They only did it because they lost VT, Miami and BC the year before. Tranghese is a guy who came up with Dave Gavitt building the Big East into a basketball league, they only went into football reluctantly and only added to stay afloat. Sure, they're guilty of grabbing schools to do that, but they're bit players and have been purely reactive. I don't think he's a hypocrite to lament this fate.
I have defended all that in the past, making the same argument you're making. I have a difficult time doing that now given what I've seen over the last 12 months and over the last couple in particular.
I agree - I don't necessarily disagree with him. Just pointing out that he was participating in that system and not complaining about it when he was feeding on other smaller leagues.
When you're inside the business, you do what you must to survive. Can't fault him for that. When you're on the outside, you can say what you want...
The ACC is only raiding them to prevent themselves from being raided too - it's essentially just a much smarter reactive move. This move doesn't appear to be one that's going to make the ACC far richer per school - it just prevents them from getting weaker. Besides which, it's not like the Big East didn't want all the money that comes with TV deals. They royally screwed up by rejecting a $1 billion TV deal last year because they thought they could get substantially more next year by being the last of the TV deals to be renegotiated. They were and are just as greedy as everyone else. The difference between the SEC and them is that the SEC is more powerful and more attractive. The same as the difference between them and C-USA. The NCAA chose not to have oversight of football by not having a playoff and letting the conferences run amok. If they simply would institute an 8 or 16 team playoff, they'd have control of the money like they do with basketball, and they'd be able to dictate policy more.
But he was though, Tranghese was extremely vocal when they first got raided (more so because of BC than Miami and VT) in 2003 and denounced it as a horrible thing for the sport (again, he's a basketball guy). As part of his obligations to the conference and its schools, he then added some lesser schools from non-BCS conferences to maintain the BCS lifeline (he would have been fired or the Big East dissolved otherwise). Read the full interview with Tranghese, his view of the world was that basically conferences should have stood pat in 1990, then evill football and its cash hoards took over. You can lambaste him for many things, but being a reckless conference expansionist probably isn't one.
LMAO -- what percentage become professional football players? Don't they develop other options through (hopefully) a college degree? Many of these student-athletes wouldn't have a chance at attending these schools on their own non-football merits, either.
That's a nice polly-anna perspective, but let's be realistic here. We know most of these kids are being exploited. It's a broken system on a lot of levels. The myth of the "student-athlete" is baloney, and has been for some time now.
You have included no logic to support your claims and I disagree with your claims. How can you "exploit" a student athlete by giving them a free education that sets them up for life to be a productive wage-earner? All for playing a game?
You have a very simplistic, outmoded, and unrealistic view on this subject. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/
Actually yeah, the present value of a few joke classes that you cheated on is 0. Anyhoo, let's assume it's not - so you're saying they're employees/independent contractors who are receiving value in exchange for labor?
whoa, a lot of editing going on there, chap get your logic together and let me know when you're ready to talk without insults.
And we'll conclude this batty exchange with a few quotes from the father of the modern NCAA in his memoir:
Universities make millions off football players. They use them to subsidize other student athletics programs. EA Sports uses their likeness in video games. TV networks use them to market games. If you bring in revenue you're entitled to a share. It is slave labor. The rich get richer. The slaves, they well, slave away practicing, traveling and attending mandatory functions. While others profit. If I was a college football player and had the option of being paid or getting a scholarship, I might consider taking the money and paying my own way. The way things are now... if I was a talented freshman RB I'd even consider sitting out the rest of my college career after my first season to protect myself for the NFL.
