Evolving College Football …

According to recent reports, the powers that be in the Big-10 and the SEC want to expand the College Football Playoff field to either 14 teams or 16 teams depending on which report you read and when you read it.  I am already on record as opposed to expansion beyond 12 teams; and, in fact, I think the field should shrink to 8 teams.  I know that “shrinkage” is not going to happen and I know that the allure of added revenue from added games in the CFP tournament will rule the day.  Nevertheless, I think this is a bad idea.

But that is not the limit of the bad ideas related to that subject.  Additionally, the poohbahs in the Big-10 and the SEC want each of those conferences to get 4 guaranteed slots in the CFP.  Granted, it is a small data set but look at the recently completed CFP with 12 teams and ask yourself what might have happened with four teams each from the Big-10 and SEC in the field.

• The SEC sent 3 teams – – Georgia, Tennessee and Texas.  What worthy team was left out?  Alabama?  South Carolina? Ole Miss?
• The Big-10 sent 4 teams – – Indiana, Oregon, Ohio St. and Penn St.  Indiana played a patty-cake schedule and did not belong in the CFP field despite its record.  So, who should have replaced Indiana?  Illinois?  Iowa?

I don’t care how many teams are selected, they need to be the best teams available and not entered into the playoffs by any sort of quota system.  It is not a flattering image for college football if it embraces quotas and distances itself from being a meritocracy.

That situation is bad enough, but I think there may be an even more ominous movement afoot in college football.  Remember a couple of years ago when the feeding frenzy on the PAC-12 completely obliterated any semblance of regionally-based conferences in college sports; I said then that it might not be long before the elite schools in the Big-10 and the SEC with maybe a school or two from elsewhere broke off on their own and formed a Super Football Conference.  I also said at that time that I did not think that would be a good thing for college football or for college sports as a whole.  Well, the idea of putting quotas on CFP invitations is a step in the direction of creating that Super Conference.

Let me deal with reality here.  There already exists a hierarchy in college football.  Just as in medieval times when there were lords and serfs, so too is there a divide in college football.  Forget your allegiances and alumni memories for a moment and watch college football games.  Is it not blatantly obvious that an SEC showdown game involves better players than a MAC game on a random Tuesday night?  In today’s world, there are a couple dozen schools who routinely attract more top-shelf players than the rest of the Division 1-A schools.  The talent is not evenly dispersed; it never has been; it never should be.

However, if college football goes thorough another paroxysm of realignment where – – for example – – the following schools leave their current conference affiliation and form the “Super Football Conference” (SFC), the TV money will preferentially go to the SFC teams; less money will go to the remnant teams in the conferences abandoned by these teams and even less money will go to the minor conferences:

• Leaving the Big-10:  Iowa, Michigan, Michigan St., Penn St., Ohio St., Oregon, USC, Washington, Wisconsin
• Leaving the SEC:  Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M
• Leaving the ACC:  Clemson, Florida St., Miami
• Leaving Independent Status:  Notre Dame

Pretend for a moment those 24 teams formed the SFC.  Even allowing for each team to play a game outside the SFC, they could put together a schedule for TV network consumption where every weekend of the season there would be a menu of intra-conference games involving these teams.  Or … you could tune in to see games involving teams that are the remnants of the current conferences or games involving teams in the Sun Belt Conference or possibly Conference-USA.  Where do you think the TV money would flow in that situation?

There is a huge disparity in the amount of NIL money that schools can spread around to accumulate players for their teams; the sort of TV deal that the SFC could command would make the current disparity look like a level playing field.  And there is another potential motivating factor here:

• The NFL ought to love the idea of creating the SFC.

Scouting is a major undertaking and an expensive undertaking for NFL teams.  Concentrating the better players on a smaller number of teams will save NFL teams time and money – – always a plus for the owners – – and it will allow teams to observe potential draftees playing against the best competition that is available at the collegiate level just about every week – – scouts and GMs ought to love that.  Why is that important?  In the world of football, whatever the NFL thinks is a good idea has a leg up on success.

The NFL enjoys a situation wherein it has a “minor league system” that costs the NFL nothing.  Colleges provide training grounds and the exhibitions for the players who will be drafted into the NFL and perform there to grow the league.  College football has already moved away from any sort of idealized state where it pretends to be something other than a business; college football is minor league professional football; like it or not.

The SFC that I have imagined here would simply make it the Triple-A analog of football’s minor leagues and relegate the rest of the conferences to Double-A status.  How one might incorporate the UFL into that minor league structure is an exercise left to the student.

Finally, let me close today with these words from Hall of Fame linebacker, Dick Butkus:

“When I played pro football, I never set out to hurt anyone deliberately – unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………