Knight Commission: Split FBS

[Gallipoli]

The Knight Commission has just endorsed a split of FBS to schools into a self-regulated entity. Is this the beginning of the end of the NCAA and "student" athletes? This affects both football and basketball.

Knight group recommends FBS split from NCAA

The Knight Commission believes the best way to repair the NCAA's "broken governance model" is to remove the football teams of the bowl subdivision from the association, forcing the top level of college football to govern itself as a separate entity.

www.espn.com

 

[urmite]

"Under this proposed plan, all other sports at those FBS schools would remain under the NCAA's governance system. That includes college basketball and its March Madness tournament, which remains the largest revenue source for the NCAA.

Lower levels of football would also remain under the NCAA's purview.

Duncan said the group also considered the idea of creating a new division just for schools in the Power 5 conferences, which operate on much larger budgets than most of their peers thanks in large part to money generated from media rights deals and their own television networks. The last split of that magnitude occurred nearly 50 years ago when the NCAA divided its schools into three divisions in 1973.

Ultimately, the Knight Commission decided that the gap between an FBS-level football program and the non-revenue sports on that same campus was wider and the source of more problems than the gap between, for example, the softball team at a Power 5 school and the football team at a school from a smaller conference."

 

[Gallipoli]

I could also see a situation where the P-5 schools break-their basketball programs away from the rest of us. Their argument is that their star power is what drives revenue. Does someone watch college BB for Zion Williamson or for Fatts Russell? It would also allow these schools to better compete with the NBA G league. Following this reasoning, I could see a situation where the A-10 and CAA are relegated to a tournament like the NIT. Of course, as a UR fan, I reject it entirely.