re: NCAA is Dead…

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actually it was in fact UGA, and OU, that first took the ncaa down, with tv rights back in the 1980s.

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This is the truest statement. this is where big money got involved. ABC and CBS were the college football networks but were able to fill time with soaps, comedies, movies, news, etc. In 1979 here comes an all sports network in ESPN that had no rights to really anything. ESPN could show replays of college football on Sunday afternoon but could not even use the original broadcast and have ESPN announcers such as Jim Simpson essentially recall the game that had already been played. ESPN spent time showing billiards, some F1 racing, some NASCAR, the Davis Cup, etc. No live NFL, no live college football. They showed Big East basketball and the CWS. The ruling in 1984 gave control to conferences to negotiate with ANY network and ESPN, to their credit, jumped on college football immediately in the fall of 84 showing "live " games. Then ABC and CBS joined in shortly after with the BiG and Pac 10 going to CBS soley followed by NBC with the massive contract Notre Dame got and ABC taking the SEC, SWC and ACC (without contractual agreements) . Bidding wars started in the 90's that got out of hand. The NCAA had zero control over a Supreme court ruling and basically now was in the business of sanctioning teams for violations instead of running the sport of intercollegiate athletics. Then, The ripple effects of the O'Bannon case were the fatal blow that we see today.