UO to break from NCAA?

7/26/2011: Looks like Howard Slusher’s plan to divorce Duck football from the NCAA is gaining more traction. Sports Illustrated breaks the story. The key seems to be to make football independent, while leaving the NCAA with basketball and the non-revenue sports. The model for this is college rodeo. Many fine universities have excellent rodeo teams, controlled by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, which operates without conflict with the NCAA.

While the NCAA’s budget is $950 million, and their president pulls down ~$1.5 million, the CIRA gets the job done with a $1.6 million total budget and one full-time paid employee, Roger Walters. Roger gets $60,000 a year, no benefits. Not even a free pick-up truck?

The CIRA folks have seen plenty of bullshit close up, so their rulebook just covers the essentials, and doesn’t do PC:

The event director’s duties prior to the first (1st) performance shall be:

• Careful inspection of chutes, chute gates, barriers, and boxes to insure that they are in perfect working condition;
• Discuss with the arena director and judges the ground rules, score lines, starting lines for girl’s events, and exact location of barrels and goat stakes;
• Discuss in detail with the judges the rules for the girl’s events;
• Check timed event stock for consistency, and be certain that fresh stock is properly prepared for the first (1st) performance;

COMPETING ON STOCK DRAWN. A contestant must compete on the stock drawn for him/her unless he/she has been awarded a reride or rerun by the judges. Each contestant shall be responsible for knowing which stock they are to compete on. There will be an exception granted in the goat tying. The goat tying contestant will be awarded a rerun if they run the wrong goat.

BULLS IN SLACK AT TWO (2) PERFORMANCE RODEO. In the bull riding, there will be no double-back bulls in slack at two (2) go-round rodeos, progressive rodeos or rodeos with finals or short go, unless otherwise approved by the bull riding director.

Their major controversy has been over snuff – Skoal is no longer sponsoring the CNFR, but they are still giving money for scholarships.