The times they are-a-changin' in college athletics
By Andrew Santillo
The Record
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Siena’s Ronald Moore, front, is mobbed by teammates Alex Franklin, back, and Kenny Hasbrouck, right, after making a three-point shot with 3.9 seconds left in the second overtime to beat Ohio State 74-72 in a first-round NCAA men’s tournament game, March 21, 2009, in Dayton, Ohio. (The associated Press)
Andrew Santillo
The Record
ALBANY — the NCAA men’s basketball tournament expanded from 65 to 68 teams — not the anticipated, and someday expected, 96.
The next day it’s rumored Notre Dame, Missouri, Nebraska, Syracuse and Rutgers were invited to join the Big ten conference, to expand the Midwest conference to 16 teams — a nice even number that could be split into two divisions, thus setting up a championship football game in December, guaranteeing a national-debt type payday from network television, similar to what the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference has done in recent years.
Rumors develop daily. Alliances are being formed among conference presidents, athletic directors and TV executives. while a lot of aspects seem unclear about the future of Division I college athletics, one thing is fairly certain — the landscape of college athletics is changing.
“You’re constantly seeing a shift,” says University at Albany Vice President and Director of Athletics Lee McElroy.
When it comes to this shift, one aspect is constant. Big-time college football drives the bus at large Division I colleges and universities. the rest of the athletic department is usually relegated to the back of the bus.
The movers and shakers when it comes to change in college athletics — whether it is small or seismic — will undoubtedly be major Bowl Championship Series (CBS) schools, the aftermath will certainly filter down to local schools UAlbany and Siena College, small, mid-major schools on the Division I landscape.
“This all has an impact on recruiting, it all has an impact on exposure, it all has an impact on who lines up with whom,” McElroy said. “It has a trickle down effect on everybody.”
There are a couple of main things forcing changes in the NCAA.
The first is money.
These are big business operations.
Recently, the NCAA announced a 14-year deal that includes television, internet and wireless rights with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting to present the Division I men’s basketball tournament through 2024.
The figure for the deal was an estimated $10.8 billion dollars — more than $740 million dollars per year.
The second is new media.
Additional cable television channels and internet capabilities allow nearly every college sport to be broadcast on some level — national TV, regional cable or streamed live over the internet.
Big ten Commissioner Jim Delany hit a goldmine with the creation of the Big ten network.
According to Sports Business Journal, the network generated an extra $66 million for the conference, which was turned into $4 million given to each of the league’s 11 universities. the conference wants to expand into the New York market (see Rutgers and Syracuse) and could add plenty of national appeal if the conference somehow talks Notre Dame into abandoning its independence — something the Fighting Irish value as much as its Roman Catholic values — to join the Big 10.
That has plenty of people wanting a piece of what is an extremely large and lucrative pie.
At the local level, Siena’s conference, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, has partnered with ESPNU to help elevate its prime sport of men’s basketball.
The local schools also have online ventures, Siena All-Access and UAlbany’s Dane Zone, which try to capitalize on an expanding internet market, albeit on a significantly lesser level.
While there is plenty of talk and rumors swirling, there isn’t anything concrete that’s actually happening at this point.
“It’s hard to put the pieces together right now,” said MAAC Commissioner Rich Ensor.
According to most, however, it’s not a matter of if major changes will start occurring — but when.
“We just have to be ready once everything shakes out,” McElroy said.
Another intangible pushing the discussion forward is the sport of football.
The largest revenue-making sport for nearly every major college and university, football has a lot of say because it supports a large share of many athletic budgets.
“These major conferences are built around how their football is situated,” Ensor said.
The BCS conferences generate a lot of money from conference championship games and bowl games in January, becoming like mini Super Bowls in terms of their economic impact. the Southeastern Conference, which holds the biggest championship game, in Atlanta, generated more than $14 million last year.
“Those championship games have become a very lucrative piece of the pie for the BCS leagues,” said Ensor.
So lucrative that TV executives are willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars each year for broadcast rights to conference championship and BCS bowl games is the reason why the major football schools are in the discussion stages of forming super conferences.
The Big 10, SEC, ACC, Pac-10 and Big 12 may expand to 16 schools each, taking the top 80 football schools in the country and leaving the NCAA. these conferences would be run by one commissioner, with power similar to the NFL commish, to broker mega-million dollar TV deals. this would in all essence stop a BCS crasher such as Boise State, Utah or Texas Christian popping up and walking off with millions of dollars. the big schools brokered the deal and they want the all the money to themselves.
The MAAC did away with football following the 2007 season. the conference is made up of small, private schools that don’t have the budget required to play big-time college football. the MAAC is closely monitoring the situation because because any shifting could open up an opportunity.
If the Big East football schools left the conference to join one of the supposed football conferences, that would leave traditional basketball powers St. John’s, Providence, Seton Hall, Marquette and others either looking for a conference to compete, or the Big East would be looking for others schools to move up and play in its conference. MAAC schools certainly fit the profile of Big East members who do not play football — private schools and most are religious institutions of higher learning.
“You try to put yourself in the position where you can best capitalize if an opportunity came along,” Ensor said.
UAlbany does have a football team, competing in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA), which could make it attractive to a larger league, should openings occur.
“We want to make sure that in the landscape we don’t get left out,” McElroy said. “By that I mean, as other teams are growing, improving and changing, we want to be doing the same thing.”
The Great Danes will open the 2011 football season playing BCS school Cincinnati, a member of the Big East. this gives the Danes an opportunity for more recognition.
“We get national exposure, just from that situation alone,” McElroy said. “If you’re not prepared to have a stronger program, be competitive and recruit, you’re not going to be able to play.”
McElroy would like to continue playing similar schools and expand the football program, which is led by longtime coach Bob Ford, who has been successful on each level the Danes have competed, including its recent more to the FCS.
McElroy, who was an AD at American University and Cal-State Sacramento, before coming to UAlbany to oversee the school’s move to Division I, is confident these predicted changes will occur in the next few years.
“We have to be prepared with a plan,” he said. “We have to understand what’s going on and what’s driving it and where we fit.”
While there’s quite a bit being bandied about where these big schools may land, there’s hardly any discussion about how the ripple effect will reverberate amongst the mid-majors.
“The immediate impact from one of those organizations is hard to speculate how that will possibly roll down to our level,” Ensor said. “That being said, you always try to keep yourself in the best position to attract new members.”
Right now, mid-majors UAlbany and Siena have to sit and wait as a game of musical chairs unfolds in front of them. the question is, will there be any seats remaining when they go to sit down?
“I think you continue to do what you’ve always done, and that’s be as good as you can, understand what your focus needs to be and be prepared if something should happen,” said Siena Athletic Director John D’Argenio. “You want to be attractive enough, either as a league to draw other members, or as individual members of a league to do something different if the opportunity presents itself.”
The Siena men’s basketball team’s three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament drew new levels of recognition to the Loudonville school. Fran McCaffery — before he left to coach at Iowa — signed an eight-year contract extension with Siena before the 2009-10 season. the worth was estimated in neighborhood of $5 million dollars.
At Siena, the emphasis will remain on the basketball program and most likely only intensify as a catalyst for national exposure.
“It’s paramount to our success and it’s paramount to how well we can elevate the profile of the college,” D’Argenio said. “We’ve seen that the last three years with all the success men’s basketball has had because that’s one of the few sports, other than football, that really catapults you in the minds of people.”
While being on TV is important to mid-major schools for name recognition and growing exposure, schools like Siena and UAlbany hardly see any actual dollars from having a sporting event on one of the ESPN networks or on another national telecast.
The real money in basketball comes from the NCAA, through shares, or units, that are up for grabs in the tournament in March.
According to the 2010 numbers, each game played in the tournament meant $222,502 went to the conference to be dispersed to its members for the next six years.
Since Siena has played in six NCAA Tournament games the past three years. the Saints earned the conference more than $1 million dollars. that is major revenue for small mid-majors. however, if the proposed super conferences for football break away from the NCAA, and eventually decide to set up their own basketball tournament with 80 large schools that could shut out the little guys.
The days of Siena upsetting Stanford, Vanderbilt or Ohio State would no longer exist. UAlbany wouldn’t be able to scare a No. 1-seed UConn for 35 minutes before running out of gas the end. a No. 1 seed has never lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but the Danes came close, so close CBS televised the second half to the entire country, just not the Northeast region. UConn eventually rallied to beat UAlbany, 72-59, in the NCAA Tournament.
Heck, even small-school Butler, which advanced all the way to the NCAA championship game in March before losing to Duke, could be left out against the big boys.
Revenue could dry up, because realistically, TV execs pay for the right to broadcast Kansas, North Carolina, Syracuse, etc. Small schools such as Butler, Gonzaga, Siena and UAlbany could be forced into a mid-major national tournament for basketball down the road if shut out by the larger schools.
Both McElroy and D’Argenio think that outcome is unlikely because it would involve a lot of side-stepping.
“I think if those schools decided to do that, there’s a lot of issues and a lot of minefields they have to walk around,” D’Argenio said. “Not the least of which is people asking, ‘Is this really part of your educational mission and enterprise or is this a quasi-professional association of athletic teams?’”
There is a Catch-22 for the bigger conferences because as schools acquire more revenue and coaches make more money, the only people who aren’t profiting, in dollars, are the athletes and there would be no product without them.
“As this thing grows and you see more money, it’s going to change our model,” McElroy said. “It’s going to have to, otherwise, congress is going to step in and they’re going to say colleges and universities, we’re going to take away your tax-exempt status as institutions.”
Change is nothing new to college athletics. Ensor remembers when the ECAC was the big conference, 30 years ago.
“I really don’t see it as a tip of the iceberg as much as it’s a glacier that just keeps moving and it’s just a matter of where you are in the ice age,” said Ensor.
The times they are-a-changin' in college athletics
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