The Super Conference
It’ll inevitably happen in the near future. 32 college football teams will break away from the NCAA and their former conferences to create a new entity. But who’s in the thirty two? Going from east to west kinda:
1 VaTech 2 UNC 3 Clemson 4 USC(east) 5 UGA 6 UF 7 FSU 8 Miami 9 UTenn 10 UWV 11 PSU 12 OSU 13 UM 14 MSU 15 ND 16 Bama 17 Auburn 18 LSU 19 UW 20 Iowa 21 Mizzou 22 Arkansas 23 UT 24 TAMU 25 OU 26 Neb 27 Colo 28 UCLA 29 USC(west) 30 Cal 31 Oregon 32 UW
About 20 are no brainers, the others I kinda used either stadium size or geography. Swaps?
There's already only 2 conferences left. The SEC and B1G, going by revenue figures. By 2024 B1G will hit around 80 mil in yearly payouts to schools, SEC around 90+ mil, as they just added Texas and Okie, and continue to grow as they dominate the Top 25 AND recruiting.
That's more than double the ACC or P12 yearly payouts. Pac 12 has a shit TV deal that isn't going to improve much, ACC can't negotiate their even shitter deal until 2036. Think about it, U of Southern California or U of North Carolina will get almost 500 million less every ten years than Vanderbilt. And that's why the B1G is desperately trying to get into the New York and Atlantic market. We need to match the SEC revenue figures if we want to survive long term.
Soon the cream of the crop of the ACC and P12 will get raided mercilessly by the B1G and SEC. Public land grant flagship universities like UVA, UNC that add new eyeballs will be the prime targets. I guarantee you schools like Miami, FSU, NCState are already begging the SEC to be let in.
IF the SEC wins, they will only cherry pick the cream from the ACC, P12, B1G. it will be Michigan, OSU, Penn State, and a few other flagship public universities that get invited to join them. That's the end game.
The only way for the B1G to get momentum is to raid the Pac 12 NOW. Their TV grant of rights end in 2024. USC is already pissed at the tiny TV revenue. Tradition be damned, invite 2 of the California schools, Oregon, Washington and Arizona. Be proactive. Add them while the cultural fit is still there, before the SEC starts making so much money culture doesn't matter any more. Ideally we'd invite UNC and UVA, but the TV grant of rights go on till 2036 in the ACC
Riiight. Because Clemson plays in the SEC.
When the SEC starts cherry picking the ACC, Clemson won't be high priority. They will first add North Carolina, Virginia, one of the Florida schools.
South Carolina is a small market, and the SEC already has the flagship public university.
The only thing that matters is how much revenue per school. Adding Clemson doesn't increase that much at all no matter how good they've been.
So basically it's just a list of the biggest programs?
The fact that the SEC only added Texas and Okie. If they get UVA and UNC, Penn State is next if the revenue gap grows
It's still early but it's beginning to look like the SEC...then everyone else.
Ha, that little girl showed no mercy!
Did she put it in reverse after running over him the first time?
Reminds me of when Richie Aprile took down Beansie Gaeta
Man, I really want to see how this plays out.
Definitely not the little guy.
Nothing runs you over like a Deere sista.
Hospital visit after that or no? Taking bets.
How about Mom/Dad just filming the whole thing, not pulling the camera down to say "no! don't do that!"
I bet they kid tested that toy, just hard plastic, not too heavy, no er visit.
I know that I am getting old because while watching that video the only thing I could think is...
"What kind of F'd up parents must they be to sit there and just video tape this instead of, you know, stopping the sister from bulldozing her brother."
Must be a peach of a household if stuff like that is allowed to go on......
but gotta be tik tok famous.
Could've been an older sibling filming it.
I'm all for poaching a couple bluebloods (ideally some combo of ND, USC, UVA, UNC, and Duke) and making a 16-team superconference, but I don't see how any conference can realistically get larger than 16 teams.
For football, 16 teams would probably break into four, 4-team pods, with a division consisting of two pods. A nine game conference schedule, 7 against the other teams in your division and 2 cross-divisional games. The teams in each pod would stay the same, but the pods would realign each year to create new divisions and guarantee that all teams are playing each other at least once every 3 years. Obviously, you'd try to group rivals in the same pod, but you could maybe have some protected inter-pod rivalries. The math would be hellish but I'm sure the Big Ten could work it out.
Basketball would be easier, but there'd be even fewer home-and-aways than there are now.
But once you get past 16 teams? I don't see how that works, especially for football. You probably have to have an even number to divide into divisions, so 18 would be the next step. 18 isn't divisible by 4, so you couldn't do the pod system. Two 9-team divisions? Assuming a round-robin within your division and a 9 game conference schedule, that's only one game against the other division each year. Nine years to cycle through the other division. Potentially meaning only one battle for the Little Brown Jug in a decade. No thanks.
I think four, 16-team superconferences is the more likely endgame, probably with the Big 12 being cannibalized by the others. Unfortunately, that probably leaves us with underwhelming additions like Kansas, ISU, Ok St, etc.
Imagine the SEC adds 4 more teams. Michigan OSU, USC and North Carolina. They'll just remain two divisions and have a championship game.
If they go to 24 teams? Maybe 2 divisions, maybe 4, reduce an OOC game. Maybe add a 4 team playoff even, which will generate ginormous amounts of revenue.
HOW the teams are divided doesn't matter once you have the cream of the crop, and each school is getting 120 million plus dollars per year.
What I think will happen is we'll wind up with at least one super-conference that consists of two divisions where the teams in one division only rarely play the teams in another. The SEC and B1G are getting close to it as is, and if the SEC adds Texas and Oklahoma they will be very close.
Does it actually make any sense? Probably not, except from a marketing standpoint. The only real advantage (potentially, at least) is the conference championship game.
People have joked since the last time the B1G expaneded about adding another six teams to the B1G, then putting Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska and all the new teams into the other division. At times it doesn't sound so bad.
SEC isn't interesting in sharing the United States. They are absolutely going to raid the SEC, the Pac12, and eventually the B1G.
Long term we're in a fight to the death unless both conferences revenue projections are similar to each other.
Public land grant flagship universities like UVA, UNC
Those aren't land grand schools. They were founded long before the Morrill Act.
Va Tech and NC State are land grand schools.
Who is "we" though? We (Michigan) need to care about Michigan first, the B1G a distant second. And Michigan can do whatever it wants, as long as "we" the fans keep offering our attention the way we do. So even if the B1G falls meaningfully behind the SEC or some other mega-conference, that conference will be waiting with open arms for Michigan.
I think it's more likely to be 4- 16 team leagues. Midwest/North East, South East, Southwest, Great Plains/Pacific. It makes more sense. Two divisions per league. 7 division games, 3 interdivision crossovers, 2-3 intradivision crossovers. Division leaders play for league championship. League champions play 4 team playoff for National Championship.
I think we're past regions having any significance IMO. This is soon going to be just like European soccer super league concepts- it's all about marquee TV matchups for as large a possible a TV audience. People under 40 don't watch network TV anymore, they're also more likely to watch a 'big' national game over some regional rivalry.
Think NBA, where a guy in some New Hampshire backwater industrial town or a guy in downtown Miami both wanna watch the game pitting Lebron against Giannis over some local game.
The simple reality is that Michigan vs Alabama, Ohio State vs Oklahoma, Texas vs Florida..all are going to draw better all over the place than Michigan vs Northwestern or Ohio State vs Minnesota or Alabama vs Mississippi St for that matter.
And remember, it's those nationally important games that drive up NIL prices and thus make a school more attractive to recruits.
OK. First, the NBA Finals had 2 of the leagues big young stars pitted against each other and, quite possibly, it's worst ratings in modern history. Second, the number of Americans who care about elite soccer is roughly the same as those who care about the WNBA. Fans want to see their teams play AND they want to see huge matches. Third, no matter whether people want to watch or not, content is still needed. You can't go from constant games from noon to 2AM on Saturdays, plus a featured Friday night game. To 32 teams duking it out.
The NBA finals featured two teams that most casual fans weren't really very familiar with..that's why ratings went down. The same way a Baylor vs UCF CFB playoff final would draw a lot less than an Alabama vs OSU one.
But that actually speaks to my point - the casual fan audience looks for big names, big brands. The more you're involved in that kind of thing as a team the bigger your profile gets. In other words, it's a perpetual the rich get richer machine. You need a high profile to be good, the better you are the bigger your profile. I'm not approving of it, I hate it really, but it's a reality.
In a super conference, you can have conference games start at noon, 3 pm, 7 pm, and heck put in a team in a non-Eastern time zone on at 10 pm. It's not like people currently can watch 5 games in each time slot, they gotta make a choice. And if their team isn't playing they typically choose the top national game with the big names.
Not me by the way, I'm the guy who watches Pitt vs UVA or something while LSU vs Bama is on (I try to not watch SEC football).
OK. But, you're the guy who used Giannas as an example. I agree that big names draw eyeballs. I just think that out of all the CFB teams, there's only about 12 true blue bloods. (PSU, Clemson, Nebraska, Michigan, ND, OSU, Bama, Texas, A&M, Georgia, USC, LSU) And even those teams won't draw if they've been down for a while. (Michigan now, Bama before Saban, Nebraska now, Clemson before Dabo) With 4 super conferences you could still have 2-3 weekends set up specifically for cross conference matchups. I see 7 division games, 3 cross division, 2 cross conference (which could be set up in the off-season, like the NFL, for the best matchups.) 1 conference championship, and 2 national championship playoff games for a max total of 15 games.
Im going to assume u meant TEXAS not A & M
The NBA finals featured two teams that most casual fans weren't really very familiar with..that's why ratings went down
I don't know you can attribute it to just that.
The Finals were played in mid-July, a month later than normal. July is normally a pretty dead time for sports in this country.
Also, there is a segment of the fanbase that has been upset with the league for embracing BLM.
I'm with you milhouse!
We’re past regions because Texas and Oklahoma are joining a conference with Missouri, Arkansas, Texas A&M, LSU and the Mississippi schools? When was the last time you looked at a map?
I just threw together a 64 team super conference. This is based on competitive teams and regions:
EASTERN:
1. BC
2. 'Cuse
3. WVU
4. Maryland
5. Pitt
6. PSU
7. Louisville
8. Kentucky
9. Cincy
10. VA
11. VA TECH
12. UNC
13. NC STATE
14. Clemson
15. South Carolina
16. Rutgers
MID WEST:
1. OSU
2. UM
3. MSU
4. ND
5. NW
6. Minn
7. ILL
8. Indiana
9. Purdue
10. Wiscy
11. Iowa
12. Iowa St.
13. Neb
14. Mizzou
15. Tenn.
16. K-State
SOUTH:
1. FLA
2. FSU
3. MIAMI
4. UCF
5. Georgia
6. GA Tech
7. Bama
8. Auburn
9. Ole Miss
10. Miss St.
11. Ark
12. Houston
13. Baylor
14. Texas
15. A&M
16. LSU
WEST:
1. AZ
2. ASU
3. Boise
4. BYU
5. Cal
6. Colorado
7. Oklahoma
8. Okie St.
9. Oregon
10. Oregon St.
11. Stanford
12. UCLA
13. USC
14. Utah
15. Washington
16. WSU
That's what I got.
No Duke?
No. No Duke. Duke football sucks. The bottom of 3 conferences could be dropped, but I can't see how a 60 team super conference is much better. Maybe you could replace K-State with Vandy. But, Vandy was only decent during the Frames Janklin era.
How is Tennessee in the midwest but not UK? UK is closer to every Big Ten school than UT is.
OK. First, I put this together at 1AM. So, it's not like I've been working on this for months. (I literally forgot to add Tennessee and tossed them into Midwest purely to balance conferences.) Secondly, there's no perfect solution. I guess I'd probably move Cincy to the Midwest and Tennessee to the east. Having said that, I think there's an argument to be made for keeping Cincy, Louisville, and UK together since all 3 are less than 2 hours from each other.
Fuck all that. I'd rather follow MTG.
KU is now begging that the B1G will take them. They do have a top basketball program but I think they are behind NE in academics. It also rumored that ISU wants to join the B1G. I think ISU could and be the main rival to Iowa in the west division. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. the rest of the big 12 may end up in the pac 12.
If people wonder why the SEC is eating the B1G's lunch this is why. As B1G supporters are concerned with academic integrity the SEC just goes and grabs the highest profile programs and watches the ratings, prestige and money roll in. At some point we're going to have to come to grips with the fact that when it comes to sports, academics are largely irrelevant.
I consider myself a pretty avid college football fan. I watch every Michigan game and then try to watch as many of the marque games during the week as I can. I want to watch the big time marque games. When Oklahoma plays Georgia I'm going to watch the game. I have no idea what either of their school's academic standing is and I couldn't care less.
People don't seem to really grasp what just happened with the SEC adding Oklahoma and Texas. We're now on the outside looking in. We've for all intents and purposes been relegated to second tier status. The only way we stand a chance to stay relevant on the grand scale is if the B1G goes and adds some heavy hitters. That means schools such as Notre Dame, Clemson, USC, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon ect. The end game here ends with 1 of three options: 1. 2 super conferences basically consisting of the SEC+ and the B1G+. 2. One mega conference that Michigan finds themselves in a position of hoping to get invited in to. 3. The SEC adds a couple more heavy hitters (Florida St., Clemson, Note Dame, Miami) and lets the B1G and Pac 12 piddle away into obscurity.
If we're going the way of a super conference, I would try to do this from the Big Ten:
1. Sweep in the whole original Pac 8, USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State. Leave the inland teams to combine with the rest of the Big 12.
2. Kick out Nebraska and Rutgers. This would leave the conference with 20 schools.
3. Stop there, or expand to 24. Two divisions of 12, or three divisions of 8. Three divisions would work out fine with a sound collection of conference tournament layouts for each sport.
4. If they expand to 24, add Virginia, UNC, NC State and Notre Dame. Just pay off the holders of the ACC grant of rights contract to end it.
5. Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Vanderbilt, Tennessee are all interesting backup plans to those first four.
6. Stop there or expand to 32 schools with four 8-team divisions.
7. If they expand to 32, pull in the southern part of the ACC (Miami, FSU, Ga. Tech, Clemson, Va. Tech, Duke) plus Pitt and keep Rutgers.
8. Collecting a nationwide super conference such as this would pull some long term power away from the SEC and result in an extremely resilient group capable of making boatloads of money and winning boatloads of championships without descending into the neediness that dominates the deep south schools.
Here's my super conference
- Tim
- Bob
- Bill
- Brandon
- Stewart
- Charlie
- Dee
- Dennis
- Mac
- Frank
- Cricket
- Ricky
- Julian
- Mr Lahey
- Randy Bobandy
- Lucy
- Sarah
- Sam
- Cyrus
i see my name listed above. Thanks for picking me in the super conference.
You're welcome Randy Bobandy
Is that Cricket Green? Love me some Cricket Green!
Big City Green is must watch tv
Sub out Rickety Cricket for Bill Ponderosa and add the McPoyles and this is gold.
Pondy is the best
Please don't leave out Gail the snail, she can mash it up with the best of them.
Ridiculous. Why would the SEC do this ?
ESPN... Follow the money.