Quick Hit 7/21: The End of Small-Conference Football/Sports, The End of the NCAA, or BOTH?

Saw something interesting over the weekend that will probably soon be necessitated by the O'Bannon decision, even in the years before the appeals, etc., are worked out.

And if I'm right on the latter concept, that little thing you all call March Madness is DONE.


Why do I say this?


ESPN had a quirky little report over the weekend that at least one small-conference (non Big-5) commissioner has rejected what, at first glance, is the most arrogant, conceited, and misplaced proposals in the history of sports.


The problem is that the NCAA is about to (be forced to) grant new "autonomy" to the money Big-5 conferences (the ACC, SEC, Big XII, Big Ten, and Pac-12), largely as a result of what happens with the O'Bannon ruling.


Of course, today, the commissioner of the Big XII basically ended all remaining pretense by slapping down the NCAA, saying the two words that any sane sports fan who has followed collegiate sports for five nanoseconds knows:  "Cheating pays."


Bob Bowlsby has revealed, as one of a number of comments, that the Infractions Committee of the NCAA hasn't met on an FBS school in a year.


But back to the report over the weekend.


As of Sunday night, three conferences not in the Big-5 have had their commissioners shoot down one of the first proposals which appears as if it's going to be made public once the Big-5 conferences get their autonomy.


I've always said that the main reason for the BCS was to exclude the non-Big-5 conferences and schools from the football national title.


Now, it appears as if the proposal will be made to exclude them completely!  The Big-5 conferences are floating a proposal to ask/force the other conferences (as a matter of economic competition and congestion in the marketplace where every dollar may count in a world where the players get paid and can be compensated) to play in the Spring, so as not to pollute/dilute the Big-5 product in the Fall.


On surface, it might be the most asinine, arrogant, and conceited argument I've ever heard.

Sadly, it might be the first plank in what will eventually be a complete separation as the NCAA fades into absolute irrelevance and the need arises for a pro-league-led minor-league system.


It might be the first step in finally jettisoning many of these schools from the NCAA, and college sports, entirely.