BCS conferences leaving NCAA?

[Mikovio]

I agree, football may be the sticking point. Maybe in order to join the 4th tier you need to give stipends to all your student athletes and that includes a 100+ scholarship football team if you play football. Maybe you can't operate in the 4th tier in basketball only while skimping on football. This is all speculation at this point but the SI article was based on talks with some high level BCS athletic officials, so I think it's the best indication of where we are now. Hopefully Elgin and the Valley presidents do what they can so that the Valley is on the right side of the dividing line when it comes.

[TheAsianSensation]

My thinking is that stipends would be football only, or for all sports. I don't think, with Title IX hanging around, you could get away with a basketball-only stipend. The reason football is possible is because there's the chance you can separate the activity from the NCAA entirely.

This could get dicey for the mid majors because I could see different schools in same conferences with different agendas sticking out. I wonder if they'll attempt a split based on individual school resources or force every conference as a whole to make a decision.

[MSUDuo]

My thinking is that stipends would be football only, or for all sports. I don't think, with Title IX hanging around, you could get away with a basketball-only stipend. The reason football is possible is because there's the chance you can separate the activity from the NCAA entirely.

Title IX isn't a NCAA thing, it's a federal law thing. I don't see how any school will be able to get away with a "football only" stipend.

[UE 71]

NCAA allowable scholarships by sport:

http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/scholarships_by_sport.htm

[Aargh]

This move by the BCS conferences to split off from the NCAA is sponsored by The American Bar Association Retirement Fund. They might be able to pull their FB teams out of the NCAA. They might be able to offer stipends in FB, but that opens a nasty, nasty can of worms.

Title IX says they have to provide stipends to an equal number of women athletes. That means they're paying softball players, volleyball players - probably women's basketball. Then it gets ugly. Both the NCAA and all the non-BCS leagues and schools file a class action lawsuit because the women' sports are no longer on a level playing field.

That likely makes it an "all or nothing" decision. That's not easy. That would also, likely, trigger a ton of lawsuits. If it were easy, it would have already happened. Another possible problem is that if the BCS leagues became "minor league FB" instead of college FB, they may lose some fan interest. Outright payments also open the possibility for a Player's Union to be formed.

I expect the power conferences will continue to hold the threat of withdrawl over the NCAA's head in order to get their agenda legislated by the NCAA. If it comes right down to it, I believe both the NCAA and the power conferences realize the problems the power conferences would face if they withdrew from the NCAA.

[Mikovio]

Yes Title IX will require an equal amount of stipends be offered to women student athletes. Football is 85 so you need to cobble together sports like womens soccer (12) and basketball (15) and softball (12) and volleyball (12) and field hockey (12) and gymnastics (12) and lacrosse (12). In the end, just about every women's sport has to be covered if you're going to give stipends to football. And if you do that you at least probably feel compelled to cover revenue sports like mens basketball and baseball, which would of course require more womens sports be covered. The price tag for doing this for football then could easily exceed $1MM/year.

If you don't have football though, maybe you just cover mens and womens basketball, and maybe baseball and softball. That's only about $200K, and I'd guess most MVC schools could afford that.

The question for me would be if you could field a stipend-less football team and at the same time compete in Division 4 with your basketball programs. I think that would be a big issue for MVFC members.

[Red]

The commish of the new American conference is all over the place lobbying to be included in this if these 5 break away from the NCAA. I hope Elgin is monitoring this closely.

[valleychamp]

Yes Title IX will require an equal amount of stipends be offered to women student athletes.

This is not correct.

[mvcfan]

Yes Title IX will require an equal amount of stipends be offered to women student athletes.

This is not correct.

I'm sure that you are a nice person but your statement that left us hanging without the benefit of your superior knowledge makes you sound like an arrogant buckethead.

[unipanther99]

If stipends were treated the same way as scholarships, they wouldn't have to be exactly equal. The university would need to show they are at least working toward a number of stipends for women approaching the same ratio as male to female students on campus. It would have to at least come close and look like they were making a good faith effort.