Danger, Super Conferences Ahead
Posted on June 21, 2010 by Jacob Bunn
The Pac 10 now has twelve teams, the Big 10 now has the twelve teams it needed to gain a conference championship game, the rest of the Big 12 is going to stay together as a conference, and the other conferences are not making any moves. All is finally peaceful again in the world of college conference expansion, right? Well, I would not get too comfortable. The last expansive move by a collegiate athletic conference has yet to be seen.
To gain a reasonable understanding of where this is all going and why, one must remember what is driving this movement: dollar signs. I know, it sounds like a broken record (or the same commercial played 23,876 times during an interesting sporting event). But it is really true. Money is the most impactfui factor driving conference expansion, and if these conferences think there is another path to boost revenue, they are sure to try to take it.
One way they can boost revenue is by making this super conference concept a reality. A lot of people are in favor of this idea because it is a way to get a semblance of (if I can borrow the term from Jim Mora) a "playoff" without upsetting the college presidents who simply will not stand for an all out playoff.
Can this model actually become a reality? It is a good possibility. And if it does, here is a snapshot of what I think the model should look like.
The Pac 16 would pick up four of the teams that are currently in the Big 12: Texas, Texas Tech, Kansas, and Oklahoma State. The Big Ten would gain four teams: Notre Dame, Missouri, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers. The SEC would gain four as well: Texas A&M, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Florida State. The ACC and Big East would join forces to create what would become known as the Atlantic Conference, but only sixteen teams from the ACC and Big East would form it. So, the rest would be eliminated.
Thus, we would have four sixteen team conferences. Each conference would have two divisions comprised of eight teams, and each conference would have a championship game made up of the two divisional winners.
Now, each team’s conference schedule would be made up of its seven inner-divisional opponents and three rotating opponents from the other division in the conference. The two remaining games would be non-conference. The super conferences would make up a league of their own, so conferences like the Sun Belt, Mountain West, Conference USA, etc., would no longer be in the same league. However, teams in the super conference league would be able to play one non super conference team per year. Example: One year LSU could choose to play Utah State as one of its non-conference games, but if it did, it would have to schedule another out of conference game with a team in the super conference league.
Again, this is not something that is likely to occur anytime soon. But when does "anytime soon" end? It will likely be something, though, that happens quickly. By the time it becomes public, the deals will have already been completed.
I know it is fairly complicated, but it might work. Furthermore, with all of the crazy turns the college football landscape has taken over the past several weeks, is it really that far-fetched?
Contact Jacob Bunn at Jacob@bunnsports.com
