Realignment In D1A Football Is Getting Closer.....

The actions of Tulane and now Vanderbilt are going to see to it that this split occurs rapidly. It seems that the "have-nots" of the college football world have appointed themselves as the "moral compass" for the "haves" of the D1A football world.

Tulane on one hand, is out there attempting to lead some sort of
confederation of non-BCS schools for their version of "reform" of the BCS because they have been excluded from automatic inclusion into the BCS. Tulane is actually attempting to blame the current BCS for many of its' own financial problems even though Tulane has been losing money "hand over fist" in its' athletic department for DECADES. Hypocritical to the end, Tulane just two months ago was embroiled in an internal investigation regarding
whether Tulane would even continue playing football at the 1A level or drop to possibly the Division 3 level. Now after Tulane has decided that it will grace D1A football with its continued "greatness", Tulane is attempting to lay blame for its' own poor decisions regarding its' athletic department (and specificly its' football team) at the feet of the rest of D1A football.
This presumes that Tulane's problems were and are caused by
the current BCS alignment. The truth is that Tulane suffers from a lack of a local fan base, poor coaching hires, pathetic marketing, and from being a traditional doormat of a football program. The only thing that the other D1A schools did to harm Tulane was to play them and continually kick the living daylights out of the Tulane football team. Any money that would be gained by Tulane after dividing it with the rest of CUSA, the MAC, WAC, Sunbelt, and Mountain West Conferences, in any redistribution of BCS money would do little to ease Tulane's financial problems as they relate to football. It would simply be far too small a figure.

Now there is Vanderbilt, yes Vanderbilt which hasn't won an SEC
game since the year 2000, which is getting on its' high horse and
attempting to lead college football down the path of getting rid of its' athletic department. They are now certain that this is the way to go in an attempt to put athletics into what they consider proper perspective. The hypocritical part is that Vanderbilt still intends to remain in the SEC and as they put it "compete at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics". Are you friggin' kidding me or what? If Vanderbilt was sincere about this they would
drop out of D1A football altogether and perhaps apply for membership in the Ivy League. The SEC should look at this position taken by Vanderbilt very closely. Vanderbilt may need to be need to be given a "come to Jesus" speech or possibly shown the door by the SEC.

The net effect of these types of hypocritical actions by the "have nots" of the college football world will do nothing but widen the gap that already exists between themselves and the major football schools. The sooner the NCAA starts enforcing the tighter
D1A requirements for football the better. If not, the major schools with be forced to leave the NCAA for their own survival. The time is coming where it will be time to say good-bye to many former D1A members. Tulane and Vanderbilt will certainly be two of the schools which need to fall by the wayside. I think that this day is coming sooner than many may think.

 

Thats telling like it is, Stripes. Vanderbilt won't quit the SEC voluntarily. In spite of their new sanctimonius attitude they still like getting that big fat check every year when the SEC divides up the TV and bowl money. The SEC certainly dosen't need them. There are plenty of other colleges who would be lining up to take their place who would contribute a lot more to the SEC as a power conference than Vandy ever did. Louisville is almost at major status now in football and has had a great basketball program for years. Florida State would be my first choice to replace Vandy but I'm sure they wouldn't leave the ACC where they have dominated and even with the addition of Miami and Virginia Tech next year they won't face the kind of brutal competition they would in the SEC.

If the Commodores don't want to play they shouldn't get the pay.

 

Excellent points all around! Couldn't have said it better!

Tulane is the typical crybaby :cry: of college football. Like you said, poor decisions by their own administration through the years have led to their decline. "Don't blame others for the choices you have made."

Tulane has done little to preserve the tradition that is college football. Getting rid of Tulane Stadium was the first mistake (but that's just a biased opinion of someone that can't stand watching football played on turf--ESPECIALLY college, let alone indoors...and no, I'm not even old enough to have ever been to old Tulane Stadium).

The Dome offers little appeal for college gameday--no place to tailgate. Tailgating at Tulane games requires that you walk thru the Quarter for 3 hours before the game--Not a bad thing (and it is something that I enjoy doing)--but NOT as a means of tailgating for a game (unless it's the Sugar Bowl--where there really is no "home crowd"--then you want those people to become tourists). You want to be surrounded by football-craved, booze-fed fans....not food-craved, booze-yerning scum that could care less about football.

Their games (Tulane) are pathetic. No band. Ever want to know how important a band is to gameday? ...Just go to a game in which there isn't one. Go to a school (Tulane) that plays on turf, indoors, to a crowd of MAYBE 12,000 (on ave.) fans, in a stadium that seats 64,000, and doesn't have a band--but instead, plays their fight song over the loud speakers.

If I wanted to be a part of that crap, I'd stay my butt home and play with Tulane on NCAA 2004 and get the same effect--only difference is that on PS2, there are at least fans in the seats...That, and they have a shot at actually winning.

 

The thing that truly is ridiculous is that here is Tulane scheduling a D1AA team last week for a game at a high school stadium
(Tad Gormley) in New Orleans and it wasn't even close to being sold out. Yet, Tulane is blaming their financial problems on something like the BCS? Tulane is a joke.

 

And to think, for the better part of 10 years I thought that Tulane SHOULD play in Tad Gormley...

Guess it really doesn't matter cause, you're right, they ARE a joke.

 

The Greenies do have a point, the BCS does suck. I think a bowl/playoff in addition to the computer stuff would be cool. Also, make 3 divisions... division 1- all the major conference teams (SEC, Big 10, Big 12, PAC 10, ACC, Notre Dame, Big East), Division 2 all the other schools from the current division 1 setup.... (Tulane, San Jose State, Marshall etc...), Division 3 (the current division 2 teams. That way there would be 3 national champs per year and we never have to worry about Tulane playing Miami for the title

 

I haven't been able to sleep for weeks worrying about Tulane having to play Miami for the NC

 

Why doesn't the BCS just include all teams from all I-A conferences anyway?? I mean, do you HONESTLY think the strength of schedule for teams such as Tulane would ever put them in the top 2 spots??

I say, for all practical purposes, just say, "Ok. Fine. All conferences are BCS." There's no way, given the standard C-USA, MAC, WAC, SBC conference schedule, that any of those teams would go undefeated in the season and still rank high enough to make the title game anyway.

Look, even for a team like, let's say Louisville, with a decent team--capable of surprising some big-names, they go 11-0 or 12-0. Surely you don't think they'll vault out in front of the current BCS conference teams, when Louisville's schedule would be full of wins against the likes of Houston, UAB, Memphis, ECU, TULAME, etc--for a sweep of a schedule that 75% of it's opponents will have losing records.

 

Good idea Bahstan Bengal (Did I get the accent right? I'm watching a rerun of Cheers right now)
Just tell them, OK you're eligible now. Go out and prove you deserve it.

 

Accent was right on the money! ...I'm still hanging on to my Cajun accent...