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GLENDALE, Ariz. — The prevailing trend in college sports is for the rich to get richer – more money and more trophies for the five major conferences, a Darwinian consolidation of power in the hands of 65 schools that have all the advantages.
But if Gonzaga wins the college basketball national title Monday night, you can consider it a noteworthy counter-trend. It would mark two straight years in which schools that don’t feed at the big-time football revenue trough win it all. Last time that happened was 1984-85 – well before football became the 800-pound gorilla it is now.
Villanova, which won it last year, plays football at the FCS level. Gonzaga hasn’t played football since World War II.
“Undefeated since 1941,” chirped Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth Friday, while his basketball team went through its Final Four open practice at University of Phoenix Stadium.
“The football conferences do have a lot of resources,” Roth said. “But we can compete, and we can compete on a national level on an annual basis. The Final Four helped validate what we always believed.”
If you’re at all averse to corporate gigantism in college sports, a Villanova-Gonzaga double would be a welcome development. The idea that a mid-sized Catholic school in Philadelphia (enrollment 10,800) and a smaller Catholic school in Spokane, Wash., (enrollment 7,400) can win at the highest level without the athletic departments being enriched by hundreds of millions of football dollars is a refreshing one. It breathes life into the notion that not all championships can be bought.
More: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-dav...225749016.html
But if Gonzaga wins the college basketball national title Monday night, you can consider it a noteworthy counter-trend. It would mark two straight years in which schools that don’t feed at the big-time football revenue trough win it all. Last time that happened was 1984-85 – well before football became the 800-pound gorilla it is now.
Villanova, which won it last year, plays football at the FCS level. Gonzaga hasn’t played football since World War II.
“Undefeated since 1941,” chirped Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth Friday, while his basketball team went through its Final Four open practice at University of Phoenix Stadium.
“The football conferences do have a lot of resources,” Roth said. “But we can compete, and we can compete on a national level on an annual basis. The Final Four helped validate what we always believed.”
If you’re at all averse to corporate gigantism in college sports, a Villanova-Gonzaga double would be a welcome development. The idea that a mid-sized Catholic school in Philadelphia (enrollment 10,800) and a smaller Catholic school in Spokane, Wash., (enrollment 7,400) can win at the highest level without the athletic departments being enriched by hundreds of millions of football dollars is a refreshing one. It breathes life into the notion that not all championships can be bought.
More: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-dav...225749016.html
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