to be paid to former college athletes because the NCAA licensed their image for video games commercials and other purposes without asking the athletes specifically. Considering that the NCAA only makes $750 million a year, the institution could go bankrupt. If the NCAA wins the lawsuit, the argument has already been presented and the NCAA will need to respond to public and education demands of what the real role of major college football and basketball is for our nation's colleges.

In all honesty, the ES just don't see Emmert as being the right guy to answer that question nor lead an organization in response to the lawsuit and likely respond to public indictment regardless of who ends up on the victorious side of the suit.

The NCAA is on life support

Maybe it's finally time to start talking about getting rid of the NCAA.  John Feinstein, who often I find rather dull or shallow, makes excellent points (though he is exasperated) about how outdated the rules and structure of the organization.  Yes, maybe three new organizations: one for football, one for men's basketball, and one for all the other college sports.  That actually makes too good of sense to really happen.  And, Dan Wetzel, who often skews facts to fit his arguments (as is the case in his book, "Death to the FBS"), happens in this case to wrap things up with a nice bow, tying the Miami scandal to the overall corrupt nature of those who are in charge of big time college sports.

Read these articles and then ponder how the NCAA gets around this mess.  My guess, is it won't.  Something's gonna change.  But, will the NCAA fix the problems?  Not if those that are making the rules are the ones reaping the profits.  The system is broken, and  it might take Congressional action or the IRS to fix it:  the NCAA won't do it. And, Congress is broken too, and has enough of its own mess on its hands.  My guess is the class action lawsuits out there, when they come to fruition, will force the NCAA's hand.  The NCAA is on life support, and their time is ticking away.

Maybe the NCAA will give Miami football the death penalty as the way to solve this?  That just removes one of the symptoms, not the cause.