College Athletics and Money

by **unipanther99** » August 16th, 2011, 10:11 pm

If you are interested, UNI AD Troy Dannen gave a very candid interview to a Cedar Rapids radio station about the current state of college athletics and how schools like UNI survive and fit in. He doesn't pull any punches and he doesn't sugar coat UNI's situation.

His portion starts at about 53 minutes:

http://www.kgymradio.com/episode_dow...tentId=5427837

**Sponsor**

by **bigdawg** » August 17th, 2011, 9:45 am

This does make me wonder if we are headed to superconferences as so many schools simply won't be able to keep up.

by **unipanther99** » August 17th, 2011, 1:34 pm

Definitely. Dannen talks about how the "big 60" drive all of college athletics... The other 280 schools in D-1 could easily outvote them, but they won't for fear of them leaving and taking the NCAA Basketball money with them. I've never really heard any active athletics official verbalize that before.

Between this, conference realignment, and the USC, Ohio State, and now Miami tidal wave of infractions... I really think we are on the brink of SIGNIFICANT changes to college athletics as we know them.

by **panther-state** » August 17th, 2011, 2:02 pm

I really found the discussion on the academic changes by the NCAA (including a postseason ban) to be one of the more interesting topics discussed. I know we recently had a thread based on this topic and the APR of the MVC members but Dannen really emphasized how this move is a great thing for a conference like the Valley since almost the entire conference (besides Missouri St) is in great shape. For example, had this been in place the past few years, it's very likely that Creighton would've gotten in when they tied with UNI for the regular season title and Wichita would've gotten in last year, based on the likeness that a few teams would've been barred from competing in the tourney that season. It'll be interesting to see how things shape up in the future with this move.

Overall a great interview and very enlightening not only for Panther fans, but any MVC school since it focuses on how a school the size of UNI operates within it's athletic dept.

by **tribecalledquest** » August 18th, 2011, 3:09 pm

panther-state wrote:I really found the discussion on the academic changes by the NCAA (including a postseason ban) to be one of the more interesting topics discussed. I know we recently had a thread based on this topic and the APR of the MVC members but Dannen really emphasized how this move is a great thing for a conference like the Valley since almost the entire conference (besides Missouri St) is in great shape. For example, had this been in place the past few years, it's very likely that Creighton would've gotten in when they tied with UNI for the regular season title and Wichita would've gotten in last year, based on the likeness that a few teams would've been barred from competing in the tourney that season. It'll be interesting to see how things shape up in the future with this move.

Overall a great interview and very enlightening not only for Panther fans, but any MVC school since it focuses on how a school the size of UNI operates within it's athletic dept.

The problem is that when the APR moves..the # of teams who qualify based on APR numbers will surprisingly move as well. The NCAA won't ever keep a UCONN, etc. out of the tournament because they don't meet an APR number. Won't happen.

Do fans really want drastic changes to how the NCAA and college athletics work?

by **Aargh** » August 18th, 2011, 9:41 pm

tribecalledquest wrote:
panther-state wrote:I really found the discussion on the academic changes by the NCAA (including a postseason ban) to be one of the more interesting topics discussed. I know we recently had a thread based on this topic and the APR of the MVC members but Dannen really emphasized how this move is a great thing for a conference like the Valley since almost the entire conference (besides Missouri St) is in great shape. For example, had this been in place the past few years, it's very likely that Creighton would've gotten in when they tied with UNI for the regular season title and Wichita would've gotten in last year, based on the likeness that a few teams would've been barred from competing in the tourney that season. It'll be interesting to see how things shape up in the future with this move.

Overall a great interview and very enlightening not only for Panther fans, but any MVC school since it focuses on how a school the size of UNI operates within it's athletic dept.

The problem is that when the APR moves..the # of teams who qualify based on APR numbers will surprisingly move as well. The NCAA won't ever keep a UCONN, etc. out of the tournament because they don't meet an APR number. Won't happen.

Do fans really want drastic changes to how the NCAA and college athletics work?

With the head of the NCAA infractions committee being the AD at UM when a lot of UM's violations took place, this is going to raise some eyebrows.

Congress has more important things to do, but the NCAA is probably a tax-exempt monopoly.

Fans want a FB playoff. The super-conferences provide an ideal avenue to create an 8-team playoff. Fans want to see Butler and VCU in the F4, but the BCS schools (and by extension, the NCAA) doesn't want that. The non-BCS NCAA members go along with what the BCS conferences want because of the BCS conference's ongoing threat to leave the NCAA.

The UM scandal, coupled with the head of NCAA enforcement being involved, could draw attention to the NCAA's uneven enforcement policies. The current structure of the NCAA is about the same as if baseball put George Steinbrenner in charge of any decisions on a salary cap.

I'm not for expanded government, but it's going to require Congressional involvement to change the status quo that the NCAA operates under now.