I wouldn't leave the schools/conferences out of that equation, granted they are the ones that make up the NCAA. They are just as complicit and equally want to profit, which I really don't have a problem with when you look at things. It could be like the basketball contract where the NCAA basically gets everything, and the schools get very little.
Small Rant, and many disagree wirh my opinion on the Bowl games and money over tradition.
Not directed at you, but I think many people believe mo money is always a good thing. More money has been good but has also led to Keeping up with the Joneses and a lot of waste. The big school athletic environment is multi million dollar facilities everywhere, while the smaller school resemble nice High Schools. Title IX creates a lot of debt, and those sports that lose money at big time schools also have multi million dollar facilities. This is television I realize, but don't give them the store.
I believe that the prospect of paying players keeps the NCAA (institutions) chugging a long at a slower pace than they could. They do not want to pay players, so they attempt to implement new things in stages
My biggest gripe has been the erosion of the prestige and tradition of the decades old Bowl game system. I was for leaving their good name and incorporating in a playoff. The smaller bowls, bring back the names that brought identity to the games, like Georgia and the Peach Bowl(
ESPN was to lazy to include the sponsor's name and kept referring to the game as the Peach Bowl, or the Citrus Bowl, so the corporations did what they promised not to do and nixed the historic name of the Bowl and made it a corporate Bowl). Make sure that the major Bowl games are always a part of the playoffs and do what the networks always preach when it comes to contracts and games, Diversity. No one network should own the rights to everything. That is ripe for corruption and we will see it.
I am in the minority big time
I love tradition
maybe too much.