🏀 KuBuckets Archive

After KU sleeped walked to 20 point win vs Nebraska. The wheels in the old and crusty mind began to turn. They truned so hard the cat jumped and left the room and the dog began to bark nonstop like it had seen a ghost.

What in the world has happened to College sports? What has happened to our love affiar? There was a time being a stundent athlete really meant something. It meant you were apart of something. It meant a chance at an education that you might not otherwise reciece. Most of all it meant tradition and family. What happened?

KU and NU have been playing each other every year for over a hundred years. Not anymore. KU and MU's rivarly was up there as one of the best. Now we don't even look at each other. OH how money has changed so much of what we used to love. I know we want to blame Texas in our world of thinking, yet this is bigger than Texas. Yes even bigger than Texas.

After the KU vs NU Game I channeled surfed for a bit and seen WSU and Oklahoma trading punches. Why can't the Shockers trade punches in the so called Big 12? Why can't Boise St. trade punches in a big time conference?

Money it seems is trying to shorten the list of big time programs, yet in the process it is killing some very great matchups, and pureness of the college athlete and college sports. Why is this? Every year the NFL draft is full of kids that didn't play in the so called power 5 conferences. Every year a star is born in the pros that didn't play at a power 5 conference.

Remember the old big East? Not much in football but just crazy in basketball. Gone like an ancient relic and why? Remember when Maryland played in the ACC? Remember when NU was a Big 8 team?

Oh we as KU fans are happy because we have a seat at the big boy table. Yet are we really happy? We are one big conference shake up from watching our brethren Kansas St. fall into obscurity. Sure they don't know it and deny and deny. Yet we know. We all know. KU has something they don't have a national brand. Our basketball.

I know the money tells guys like me to shut up and just be happy. And maybe I should. Just be happy that no matter what happens KU is going to be in. Yet as a fan it kind of saddens me. How long before money destroys the ncaa tournament, laying it wagers on a all big boy tournament?

Just a couple cents I have.

Nice post. I enjoyed reading it. Money leads to a lot of evils.

World Series games ending at 11PM or even later without extra innings.

East coast hoops teams starting home games at 9 Eastern time on a school/work night.

The whole OAD phenomenon.

Creighton playing in the Big East. St. Louis in the Atlantic 10. Missouri in the SEC and Rutgers in the Midwest League, better known as the Big1G. And my favorite, Chicago State in the Western Athletic, a league that at one time included a team from New Jersey.

Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz wasting their year of college trying not to get hurt.

Drew Gooden deciding the money of the NBA was worth more than staying one more year and winning a national championship.

The Yankees throwing 86 million at a man a year removed from an arrest for domestic violence.

Cats and Dogs, living together.

@DoubleDD

I am totally on board with your post.

Unfortunately, it is hard to address this without looking at the broader picture of capitalism.

I love capitalism, especially when comparing it to communism. But capitalism leads to a very ugly ending if it goes without substantial regulation. This is where I get into those sideways arguments with many friends. If anyone wants to see non-tethered capitalism, just study old, feudal Europe. What will be our "renaissance" once the reins of our lives are completely controlled by just a few? We aren't far from it now.

Even though I constantly bark at the NCAA for screwing up just about everything... without a governing body, D1 would vanish immediately into something much worse. Imagine Lebron James deciding to take a class in basket-weaving at Kentucky and becoming eligible for the next decade because Calipari gives him more money than the Cavs will?

The days of college rivalries are quickly coming to an end. I'm surprised we are even left with the Army/Navy game today.

What I can't believe is the shortsightedness by so many. Schools like Mizzou... thinking like corporate execs trying to appease stockholders for the next week by cutting their own throats in the long run. No wait... I forgot I was talking about Mizzou. A more realistic comparison is they thought like meth heads in need of a dime to score a hit.

How much money was that Kansas-Missouri rivalry worth? Let me put it to you this way... priceless. Too bad bean counters don't know how to feed "priceless" into their calculations. That IS the real problem here. These rivalries are priceless, and are both tangible and intangible. Accountants are left-brain thinkers. In order to assess intangible properties one needs to be a big right-brain thinker. It takes creativity to realize the real potential of these rivalries. And not everything can be pointed down to exact dollars within a program or school.

Missing Mizzou is like missing the stomach flu. Antlers are a plague on humanity. They are a scourge on the universe. And I am the last man on earth that ever wants to see another Tig anywhere. However... I have come to realize just how much we lose by not having a real rivalry any longer. KSU doesn't count.

Look at OU. Everyone in the Big 12 is worried we are going to lose OU. Would these fears exist if Nebraska was still in our conference? Doubtful.

@drgnslayr

I'm afraid I have to disagree on the capitalism theory. To me capitalism is letting those to big to fail, to fall. Capitalism to me is indeed about the underdog, the lesser being if you will. I chance for a man or business to cut a piece of the pie for themselves.

What is happening in the NCAA is far from Capitalism. It's more like politicians afraid of losing power they never really had. Just glad KU has a seat at the table with all this greed. I would hate to see the real history of basketball go to the way side with this movement.

@DoubleDD

Your description of capitalism is the description I like. But I've learned that to be the beginning and middle of capitalism. The end is when it is monopolized into the hands of just a few. Regulations are needed to keep it from falling into just a few hands. Keep it at the level you describe. Opportunities for all, including the little guy.

I don't know... yes, Kansas is sitting at the table, but what happens if the legs of the table turn to straw? I think we have to fight for the little guy. When it is no longer really possible for the little guy to win, we all lose. And how boring will it get, if it just becomes a sport for Kansas, Kentucky, Duke and one or two other teams?

I know I'm cheering for teams like UCLA. Get something from the west coast on the radar screen again. Make all those east coast sports media wonks stay up late to watch basketball. In this case, variety is the spice of life.

Look at how a team like Alabama football is so dominant that they are quickly turning the electric game of college football into a one-dimensional game; Alabama, permanent National Champions. Okay. It hasn't come to that yet, but how far away is it from becoming that? At what point does every single top player just want to play at Alabama? I think if Alabama won 5 NCs in a row, the game would lose a ton of viewership.

@drgnslayr

Your are correct. We have to root for the others. It's our saving grace as the true fans of college basketball and fans of College sports in general. Basketball started with KU and we must be the ambassadors of the game.

(( A tip of the cap ))