FAUX AMATEURISM IS DEAD.

That's long been the Cold Spring Shops position on College Sports.  "Big Time College Sports has more to gain than to lose by shedding the fiction of Amateur Sport that having the Ivies or the Horizon League providing that veil of innocence."  Sooner or later pretending that it's not about money when it is about money will catch up with the commissioners.  "College Sports version of railroading, with the UP Conference, the BNSF Conference, the CSX Conference, and the NS Conference running the big tournament with the CN Conference and the CPKC Conference selling wins, I noticed that College Sports, Inc., was a money suck."

Outside the Beltway's James Joyner recently read a number of articles, some from the realm of jocksniffery (who knew that On3 also refers to some sort of sports marketing thing?) and some from the realms of Cosmopolitan Media.  Ultimately, those sources lead him to the conclusion that inspired the title of my post.

Aside from carving out a Title IX exception for the big revenue sports, which will be vital to saving the so-called Olympic sports, I doubt we’ll see much on that front. [Congress intervening — Ed.]

I expect and hope to see some sort of super league for college football. Not only would it make sense financially, but it would also solve many of the other ills in the college sports landscape.

As much focus as we’ve seen on court-ordered player empowerment—their ability to get paid and transfer schools and play immediately—the thing that has been most damaging has been the destruction of historic regional conferences as schools have scrambled to maximize their share of television revenue for football. While that’s fine for big-time football, where teams play five or six road games a year, all in the fall semester, it’s been a disaster for sports with longer schedules, especially those that cross semesters. While Rutgers football can fly from New Jersey to Los Angeles once every few seasons to play USC, it makes no sense for their women’s softball or men’s lacrosse teams to do the same.

In my ideal world, the most successful 32 or 48 football schools would form a new football-only league and we could then restore a more regional look for all the other sports. Even men’s basketball pales in comparison financially to football and the lion’s share of the revenue it does generate in through the NCAA tournament, which thrives on regional conferences. While it will never happen, a European football-style relegation and promotion system would be a lot of fun, giving schools who missed the super league cut hope of getting there one day.

It’s also worth noting that, while talk of “amateurism” and “student-athletes” was quite rightly met with derision long before recent developments with regard to the highest levels of college football and basketball, they remain apt for the overwhelming number of collegiate sports. Even at the Alabamas, USCs, and Ohio States of the world, those who participate in the other sports subsist on partial scholarships, small stipends, and are full and true participants in the student body. And, at schools outside maybe the top 50 or 60 football and basketball programs, it’s true even in those sports. With rare exception, players at Troy and Appalachian State will hang up their uniforms for the last time at graduation.

That shrinkage of college football to 32 to 48 teams would solve a problem that Beer 'n Circus sometimes encounters, namely more bowls on the schedule than eligible teams to play 'em.  Among the controversies to be taken up later: the ability of hot girls in non-revenue sports to trade on their images.