We know that the NCAA has said that, in order to be a Division I-A football conference, you must have 8 full-time members, and they each have to average 15,000 attendance per game. This is a way to trim the fat and stop teams that have no reason to be I-A (Troy State, Buffalo, et al.) from moving up into that place.

Could this work for basketball, too? The NCAA at some point has to get irritated at the Savannah St's and IPFW's moving up all the time. Say, your conference must have 10 full-time members or you lose your automatic bid to the NCAA tournament? This could indirectly cause changes to some of the football conferences, and maybe even get rid of some D-I freeloaders.

Of course, the Ivy League would be granted special exempt status. Perhaps the other leagues which don't include State Schools (Patriot & West Coast) could be considered for this status as well.

What do you think?

This plan would not work for basketball. A basketball program costs at most 20% that of a football program. There are less than one-sixth the number of scholarships, half the number of coaches, and it is much less expensive and labor-intensive to build and maintain practice and playing facilities.

I see no problem with the Savannah States and IPFWs of the world trying to compete. I would like them to join a conference, but if they do not, who cares. They are not going to show up at an NCAA tournament anytime soon. But if they do, they should have as much chance of winning as anyone else. The playing field for basketball is more level, both figureatively and literally. Miami FL would beat Tulsa in 999 of 1000 football meetings. Arizona would beat Savannah State in 99 of 100 basketball meetings. Tulsa would beat Miami FL in 2 of 3 basketball meetings.

For the 10 member requirement, you overlook the best basketball conference in the nation. The Atlantic Coast Conference has nine members; do you propose denying an automatic bid to the ACC? Not that it ever matters, but there lies a principle to be defended. Every conference has at least eight members. If a requirement was to be set, it would be 8.

other points to consider:

teams that move up and are division I independents do not get a share of conference tournament or ncaa tournament money. money is paid out to the conferences based on number of teams in the final 65 and their subsequent performance. so if a team like savannah moves to division 1, it really doesn't have any impact on the basketball world at large. the only impact is that arkansas can play them at home and get credit for a division 1 game, which immediately lowers their rpi.

if and when they do join a conference, which all will have to do eventually, then your preprequisite is effectively met. conferences grow. and each conference that absorbs a new member is penalized by having to share its tournament share 9 or 10 ways instead of 8.

as long as the ncaa does not sanction additional conferences -- which it should NOT do -- there is no considerable impact to adding a couple of teams to division 1 every year. there is a saturation point, probably at about 350-360, where all the lower major conferences have 12 members. but we're a few years away from that now.