From: don.p.del.grande@gmail.com   
      
   > > Now, real chance (at least IMODO) that at least one of the remaining four    
   > > schools drops it's athletic program completely.   
      
   > There is zero chance that happens. They may drop to a lower level but will    
   > not completely eliminate.   
      
   "Drop to a lower level?" He's not talking about just football; he's talking   
   about all sports. No way any of these schools ends up in Division II, much   
   less get rid of all of their sports, or change them all to "club level,"   
   whatever that means.   
   Cal and Stanford are far too entrenched in the "minor sports" to drop them.   
   Cut a few, maybe - back in 2010, Cal tried cutting its baseball, women's   
   lacrosse, and men's and women's gymnastics programs (all four of which   
   currently exist) - but certainly    
   not the one thing that still brings in money; men's basketball.   
      
   There's a slim change Oregon State or Washington State could drop their   
   football program, and a slightly less slim chance one or more of the four   
   drops down to FCS and joins the Big West.   
      
   Men's basketball...pardon me while I look something up...   
   Normally, when a school leaves a conference, any shares of the Basketball TV   
   money that it earned remain with the conference. However, according to the   
   NCAA Bylaws, once a multisport (as opposed to something like the CCHA)   
   conference drops below 7    
   schools, it has 2 years to get back to 7, or its remaining shares go to the   
   teams' new conferences.   
   Assuming none of these four teams gets into the NCAA tournament in the next   
   few years (and the last time any of them did was when Cal and Oregon State got   
   in in 2016, although I think Cal was one of the "first four out" in 2017),   
   that's about $10.9    
   million in 2025 and $9.25 million in 2026.   
      
   Also, the NCAA is probably sweating about whether Cal and Stanford can keep up   
   their mens' gymnastics programs, as there are already so few schools that   
   support it that any defections could mean the NCAA no longer conductiong a   
   championship for it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)