Today’s host journalist is Andy Schwarz, an economist and companion at OSKR LLC.
There’s nothing I hate more than frequent information that is bad. Here’s a fast example: Anyone knows what the glue is that holds the energy events and the rest of the NCAA together—postseason sports. There’s no way, the conventional wisdom says, that 60- something football schools could break away and stage a men’s basketball playoff with anywhere near the excitement of the NCAA’s trademarked ( literally ) March Madness tournament.
Without Cinderellas from the one-bid conferences, the enjoyment of the first rounds will evaporate, and the money may simply not be there for the soccer powers holding a basketball tournament, may every sports radio host in the nation tell you.

Invalid.
It hurts me to have to be the one to explain this because it is really so simple for the electricity universities to do so, but here we go. Imagine that the ACC, SEC, Big XII, and Big Ten would dissolve their respective divisions at the conclusion of the current academic season and establish a four-conference football league while also hosting another competitions. And let’s say they want to level a playoff basketball tournament featuring institutions like Duke and North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee, Houston and Kansas, and Purdue and Illinois, just to get two highly rated team from each of these four meetings.
Do you believe that TV managers might swoon over the possibility of having these right? If CBS had to contend with this new point, does CBS be a little concerned about the rankings of their men’s college sports competition (you know, March Sadness that most of the good clubs just left )? Would it be cruel that all the Cinderellas were given a unique game than all the Kings Charming?
Well, see, they would n’t have to. Breakaway institutions can organize their tournaments in any way they choose. They may make it an tournament, and encourage teams from the meetings that got left on. And those institutions likely say yes.
Let’s suppose the new game decides to go with a 64- group structure, because that’s what fans are used to, particularly if they forget to enjoy those Dayton games. Think they develop a method of certification for 40 of their own teams, and perhaps even awarding six automatic bids to each of the four conferences, before handing the rest to a committee of basketball experts like they currently do. Joe Lunardi might just have to pick them up and cut out the middleman.
Finally, for the remaining 24 universities, the new tournament—or its TV partner—sends a$ 10 million give to every school subject- winning class from the 24 Division I workshops not included in the big event secession. This is just about what they get now, so that typically, a school in a one- bid conference gets about$ 1 million per year, because they share with the other schools in the conference. The rump D-I tournament will not be as valuable once the big dogs all leave, so$ 10 million per year for the entire conference will look pretty good in comparison to what the NCAA will be paying out once the “wait, you do n’t have Duke anymore” rule is implemented. a knock-on effect occurs.

So the breakaway four pay$ 10mm x 24 schools =$ 240mm. And you’ve replicated the$ 1 billion March Madness system, except that now the four conferences ( and conference commissioners ), control the other$ 760mm.
OK, radio show host blowhard, I know what you’re thinking. A requirement for the NCAA is that you attend if you are invited to their tournament. OK, sure, but who votes on those rules? The conferences and their members.
Do you really believe those conferences will impose a rule that would impoverish them all, just to keep some bureaucrats in charge once March Madness is nearly as limited as the P4 Invitational? Money talks and bullshit walks, as Bobbi Flekman once said, and B. S. rule will go straight into the trash when its value surpasses that of compliance.
In an effort to “fight back,” the remaining NCAA schools might go out of their way to shoot themselves in the face in March. The fight will end when CBS discovers a way to claim force majeure and stop paying for Destiny’s Child once Beyoncé left or, at the latest, when her current contract expires. The only thing I have in mind is whether the D-I left-backers would figure this out quickly enough to earn money right away, or would they follow the NCAA rules and fight reality until it was inevitable before losing money along the way.
I ca n’t promise that the schools would be wise about it because it has happened. They might not be ready for this jelly. However, I can guarantee that there would be enough money to allow the breakaway schools to host Cinderella at the ball, even with out Charlie Baker and those crazy laws against off-brand drinking cups.
And yes, I’ve once more presented a straightforward but practical business concept ( my previous one was that athletes should be compensated for NIL while still promoting sports ). For a consultant, I make some pretty bad business decisions. But if somehow this explanation does n’t make sense, I do work by the hour so, you know, call me for a good postseason time.
Andy Schwarz is an economist specializing in antitrust, class actions and damages analysis. He has worked as an economic expert on numerous state and federal cases, as well as as the plaintiffs ‘ case managers in O’Bannon v. NCAA and Alston v. NCAA. Schwarz is proud to sell his board game, Envelopes of Cash, which is only available in limited quantities here, in addition to his consulting work with OSKR.