Market Power

"Academics vs. Athletics: Career Concerns for NCAA Division I Coaches"

Here is the abstract to a new NBER by Christopher Avery, Brian Cadman, and Gavin Cassar entitled "Academics vs. Athletics: Career Concerns for NCAA Division I Coaches."

We analyze the promotions and firings of NCAA Division 1 college basketball and college football coaches to assess whether these coaches are rewarded for the academic performance of their players in promotion and retention decisions. We find that an increase in Academic Progress Rate, as measured by the NCAA, for a college team in either sport significantly reduces the probability that the coach is fired at the end of the season. We find little to no evidence that an increase in the Academic Progress Rate enhances the chances of advancement (in the form of outside job offers) for these coaches.

Here is the link to the working paper.

Excessive Pasta Violation

It seems that the University of Oklahoma has self-reported an excessive pasta violation:

But wherever the NCAA's rulebook has a say, the merely inane will inevitably be topped. And so we present to you this anonymous-sport classic, which if the NCAA is ever granted a tombstone, will surely be etched upon it:

May 10, 2013

Violation: Three current student-athletes received food in excess of NCAA regulation at a graduation banquet. The three had graduated from the school but returned for an additional season of competition. The players were provided pasta in excess of the permissible amount allowed. Resolution: The three were required to donate $3.83 each (the cost of the pasta serving) to a charity of their choice in order to be reinstated. The department provided rules education to applicable athletics department staff members.

As NCAA bylaws expert John Infante has pointed out on Twitter, this particular tasty tidbit isn't necessarily a case of NCAA rules gone loco as much as "uncommon vigilance" on the part of an Oklahoma compliance department doing some preventive maintenance in the event of a larger investigation.

This is a tasty story, and one worthy of a belly-load of snark, but I think Infante's comment explains this:  it's a CYA move just in case.

Mizzou-Arky: An Emerging Rivalry?

Joe Walljasper on an emerging Mizzou-Arkansas rivalry.

I was a little skeptical of this idea of a manufactured rivalry. 

Games between MU and Arky in basketball (especially) and football, to me, have the makings of a natural rivalry.  A natural rivalry is one that fans of both sides buy into without a sales job from the football coach, basketball coach, athletic director etc.  It's one that the fans "feel" on the inside.  It's organic.  The schools' administrations can always try to "manufacture" a rivalry top down, but if the fans don't accept it in their hearts, it ain't no rivalry.  Knowhatimean, Bill McCartney?

I'd use an analogy of the price in a perfectly competitve market, or say something about emergent order, but that would be too econogeeky.  

A lot of little things over the past 20-30 years have happened in MU-Arky football and, especially, basketball games that makes fans think "I want to get back at that team for x" where x is some event that fans may care about.  x might be the 52 point thumping Arky gave Mizzou back in 1993 to christen their then-new Bud Walton arena.  x might be the obvious one with Mike Anderson.  x might be the beatdown the Chase-Daniel led near NFL-team crushed the supposedly superior Hogs in the 1998 Cotton Bowl, a team with some fine talent of its own.

A MU-Arky rivavlry would never have the history behind the MU-Kansas rivalry, a history that generated a hatred in many fans of both teams.  Say what you will about hate, but that hatred made that rivalry special    But on the other hand, MU-Arky doesn't have the feel of the manufactured rivalry between Nebraska and Colorado in the later stages of the old Big 8's days.  

To me, and I speak only for myself, it has the feeling of a natural rivalry.

A Day in the Life of the Big XII

This looks 'shopped.

Does Mizzou Have Options in Conference Realignment?

Yes.

Clay Travis over at Outkick The Coverage believes the SEC will woo Missouri to become the 14th team:

Sources say that Missouri is attractive for many reasons. Chief among them: it opens a new market -- a primary goal of the SEC as OKTC has informed you throughout -- provides entree into St. Louis, the nation's 20th largest television market, and Kansas City, the nation's 31st, and it's an AAU school, a point that can't be lost in the conference expansion race. One of the selling points on A&M's addition to SEC presidents was that it would increase the academic prestige of the conference, becoming the SEC's third AAU school after Vanderbilt and Florida. 

There's also the belief that Missouri's addition would allow the SEC to take a step firmly into the Big 10's turf and keep the Big 10 from expanding in this direction at any point in the future.

It may be a long shot, but I wouildn't be surprised to see both KU and MU go to the Big 10.  It would shore up the two big metro areas in Missouri as Big 10 territory and it would block the SEC's movement into St. Louis.  Plus both schools are AAU members which fits in well with the rest of the conference (save for Nebraska which recently lost its AAU membership).  Then there's the still fresh rivalry between MU and KU, especially between MU and KU in basketball and MU and NU in football.  The latter wasn't of OU vs. NU proportions, but was turning into a nice rivalry).

I'm not making this prediction, but am just stating that this move wouldn't surprise me.

Neil Sedaka on the State of the Big XII

 

Bi XII Demise Links

Here are a few links on the death throes of the Big XII that I ran across this morning before my 8:00 class.

Chip Brown of Orangebloods:  A&M Acceptance to SEC Contingent on Waiver of Litigation.  From "sources" according to Brown's Twitter feed, so take it with a grain of salt.

Sam Mellinger of the KC Star:  Will the Heartland Even Exist in the New College Sports Landscape.  

Blair Kerkhoff of the KC Star:  Texas A&M's Invitation to Join SEC Could Come Today.

Berry Tramel of the Daily Oklahoman:  Longhorn Network Might Be Dissolved Along With the Big 12 Conference.  Well, they say you reap what you sow.

The only thing I can see keeping the Big XII in tact is Texas giving up a lot of its political power in the conference and agreeing to more equitable revenue sharing, which may include revenue generated from the Longhorn Network.

Big XII Demise Links

Here are a few links about conference realignment rumor mill.  Perhaps all these rumors we're hearing are nothing more than strategic statements made in the midst of high-stakes negotiations.  And where's Dan Beebe?

Vahe Gregorian of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  As Big 12 Shrinks, Schools Scramble.

Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  Big 12 Doing Little to Save Itself.

Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star:  Football Coaches Can't Avoid Talk of Realignment.

Tom Keegan of  the Lawrence Journal World:  Kansas Will Stay in the BCS.

Cole Manbeck of the Manhattan Mercury:  Currie:  Goal to Strengthen Big 12.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News:  BCS Football:  Realignment Update (Pac-12 CEO's Don't Want to Expand). (new link)

Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  Tipsheet:  Big 12's Farewell Football Season Should be Fun.

Big XII Demise Links

Here are today's Big XII's death links.  Before I get started, it seems everyone is following the model Kirk Bohls wote about late last week  That model had OU taking the lead in seeking other options, moving to the Pac 12, and Texas appearing to attach their coattails to OU.

Blair Kerkhoff of the KC Star:  Breaking Up the Big 12 is Not a Collegial Act.  "'How many conferences is Texas going to destroy?'  'Everyone it joins.'"

Berry Tramel of the Daily Oklahoman:  Like Texas Last Year, Oklahoma Taking Lead Role in Conference Realignment.

Kirk Bohls:  9 Things and 1 Crazy Prediction.

Terrence Stutz and Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News:  Texas Legislature Considers Involvement if Shifts Threaten Survival of Big 12.

Pete Thamel of the New York Times:  The Key Player in the Pac 12's Expansion Outlook:  It's Texas Again.

 Chip Brown:  Source:  Longhorn Network can be Reworked for Pac-12.  

Chip Brown:  Sources:  Texas Being Told to Slow Things Down.  Litigation if realignment occurs?  This, folks, is what happens when a league dissolves into a prisoner's dilemma game.

Jimmy Burch of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:  Lawmakers May Step in if 'Horns Choose Pac-12.

Jimmy Burch:  LHN Could Become Part of a Pac-16 Move if Texas Chooses that Option.

Gil Lebreton of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:  After a Dizzying Weekend, Big 12 is in a Death Spin.  Hey.  I thought it was Missouri's fault for batting eyes and showing its knees when the Big 10 said last year that it was available for a hook-up.

Robert Cessna of AggieSports.com:  UT Claims A&M Had Chance to be Part of a Network.  The bickering among schools - at least that which appears in the press - reminds me of sandbox arguments between children.

Rober Cessna:  A&M, UT Need to Move On.

Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle:  Suddenly, the Longhorn Network Could Be One of the Best Things That Ever Happened to the University of Houston.

Chrirs Day of the Stillwater News-Press:  Oklahoma State Explores its Big 12 Options.

And for those interested in a little history of the now-defunct Southwest Conference:  A Look Back at the Southwest Conference.

Big XII Demise Links

Here is a roundup of links regarding the seemingly impending demise of the Big XII.

Joe Walljasper of the Columbia Daily Tribune:  The Big 12 Receives its Last Rites.  Joe blames Texas.

Phil Miller of The Sports Economist:  More Death Throes for the Big XII.  Shameless Self-Promotion.

Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star:  KU AD Disappoionted in Oklahoma Talk.

Chris Fickett of the Kansas City Star:  Pinkel Says Big 12 Has "Some Issues Other Leagues Don't Have".  Pinkel mentioned conference commissioner Dan Beebe specifically, but isn't the big issue the Texas-centrist politics and economics within the league and, more specifically, the Longhorn Network?

Mike DeArmond of the Kansas City Star:  Alden Worries Over Big 12 Instability, Backs Pinkels Comments.

Kellis Robinett of the Kansas City Star:  John Currie Talks Realignment.  Currie is Kansas State's AD.

Vahe Gregorian of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  Alden Worried About Oklahoma Comments.

Associated Press:  Missouri AD:  Oklahoma's Comments Reinforce the Notion of Instability in Big 12.

Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  As Big 12 Nears Death, MU looks for Life Elsewhere.

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News ($$$):  Signs Point West, But UT's Dodds Likely to Decide Big 12's Fate.

Chuck Carlton ($$$):  What Happens if Oklahoma Leaves?  The Big 12 Dies.

Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News:  Pac 12 Expected to be a Power Broker in Realignment Talks.

Associated Press:  OU President:  Decision on Whether to Leave Big 12 Coming Soon.

Berry Tramel of the Daily Oklahoman:  OU's Sole Focus Now on Joining Pac-12.

 Leagues are cooperatives and when a cooperative works well, according to game theory, the members act to improve their joint welfare (the ol' Nash Solution).  But cooperatives are inherently unstable because of the incentive to cheat on the cooperative, and there needs to be some kind of enforcement mechanism to keep the cheating from happening.  If there is no mechanism, the situation falls into a prisoners' dilemma type of game.  That seems to be where we are at now, and all signs point to Texas being the one that cheated. 

Maybe, just maybe, everything that's going on in the Big XII right now will encourage Texas to work together with the other schools to bring stability back to the Big 12, and maybe encourage Texas A&M to stay.  Texas will not have the power in a conference like the SEC, Big 10, or Pac 12 that it has in the Big 12.  It may have to share pooled media revenues equally with all other conference members and have equal say in political matters.  It may not be able to have its Longhorn Network, the cancer that threatens the entire conference, or it may be forced to strip down the content that can be shown on the LHN.  Or, horrors, it might be forced to share revenue generated by the LHN.  

And maybe conference middleweights like Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Missouri, and Kansas have been diligently working behind the scenes to improve their options so they will have something to fall back on if the Texas and Oklahoma bolt.  Tech and OSU probably have the best options since most observers are predicting them to join OU, and maybe Texas, to the Pac 12.  Better options give strength in negotiations.

It's a long shot, I know.  But I'm trying to be positive here.