This is BCS worse nightmare. I'm sure new rules will be chummed up to keep many of them down....

Now you sound like the fatcats. Half of the Big East would go DII under your plan.

It's a problem for the non-BCS schools, not the BCS schools. There's nothing for the BCS schools to regret, even in today's economy because they are making tons of TV money. Like play4life said, the BCS schools will find more ways to keep the money for themselves.

They may lose some but it won't be significant enough for the TV people. If they would lose significant viewers, then don't you think that the MWC and WAC would be BCS conferences already?

The conferences that get the most TV money, bowl money, and best TV slots are for the SEC and Big 10 with a dropoff to the Big 12, ACC, and Pac 10.

Look, I think an expanded MWC - with 10 - 12 teams *should* get an autobid - but I'm not the one that makes the decisions. That would essentially be the TV execs.

TA&M wouldn't leave the Big12 for this conference.

There was talk a WHILE ago about the *possibilities* of a 'NEW' Ivy conference:
Tulane
Vandy
Duke
Wake
Navy
Rice
Army
Baylor
Tulsa
TCU (?)

but it has virtually no chance of happening now. The time for some of these 'dream' or 'hypothetical' conferences were about 20-30 years go before the big money started dominating CFB. I mean how many of these schools rely on nearby state schools to help support FB attendance? Also, what would be the TV contract for FB and BB these days?

Now, it's about markets and TV money for conferences.

There's two problems with even getting that plan off the ground. 1) The DII schools would have a riot. 2) The non-BCS D-I (including I-AAA, the non-football schools) would also have a riot, and would probably stage a takeover of I-A football. This would put the BCS schools in a quandry whether to break away from the NCAA or let their pie be taken away by the smaller schools.

Although the first option may seem the greater idea at first, it puts all of the revenue making solely on football without that fat March Madness contract, plus they still are going to have Title IX to deal with, which sours the deal quite a bit. And they obviously want to keep the NCAA out of the business of I-A football, because that = playoff =no more BCS holding most/all of the pie. That's pretty much why you haven't seen any brazen moves by the BCS schools, just the expansion of moratoriums.

This dynamic rolls two ways.

Without the half-chance of Boise State playing Oklahoma in a bowl game (much less a BCS game), would BSU have even expanded their stadium to 30K and then 32K?

Non-BCS schools want to be associated with the BCS schools WITHOUT chasing them out. Forming their own association is always an option. If the game becomes Michigan OR NCAA, Notre Dame OR NCAA, USC OR NCAA, and so on for most BCS schools, the NCAA loses.

That's why the game is the non-BCS schools trying to primp and preen to get major college attention rather than a large number of schools taking the NCAA to court.

Actually, it might have taken a little longer, but I do think that BSU would have expanded. They're the perfect template of how to take a solid I-AA program and turn it into a solid I-A program, so it's only natural they keep expanding. I'd imagine it'll be at 40k within the next 10 years.

Actually, I think you're overestimating the clout of the BCS conferences. They also get a very sizeable chunk of money from the NCAA for March Madness, and if they decide to go it alone they take a very big hit. Dropping sports is also out of the question, because they still lose overall prestige by dropping sports (except maybe for the SEC). Not to mention say a conference has a so-so year, like the Pac-10 did this year, and arguably the Big 12 last year, the Big 10 the previous couple of years, etc, and that could seriously jeopardize TV money if they have an off year heading into contract renegotiations. So yes it is lose-lose if the BCS conferences walk away (even though the Big East wouldn't right now,after 2010 could be a different story, and I doubt the ACC would either), but the hit is just as costly for the ones who walk as it is the NCAA.