The expansion began in 2013 and is likely to accelerate over the next few years thanks to the new Taiwanese government’s backing for companies to diversify away from China and venture into countries like the fast-growing Philippines.įatter margins and burgeoning middle classes are two of the prizes, although they come with risks such as tough foreign ownership restrictions and competition from established players like Singapore’s DBS and ANZ of Australia. What’s lucrative now arguably won’t be in the future as fans lose interest in what used to offer an incomparable regular season.TAIPEI, May 25 (Reuters) - Taiwan banks led by CTBC Financial and Fubon Financial are looking to step out of their comfort zone into newer markets in Southeast Asia, as the domestic economy slows and growth peaks for the $1.2 trillion-asset banking sector. Here’s hoping college football similarly gets wise. Here’s hoping the SEC gets wise about the long-term and ceases expansion precisely because it wants to remain the SEC. Maybe so, but is it the long-term greedy approach? The speculation here is no. Of course, the old bowl system was long ago scrapped with money in mind, and thus began the long march to an expanded playoff system that some say will be incredibly lucrative. “Champions” weren’t “settled on the field,” but guess what, they haven’t always been reasonably crowned in the BCS or playoff system if readers really stop and think about it. The games happened, after which passionate debate began. Five conferences respectively playing each season for the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Rose Bowl. Which brings us back to the way things used to be: the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, SEC and PAC 10. College football used to be a single elimination tournament where ever week mattered, but between superconferences and expanded playoffs, the do-or-die excitement of the sport is threatened. College basketball presently has a 64 (or 68?) team playoff that makes the sport interesting in March, but much less watchable before then. Ok, but be careful what you wish for there. To the above, some will say that the SEC’s expansion will merely necessitate what similarly naïve college football fans have always wanted: an expanded playoff system. the man who revived his career in Saban….), but that will lose some of their luster if more and more of the teams are part of the same grouping.Īfter which, what’s going to become of the playoff system assuming one conference (the SEC) is populated by so many of the teams that routinely appear in the playoffs already? In order to placate all of its members will the SEC stage its own playoff, or just fully break itself into two in order to crown two SEC champions? College football fans have long naively claimed that a playoff would “settle on the field” the matter of the best college football team, but how could even the SEC settle such an argument with sixteen teams? Who beat whom? Which is the best conference? Superconferences will shrink the exciting inter-conference scenarios that are easy to imagine now (Texas vs. These games drive immense interest in a sport whose popularity is fueled by debate. Arguably the most exciting aspect of college football each season is the inter-conference matchups that usually precede conference play. That it’s not, and that it certainly won’t be assuming a 16-team conference, will create obvious long-term problems. With each addition to the conference, this is less and less the case. With its smaller size, each SEC team generally had to beat every other conference opponent in order to win the championship. Particularly when the SEC was twelve teams (before the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri), it was always interesting to marvel at the schedule of each team within the conference.
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