BMatt’s Monday musings

AUBURN | The split is finally here, and it’s about daggum time as far as I’m concerned.

In a meeting with NCAA President Charles Baker a couple of weeks ago, commissioners from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC laid the groundwork for a new model that will include self-governance for the Power Four schools.

It comes shortly after the NCAA and its membership settled a lawsuit that will cost its members $2.8 billion and herald in many forthcoming changes including a $22 million revenue-sharing model in 2025.

All of the Power Four schools are expected to opt into the revenue sharing. Most of the Group of Five and FCS schools are expected to opt out.

Hence the split, which frankly should have come years ago.

All the details for the new governance model will be worked out in the coming months but it should include the new rules on revenue, athlete compensation, roster limits, recruiting and more.

The future of big-time college football is now in the hands of the commissioners of the Power Four schools.

And frankly, I trust them a lot more than a corrupt and feeble NCAA, which has already lost lawsuit after lawsuit and cost member schools billions, with more losses and payouts coming.

That brings me to the NCAA basketball tournament, which generates about $1 billion per year. About 60 percent of that is distributed to schools and 40 percent goes to the NCAA.

Now, there’s a lot of concern that the Power Four will take control of the tournament and that revenue from the NCAA at some point in the future.

I welcome it.

I wouldn’t trust the NCAA to run a youth soccer tournament without getting sued (and losing again).

The concern, which is just a lot of, 'the sky is falling' rhetoric to me, is that the Power Four will push aside the Group of Five and FCS schools to put more of their teams in the tournaments.

The fact is there is already a proposal within the NCAA to expand the tournament to 72 or 76 teams from its current 68. An expanded NCAA Tournament is almost guaranteed.

Regardless of what you think of Greg Sankey, Tony Petitti and the other Power Four commissioners, they’re pretty smart. They recognize the magic of March Madness.

They understand how a Cinderella run can capture the nation’s imagination and you better believe they’ll understand how much that would mean to CBS or another media partner when it comes to negotiating a contract.

The pressure is on the Power Four to generate more revenue and the NCAA Tournament is there for the taking. They should just take it.

*** Monday musings is brought to you by Uncle Keith's Red Sauce. I was a customer before bringing them on as a sponsor and I was hooked after the very first taste. It's available in original and hot and can be found in Publix throughout the state of Alabama along with select Piggly Wiggly's, Renfroe's, the Kroger's in Auburn/Opelika and on-line. Uncle Keith's Red Sauce was born right here in the state of Alabama. ***

*** GET 15% OFF YOUR ON-LINE ORDER WITH THE DISCOUNT CODE: BMATT15 ***

In today’s musical journey, we go back 69 years to the day a rock song hit the top of the pop charts for the first time ever. On July 9, 1955, “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets rose to No. 1 on the the Billboard 100 and the UK Singles chart, becoming the first rock and roll song to achieve the feat in both countries. It stayed atop the U.S. charts for eight weeks. It was originally released on the B-side of a 7-inch vinyl record that had “Thirteen Women” on the A-Side. It became a huge hit after appearing in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle, which starred Glenn Ford as a teacher at an inner-city school and Sidney Poitier as a rebellious student. “Rock Around the Clock” was written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers, and first recorded by Sonny Dae and His Knights on March 20, 1954. Bill Haley & His Comets recorded it a month later and released it in May of 1954, but it barely charted until being re-released a year later after the success of Blackboard Jungle. It returned to the charts in 1974 after being used in the film, American Graffiti, and was used as the opening theme for the first two seasons of the T.V. show, Happy Days, which ran on ABC from 1974 to 84. “Rock Around the Clock” is considered one of the songs that helped launch the rock and roll era. It was selected for preservation by the National Recording Registry in 2018, inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982 and is ranked No. 159 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Billy John Clifton Haley was born in Highland Park, Mich., in 1925 and moved to Bethel Township, Penn., in 1932. His father played the banjo and mandolin and his mother was a classically-trained keyboardist. A botched operation on his inner ear caused him to go blind in his left eye at age four. He began styling his hair with a kiss curl above his right eye to draw attention away from his left, and it eventually became his trademark look. He started playing guitar at a young age and left home at the age of 15 to pursue a music career, and by the mid 1940’s had become one of the top cowboy yodelers in the country. He formed Bill Haley and the Saddlemen and also worked as the musical director for WPWA radio, were he had a live afternoon show. The Saddlemen were re-named Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952 and they had their first hit single, “Crazy Man, Crazy,” in 1953 and another, a cover of “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” a year later. They became the first band to perform a rock and roll song on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1955 with “Rock Around the Clock.” They had a couple of other hits include a 1956 cover of “See You Later, Alligator.” Haley battled alcoholism in his latter years but continued to tour with his band until shortly before his death by a heart attack in 1981. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.