College Football 2014

[LetsGoPeay]

Might as well start a new thread for what looks to soon be a whole new college football world. This article is saying that by August a new NCAA subdivision featuring the five power conferences (Sorry UConn and Dave) will be a reality. Frankly, I'm surprised no one had mentioned this on here yet. We're obviously too immersed in OOTP and/or one of Wasted's 17 OD's.

Slive outlines plan for subdivision
SEC commissioner has a list of goals he would like to see carried out
Originally Published: April 22, 2014
By Ivan Maisel | ESPN.com

AMHERST, Mass. -- Patience, like big, quick defensive linemen, is in short supply in intercollegiate athletics these days.

The public sees billions flowing into the five major conferences and has decided that the faucet isn't working so well for the student-athletes. That makes for a compelling, quintessentially American fat-cat/little-guy narrative. Political careers have been built on flimsier foundations.

But in this case, the fat cats, the five conferences with bulging wallets, are on the same side as the little guys. You can argue that they came late to the party, or that they converted at the point of a legislative gun. At this point, that's a waste of time. They have gotten religion.

Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive spoke for the big schools when he said, "What we're trying to give them is what [student-athletes] are asking for."

Slive visited the University of Massachusetts last week as the executive-in-residence for the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management. In a keynote address, Slive laid out seven goals for the new subdivision of Division I that will house the following conferences: SEC, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12.

• providing the full cost of attendance to grant-in-aid recipients

• fulfilling the health, safety and nutrition needs of student-athletes

• allowing student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility to complete their undergraduate degree without cost

• ending the cold war against agents and advisers so that players testing the professional waters can receive better information

• harnessing the demands of sports so that student-athletes get more balance in their lives -- i.e., another crack at the "20-hour rule"

• more and better assistance for academically at-risk student-athletes

• giving student-athletes a role and a vote in NCAA governance that affects them

That list could come just as easily from a union guy as from the commissioner of one of the most powerful leagues in intercollegiate athletics.

After the speech, Slive said, "I was careful to say that what I was interested in is what the student-athletes were interested in getting, not how they got it."

Slive, as do his colleagues, want to modify the collegiate model, not do away with it.

"I'm not in favor of them being employees," Slive said. "What does 'payment' mean? If payment means they are going to be employees, then I am not in favor of it. ... Whatever we do, at least from my perspective and the perspective of my colleagues, is to be done within the collegiate model. ... This is about higher education, so we need to do more within the context of higher education, not in the context of employment."

If student-athlete and employee become synonyms, universities and their labor lawyers will be working nights for months to come, no matter how the Northwestern football players vote this week.

Support for increasing student-athlete benefits goes back at least three years, when NCAA president Mark Emmert first supported a $2,000 stipend toward the full cost of attendance. That proposal slogged to a halt, thanks to the Division I schools that don't want to pay it. With outside pressures coming to bear, the five equity conferences, as they prefer to be known, are about to form their own subdivision with their own rules.

A new subdivision will be a square peg to the round hole of the way that the NCAA currently operates. These changes, Slive said, "require a 21st century governance model within the NCAA and its structure that will preserve the collegiate model and allows our schools to make decisions that put student-athletes first. This is the No. 1 priority of the five conferences and we are committed to seeing it through."

The NCAA expects to create the five-conference subdivision in August. Slive estimated that it will take until at least the first of the year to draw up the rules by which the schools will govern themselves. In the current model, presidents make decisions as members of the NCAA Board of Directors. The five conferences want more responsibility in the hands of their athletic administrators.

Between the Northwestern case, and other pending litigation against the NCAA, the permutations of a new collegiate model could be endless. Slive would rather remodel than tear down and start over.

"You try to deal with things you can control," he said, "and some things you can't."

Slive and the other commissioners hope delivering more benefits to student-athletes will forestall the judicial and executive branches of the federal government from doing the same. The future of intercollegiate athletics will hinge on whether they are right.

[Cnasty]

The NCAA is a friggin mess.

Sad really because its the most exciting sport we have in this country IMO.

[fsupenguin]

It makes me sad, have to think it will affect scheduling in the future in a big way, and I would expect the gap this will create will cut way down on seeing smaller schools having real chances to knock of the big boys.

[ReignOnU]

I actually agree with the plan. Very few of the schools outside of this subdivision have the resources to offer the benefits that the NCAA is looking to provide the athletes. I don't believe it's going to drastically impact scheduling. The one thing I'm cautious of is that it could give a nice advantage to a school like Kentucky over Louisville. As it is today, Louisville tends to be consistently better, while Kentucky has been a doormat in the SEC. With this system, the crap SEC school has an advantage of offering more to the athlete. What is likely means is that it will widen the talent gap between these 5 conferences and the lower conferences, but it could potentially help the bottom tier of these 5 conferences and make them more competitive overall. I think the next steps would be for schools that are ready to make that jump, to join into conferences and move us towards the 5 super conferences model of as many as 16 teams each. (or more?)

[BIGmike]

Word on the interwebz Hoos is that Jake McGee will be joining the good guys. Was he not a fan of Tom O'Brien?

[Hoos]

Word on the interwebz Hoos is that Jake McGee will be joining the good guys. Was he not a fan of Tom O'Brien?

He and TOB clashed. I think the move for McGee was more about UVA moving to a 3 WR set. McGee was going to play more a hybrid role and he didn't feel like it was the right offense to get him to the next level. He really needs to work on his blocking but his receiver skills are excellent. He's one of the best I've seen at TE when it comes to going up and getting the football.

[autiger730]

Jameis Winston arrested for shoplifting crab legs from Publix.

[LetsGoPeay]

Jameis Winston arrested for shoplifting crab legs from Publix.

Wait, is this real?

[Hoos]

Noles gonna Nole.

[LetsGoPeay]

Free
Seafood
University

[Hoos]

Free
Seafood
University

FUCK. I just spent 5 minutes trying to come up with a new spin on Free Shoes. Seafood never came to mind.

[DRiccio21]

he got a citation.

$30 fine and community service and he's suspended from baseball team. won't show up on criminal record if he does that stuff.

not the smartest move, going to make for some funny ass gif's

[LetsGoPeay]

There has to be a connection between Maryland leaving the ACC and Winston stealing crab legs.

[BIGmike]

[uf83198]

Jameis Winston arrested for shoplifting crab legs from Publix.

LIFETIME BAN!!!!

Go Gators!

[ajalves]

thats a funny picture. well done there

[nick]

theres already a bunch.

[nick]

[LetsGoPeay]

Best tweet:

"We also learned that Publix has a top 3 ACC defense"

[DRiccio21]

Brandon Boykin's tweet is real good too.

someone just texted it to me and I don't know how to post screen shots... someone else can