Texas athletic director gives thoughtful take on breaking away from the NCAA

If any collegiate empire has the sway inside the NCAA, it’s the University of Texas. Athletic director Chris Del Conte broke down what college athletics would look like if every Power 5 conference school decided to break away from the NCAA governorship and what it would mean for the future of Group of 5 conferences.

“There’s 1300 institutions that belong to the NCAA Division I, II and III, they govern to the lowest denominator, because the lowest denominator has the most numbers, because you get voted on every bill,” Del Conte said. “So part of the problem is you’re constantly saying ‘what’s good for Texas may not be good for Trinity [University], or may not be good for Willamette University, or may not be good for whatever school.”

For instance, the NCAA Tournament only generates $2 million in revenue to the Longhorns athletic program per year. For other schools, that might be the entire athletics budget throughout the school year. To Del Conte, that number is minuscule compared to other aspects of his program’s budget. If teams were to break away, those small schools wouldn’t have any outside NCAA funding.

While Texas is one of those schools considered a Goliath of college athletics, they haven’t met that same expectation on the field/court and they do financially.

“I just don’t think you’ll ever see real transformational change, because think about it in our state [Texas]. If there’s two schools that get to go here … everyone’s relatively playing each other in the same league, we can be semi-peaceful,” Del Conte said. “Out from the great state of New Mexico, if you took New Mexico in one league, and New Mexico State and the other, it’ll cause mayhem inside the old governor’s house here I mean, so the more that you can try to create governance within the overall structure … there needs to be … practical rules.”

With the luxury of being in a state with many other major conference teams comes the ability to improve their facilities, enhance travel options, give young athletes the exposure they want, etc. is a major reason why Power 5 schools likely won’t break away from the NCAA anytime soon, according to Del Conte.