Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

Get ready, then, for Division 4, where those BCS schools (Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, ACC, SEC) are going to set their own rules.

• Theoretically they not only will be able to pay players, but pay them as much as they want -- $5,000, $10,000 per year? Why not? In the new governance structure, there'd be no MAC schools to vote it down.

• Forget a four-team playoff. How soon could Division 4 officials institute an eight-teamer? As soon as they damn well please.

• Might as well forget "Division 4" as a formal label too. Couldn't the schools sell naming rights since the NCAA that now will only nominally oversee big-time football won't have much of a say?

Think of the new subdivision as the NFL -- Nike Football League – if the shoe giant wins the contract.

• There would be fewer chances for legal liability. Instead of the NCAA fighting the O'Bannon lawsuit, Division 4 could openly negotiate with video game manufacturers, use players likenesses, numbers, names and faces -- and distribute the revenue back to the players.

Once again, what could the NCAA do? Bowlsby's statements suggest the association has lost leverage.

• Division 4 could set its own scholarship limitations, make its own enforcement rules. Bowlsby specifically expressed frustration at NCAA enforcement which has not distinguished itself lately -- or at all. Think of Division 4 setting its own recruiting rules.

Don't worry about the NCAA tournament. In this setting, the BCS schools would participate in it. The rub would come when Michigan plays a Miami (Ohio) that doesn't pay its players some kind of stipend. But what, really, would be the difference from now? Both sides already admit a competitive and recruiting disparity.

sandw04 wrote:The only leverage the NCAA might have would be to accept the "Division Four" members for all sports only. In other words, if they broke off for football, then they would also have to go their own way for basketball. If the Big 5 conferences were able to pull off breaking away, it would cause some fundamental changes for college sports. Maybe these changes wouldn't be so bad for smaller, non-conference schools. It would save a ton of money being spent to compete with the big guys.

shupirate98 wrote:If the BCS schools want to break off I say good riddance. They want to create their own cash-grab division for football but will still deign to play us in the other sports and take money from the cash-cow NCAA Tournament? No way, let the NCAA slam the door in their face. Let them play only amongst themselves not just in football but in every sport. Good luck to the Pac-12 schools in trying to fill out a non-conference schedule when the nearest opponent is in Texas. Good luck trying to set up a championship tournament when you only have a total of 64 or so schools. Yeah, we'd miss playing North Carolina and Kansas and so on at first. But they'll miss us more than they'd ever imagine. There are more than enough non-BCS schools to create a very viable division with a very viable championship. I admit the first obvious reaction to seeing this possibility is that it's a disaster. But the more you look at it doesn't look so bad. A level playing field with like-minded institutions competing against one another, all having a legitimate opportunity to succeed. Isn't that what we like about the new Big East? Take that spirit nationwide. Honestly, why should Providence College be competing with the University of Texas? What exactly do those institutions have in common with one another?