I\'m not all that concerned over a new wave of independents.
Over the last 40 years the trend has been for independents to JOIN conferences - not the reverse - for exactly the reasons Garvin points out. Prior to the BYU announcement the roster of independents participating in Div 1/FBS was down to three schools - Notre Dame, Navy and Army. Just last year folks on this board were discussing whether Notre Dame should drop their NBC deal when its term was up and join the Big 10 from a pure dollar perspective.
To put some numbers behind this, over 51 schools have tried the independent route since Div 1A was established in 1978 and we are now down to four remaining independents. Some of those "failures" were big names that have since joined BCS affiliated leagues (Miami, Florida State, Penn State, South Carolina, Va Tech, Boston College, (ahem) Rutgers, etc) For a trip down memory lane there\'s a full list on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Divisi...nt_schools
The BYU experiment will be illustrative over whether "going independent" has become a feasible option and I imagine several AD\'s will be watching. But the BYU experiment may not be conclusive. There are unique drivers, not all of which are monetary, in BYU\'s move that you don\'t see at other major universities (religious/church tie-ins, driving viewers to the BYU network, built in national following as with ND, etc).
Even in BYU\'s case they are leaving the WAC (and its weak TV contract) to go independent - leaving the PAC would be a very different story.
Over the last 40 years the trend has been for independents to JOIN conferences - not the reverse - for exactly the reasons Garvin points out. Prior to the BYU announcement the roster of independents participating in Div 1/FBS was down to three schools - Notre Dame, Navy and Army. Just last year folks on this board were discussing whether Notre Dame should drop their NBC deal when its term was up and join the Big 10 from a pure dollar perspective.
To put some numbers behind this, over 51 schools have tried the independent route since Div 1A was established in 1978 and we are now down to four remaining independents. Some of those "failures" were big names that have since joined BCS affiliated leagues (Miami, Florida State, Penn State, South Carolina, Va Tech, Boston College, (ahem) Rutgers, etc) For a trip down memory lane there\'s a full list on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Divisi...nt_schools
The BYU experiment will be illustrative over whether "going independent" has become a feasible option and I imagine several AD\'s will be watching. But the BYU experiment may not be conclusive. There are unique drivers, not all of which are monetary, in BYU\'s move that you don\'t see at other major universities (religious/church tie-ins, driving viewers to the BYU network, built in national following as with ND, etc).
Even in BYU\'s case they are leaving the WAC (and its weak TV contract) to go independent - leaving the PAC would be a very different story.
In 1938 Neville Chamberlain declared "Peace in our time", Superman first appeared in Action Comics, Seabiscuit beat War Admiral ....... and C.a.l last won the Rose Bowl.