Well Things Could Really Get Scary Now....

Congress is thinking about getting involved in realignment.

http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/32830376

Huh? Southeastern conference not securities and exchange commission

Did I miss the part where it talks about congress getting involved?

good. they are full of free time. PASS A FREAKING BALANCE BUDGET CLOWNS!!

My bad. Too many articles open. Here are the links.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...ressman-pushes-for-hearings-on-college-sports

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7127275/congressman-urges-hearings-college-sports

Well... I'm torn. These are public institutions, there should be some control in all of this. The TV networks have way to much say in all of this.

But... it is congress. I'm sure they will probably just make things worse.

That being said... nothing happened with steroids in baseball until congress got involved.

I would love it if Mizzou left. Then we picked up WVU, LU, and CU. Then congress passes a law stating that a conference shall not exceed 12 schools, and Mizzou and A&m gets kicked out of the SEC.

Perfect!

Yes they are public, but they are State institutions, not federal institutions. The State government of Texas didn't stop aTm's move, and they could have. The State government of Texas has yet to take any steps to control the action of UT that are the source of so many problems in the Big XII. The State Governments of Nebraska, Colorado, and Missouri have seemed to actively support those schools departures. Some better oversight by the various States might be good, but I doubt the Federal Government getting involved will do anything but make the situation worse.

You'd be much more likely to see them redraw conference lines and something like UT, and OU get moved in to the SEC and Ole Miss and Mississippi State get put out with us and the remaining Texas schools in reborn SWC.

I appreciate the sentiment, but you can count on the federal government making the situation worse.

Follow the money.

Let's not be so niave to think that Rep. Conyers is calling for a meeting out of the goodness of his heart.

Who in Michigan or on Capital Hill could be pushing for this?

Congress has better things to deal with than Collegiate Athletics.

Congress does almost nothing right.

Stay the hell away from college football!

I agree that congress would probably screw it up.

But... most of these universities are a result of the federal land-grant act. And regardless, congress can regulate interstate commerce (ESPN). The power of subpena via hearings could scare a lot of people off. Again, the baseball steroid hearings were the only thing that finally forced MLB to get off their butts. I just think the public might like to know the involvement of the TV networks in all of this.

Now... if we had a competent government, they would look to put some kind of limit on the travel of student athletes (say, 50% of games must be within a certain distance). I wouldn't describe our current congress as competent at all, so I am not necessarily advocating their involvement.

Please, don't turn this into a government stinks, regulation is bad, blah, blah. At some point, the insanity of crazy conferences spread out all over the country needs to stop.

I don't think so, the current Big 12 Conference has 5 land grant universities and 5 non-land grant universities, the original Big 12 was 6 and 6. And a quick glance at the other AQ conferences puts it close to evenly split. So not MOST of them, but about half of them.

But it's alright to turn it into a only the federal government further abusing the interstate commerce clause can make things better thread?

The Federal government donated some land for which they have been amply paid by the graduates of the schools who have paid in service as officers in the armed forces.

The universities were created by the States, and the federal government should have none, and needs no role in how those schools conduct their athletic programs.

If you need proof look at the one time they've really stuck their nose in it. Title IX while having fine goals has caused a lot of historically sound programs to be closed down, while not particularly expanding opportunities for women. You can expect that any solution they come up with will have the same kind of effect of making overall athletics less while not solving the problem they set out to solve.

Not to be picky but TCU, Baylor, BYU, Notre Dame and many others are not public institutions. Also, government engaging in activities involving church schools will lead to entanglement issues.

you know, football fans have the power in this. If we stopped watching the games, the pre-game, the coverage if conferences got too big. There would be alot less advertising dollars, and alot less influence from the ESPNs, CBSs, and Foxs.

You know this is consumer-driven right guys?

Why?

It is the evolution of College Football. The concept of having a National Championship was not even a big deal back in the day...when air travel was dicey.

For football, people make too big of a deal about geography for the students.

Really?

5 away conference games at most a season?

Norman is the only school close enough to bus to in the Big XII. Does it really matter if the team gets on a plane and flies 1 hour to get to Kansas or 3 hours to get to Washington or Florida? Does that extra 2 hours of flight time each way 5 times a season REALLY impact a football player?

I call BS.

Too far for fans/parents/friends to drive? Boo-freaking-hoo. I'm sure back in 1916 (long before the interstate system was built), people were whining about the size of the Big 10 when Michigan joined and it being 800+ miles from Minnesota.

Times change. Technology changes. In 2011, travel for 5 away games / season is easier on everyone than 3 away games / season in 1916.

College Football will continue to evolve. I posted on this very board 5 years ago my prediction of College Football realignment here: http://www.orangepower.com/threads/future-of-the-big-12.36042/page-2#post-310152

It was clear when the ACC expanded from 9 to 12 teams what was going to happen as TV contracts began to expire. We have started to see it happen over the past couple of years. Ultimately Football-Only conferences will be formed by TV $. At some point Elite football schools will have a different conference for football than the rest of their sports.

It will be different than what we have now, but it won't necessarily be a bad thing.

Federal grants is where Congress has the power. Ask any university president if he would like to lose federal funding. Title IX ring any bells?

Yet another reason to hate big intrusive government. Always have to meddle in everything.