One way to reform college sports: Turn long-shots into no-shots by creating superconferences

Davidson's Stephen Curry, 2009.

Tampa Bay Times writer Michael Kruse sees the solution for the hypocrisy of college athletics in the creation of four 16-team superconferences, a division of the 64 haves from the world of have-nots.

That would allow schools that can't regularly compete for national championships in football and men's basketball to separate the academic and athletic missions of the institutions.

As Kruse writes:

The creation of superconferences would let all the other schools — nos. 65 to 300-plus in the Division I hierarchy — basically stop trying to keep up with the Joneses and get back to more responsible athletic expenditures in a system that looks more like Division III.

He further contends this would help most schools — those outside the athletic elite of his new world — focus on their core mission: Educating students. Without this, he suggests, those have-nots will continue throwing good money after bad.

"Big-bucks lightning strikes are college sports' alluring illusion," he writes. "That's all they are. The vast majority of even Division I schools lose money."

Kruse writes and intriguing essay, albeit one that suggests a system that, had it been in place in 2009, would have denied Stephen Curry and Davidson, Kruse's alma mater, a run to the NCAA basketball tournament's  Elite Eight and a moment on the national stage.

But hey, if four superconferences get us a football playoff ...