Big 12's Bowlsby beginning NCAA dialogue that could spark real change
DALLAS -- Bob Bowlsby may be the newest commissioner in the five megabucks conferences, but he served notice Monday that he will not be the quietest. The head of the Big 12 said something today that his four colleagues have been hinting at for almost two years. The difference? Bowlsby said it boldly, directly and without prompting.
The former Stanford, Iowa and Northern Iowa athletic director fired a shot across the bow of the NCAA and the more than 200 schools that belong to Division I but don't rake in significant revenue from big-time football. Bowlsby said the schools that generate the bulk of the revenue want to govern themselves because they're tired of getting blocked every step of the way by less financially successful programs that want to maintain the illusion of parity. "Relative to the legislative process, we are very much at a point now where we can't get anything that's transformative through the system," Bowlsby said. "I think that's particularly felt by seven or eight conferences and the five major conferences in particular. It is just very difficult to do anything that would benefit our student athletes or our institutions that doesn't get voted down by the larger majority." Bowlsby, who has been on both sides of this equation, said he understands the have-nots' point of view, but it doesn't change the fact that the chasm between the classes has caused gridlock. "Northern Iowa and Texas aren't much alike," Bowlsby said.
Such reform can be accomplished within the NCAA, Bowlsby added. While secession from the NCAA by the money leagues is a romantic notion, it's terribly impractical. Setting up an entirely new governing body would be a massive undertaking. Schools can agree that they fundamentally disagree on certain issues and stop trying to live in harmony without a complete break.
At issue is Division IV, or, probably more realistically, a new subdivision within Division I containing the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC and possibly the American Athletic Conference and Conference USA. Currently, Division I is subdivided into the FBS and FCS in football. Let's call the proposed new subdivision the F$S. Bowlsby also suggested the creation of federations within the NCAA to make unique rules to govern each individual sport. This is intriguing but complex. The simpler solution is a new subdivision for football, which is where the greatest differences between haves and have-nots exist.
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130722/big-12-bob-bowlsby-ncaa/#ixzz2ZpM9iTit
This could get really bloody. Does this mean that Condem's Hawkeye's join the Catholic league or the MAC??
