The Wal-Martization of the NCAA Continues

If you listen long enough to Big East Conference President Michael Tranghese you may find yourself believing his rhetoric, but then again, if you listen to anything long enough you might try and make sense of it.

Maybe the sky will fall if the Big East goes the way of the Southwest Conference. And then again, maybe not.

Just look at Texas and Texas A&M. Do they look any worse after their transition into the Big 12? Of course not. If anything it has helped them raise the quality of their overall programs (in A&M's case the ante has been raised so high that R.C. Slocom's level of success just didn't measure up anymore).

As for the "lesser" schools of the now defunct league, well let's be honest, most of them really didn't belong in a conference with the Longhorns and Aggies.

The Rice's and Baylor's of this world are really fine schools, but just not competitive where it counts in comparisons with the two former heavyweights of the SWC (three if you include Arkansas).

And making for delicious irony, which conference was one of the first to get on the expansion bandwagon by plucking a program out of the ranks of "Independents?"

That would be the one and only Big East when they added Miami. They have ridden the coattails (and cash register) of the Hurricanes ever since.

However, now it's Miami's turn to sail on to another conference, along with Syracuse and Boston College and leave a depleted Big East in their collective wake.

I'm not here to pick on the Big East per se. Other conferences have made some strategic additions to their memberships, and I don't begrudge them, by all means this is a free society. But, it's worth noting the current trend in consolidating teams into larger conferences, while the lesser powers in the spurned leagues drift downward in national prominence, does follow the example of Wal-Mart.

A new "Super Center" comes to town and all the "mom and pop" stores are swallowed up in the current created by the world's largest retailer.

The boldest design on this theme was proposed by the Southeastern Conference nearly 13 years ago when invitations were offered to Florida State, Miami, Texas and Texas A&M. If you think the SEC throws a lot of weight around NOW in college athletics, geez, could you imagine that behemoth lumbering around when TV contracts are negotiated and rules and regulations are passed?

As it turned out, the SEC settled for Arkansas and South Carolina, which was quite underwhelming, especially considering the original plan.

Even the simple selection of South Carolina instead of Clemson left many scratching their heads. After all, Clemson would be a perfect fit for the SEC. It provided the same geographic boost that USC did and had the same traditional strengths that current SEC schools had. Their football stadium even looked "SEC." For that matter Clemson is known, albeit derisively as "Auburn with a lake."

Well, I've gotten off the point, please pardon the soap box.

So in the final analysis -- is the Wal-Martization of the conferences good or bad? What will the NCAA landscape look like in 20 years? Three super conferences with 20 teams and maybe 50 independents? Or maybe many more conferences with small schools being their primary make up?

Time will tell, but for what it's worth, I say if the move(s) make(s) sense -- go with them and let the chips fall where they may. As I'm fond of saying -- free markets and free people make for a good society.

If that analysis bothers you, then you're probably anxious about the prospects of seeing Villanova on aisle nine next to canned vegetables, St. John's on aisle 18 next to car accessories and Providence in the book section.