Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

[CascadeClone]

If you read all of his comments, one of the main things he said is that football will break away from the other sports. I don’t know if it will but its easy to see it makes no sense completely upending all of the Olympic sports travel schedules just to create more interesting football matchups. Here is his full quote:

“We’re moving to a 35-to-40 top brands being part of something. If you just look at football in isolation, eventually conferences will matter less in a sense. If we can find a way to take football and have that be this entity here, I think then you can get back to doing some much more intelligent thinking around the rest of the sports, which should be regionally based.

“All of these moves are driven by one sport. That’s football. And the football schedule is much different than a tennis schedule or a golf schedule. So these Olympic sports, the travel looks a little bit different. … We’re not there today, but I would think in the next 10 years, that reality makes more and more sense.”

https://x.com/swmckewonowh/status/1690796812506980352?s=46&t=YTVYScwPtQ8MB39h41UKXw

I have not read the full article, but what you quote is basically what I expect to happen. It's dumb to have FB and MBB treated the same as tennis, golf, track. Like, real dumb.

TV doesn't really care if FB is peeled off, other than to the extent it lets them consolidate the brands they want to minimize costs. What will drive that more (imho) is paying players, transfer rules, unionization, healthcare/CTE, anti-trust types of issues - basically, if the sport gets more professionalized and there is a drive (by Congress, player lawsuits, whatever) to go this route. Then the colleges will kind of be forced to peel it off, or else maybe downgrade to an FCS/Div2 type of setup.

Something like this would go well with the TV money trying to create a Premier league of 20ish brands. So it could happen together if the TV money acts opportunistically.

 

[LLCoolCY]

Well this concept could get this tread back on top of the front page.

 

[Cloneon]

Well this concept could get this tread back on top of the front page.

Very interesting TX is ahead of OU with absolutely nothing to show for it. Wow! These people.

 

[keepngoal]

Very interesting TX is ahead of OU with absolutely nothing to show for it. Wow! These people.

this and also, KSU in the premier? lol.

 

[CyCrazy]

Well this concept could get this tread back on top of the front page.

Well that is a stupid opinion.

 

[MugNight]

Relegation is interesting, but I just never see it taking hold in the US where the money spent is the “ticket to the game” regardless of performance. The MLS, our pro league for the sport that embraces Relegation in the rest of the world, has been staunchly opposed to it. The entry fees to create a MLS team are so high, the teams would never risk dropping to a league with less support and money.

I feel like this attitude would be especially high for the major college football ego types. Texas would never support the risk that they get relegated. Same goes for other fallen blue bloods.

 

[CysRage]

A good read to get the real insider information of the Fall of the Pac 12 and not Canzanos spin.

Pac-12 Propaganda and the Inside Story of the Failed Media Deal

We take a look at what brought down the Pac-12 and more.

247sports.com

 

[Gonzo]

Well this concept could get this tread back on top of the front page.

And why only 16 teams in premier league?

 

[Triggermv]

 

[LeaningCy]

Not a fan of pro/rel for college football but sign me up for some version of the champions league where Bama has to go play a Tuesday night game on the campus of D3 national champion UW Whitewater.

 

[ISU_Guy]

sometime in the future there will be a short film created called "the rise and fall of college football" we just happen to be living in it right now.

 

[AuH2O]

I actually have a wild idea similar to relegation, but that utilizes the current season's results to effectively evaluate the teams vs. one another and determine who plays meaningful games at the end of the season. Rosters turn over so much in college I think this is necessary. Think about all the wacky outputs the metrics generate in college basketball when the previous seasons' results are still factoring in heavily.

Let's have 48-60 teams all in the same level competing. College football doesn't have as many large fanbases as pro sports, so we probably need lots more teams to get enough viewers for games. We could call it "Division I" or something along those lines.

Let's group those teams into somewhat regional groups that compete directly with one another. We can call them "conferences."

Then based on those results from that very same season(!) we can take the top 16 or so teams and allow them to play in a small tournament to determine the champion. We can call it a "play-off" or something like that. The name is a work in progress, so I'm open to suggestions.

 

[ZRF]

Nebraska's fortunes in the B1G have been bad for a team that was used to competing for conference championships in the Big 8/12. There has been rumbling in Huskerville for the last several years yearning to return to the Big 12 so they can get back in the national discussions. It is possible that they could choose to give up the $$ train and return to the Big 12 in order to get back to conference championships and to play for the college football national championship.

Nebraska's twelve year record in the Big 10 is 75-72 overall and 47-55 in the conference. Their record over the last four years is 15-29 overall and 10-25 in the conference.

Nebraska last finished a season in the top 25 in 2012, when they were 25th. (In 2020 ISU finished the season at 10th.)

This doesn't even make sense. They went to the Big Ten as they were sliding, it's not like the "Big 10" competition caused it.

Nobody is leaving the Big 10. It's easily the best and most stable conference in America and has been for most of it's existence. There's no monetary, academic, or real competitive reasons to leave. So why would they ever entertain that idea?

 

[Cyclonepride]

Only the Lawyers know for sure. Do I hear the plaintive cry: "Lawyer -- Lawyer" coming from somewhere in the southeastern US.......
Alternately in the scheme of college athletics, 13 years is not that long to wait.

Reminds me of this Brian Regan set

 

[HFCS]

sometime in the future there will be a short film created called "the rise and fall of college football" we just happen to be living in it right now.

If/when there is a fall it will be because BigTen/SEC marginalized the only strength college football has ever had and will ever have over the NFL.

That strength is intense connection of fans to about 70-100 university brands in various markets fairly evenly distributed across the country including many places that have never had and will never have pro sports.

Nobody ever spent 4 years of their life living at the Chicago Bears training facility and walking across the street to games, that creates an intense bond. The fact that college football has/had that in broader and more diverse markets than the NFL has always been its main strength.

 

[AuH2O]

If/when there is a fall it will be because BigTen/SEC marginalized the only strength college football has ever had and will ever have over the NFL.

That strength is intense connection of fans to about 70-100 university brands in various markets fairly evenly distributed across the country including many places that have never had and will never have pro sports.

Nobody ever spent 4 years of their life living at the Chicago Bears training facility and walking across the street to games, that creates an intense bond. The fact that college football has/had that in broader and more diverse markets than the NFL has always been its main strength.

No you don't get it!

If we get 10M viewers for Ohio State-Michigan and Alabama-Georgia, we'll just have those four teams play round-robins every Saturday! Viewership will be huuuuge every week!

Then we'll split the current FBS into 10 divisions with 8 teams each. Every football fan will pick a favorite team they religiously watch in every division because college fans also like the NFL.

I'm not sure about you, but I know I'm not just an ISU household, I'm a Vikings, Cyclones, Birmingham Stallions, St. Louis Battlehawks, Wartburg Knights, Iowa Central Tritons, Concordia Golden Bears household, and SDSU Jackrabbits fan because I'm an American and I just can't get enough football!!! I want more divisions, more teams to follow. Hopefully all on streaming so I can pay!

 

[HFCS]

No you don't get it!

If we get 10M viewers for Ohio State-Michigan and Alabama-Georgia, we'll just have those four teams play round-robins every Saturday! Viewership will be huuuuge every week!

Then we'll split the current FBS into 10 divisions with 8 teams each. Every football fan will pick a favorite team they religiously watch in every division because college fans also like the NFL.

I'm not sure about you, but I know I'm not just an ISU household, I'm a Vikings, Cyclones, Birmingham Stallions, St. Louis Battlehawks, Wartburg Knights, Iowa Central Tritons, Concordia Golden Bears household, and SDSU Jackrabbits fan because I'm an American and I just can't get enough football!!! I want more divisions, more teams to follow. Hopefully all on streaming so I can pay!

For me it's all about minor league baseball in the deep south where I have rarely been.

I love it because they aren't as good as major league players, and they play in an area of the country I have barely even visited and don't plan on visiting going forward.

 

[Scruff]

I think its time Cal/Stanford create an All-Academics League.

1. Stanford
2. Duke
3. Rice
4. Cal
5. Virginia
6. Wake
7. BC
8. GT
9. Tulane
10. Syracuse

Notre Dame can do their limited partnership thing like they have with the ACC.

UNC & Miami complete B1G20. FSU, Clemson, VT, NCSt complete SEC20. Pitt, Louisville, UCONN, and Memphis complete Big20. Feel bad for them but Wazzu and Ore St to the MWC. If TV partners say those two are better than UCONN and Memphis, then sure sub out.

 

[LonelyCyKC]

Nebraska won't go back to the Big 12 unless they get kicked out of the B1G or left out of a "super-league" (if such a thing were to materialize).

Their decline started after the Big 8 due to changes in the college football and television landscape, formation of the Big 12 (+ rule changes), and their own general mismanagement.

With a good coach, AD, and NIL structure, they could probably become a Wisconsin-like program in the B1G imo. However, it is amusing to see them be bad lol.

Nebraska's decline began when they fired Frank Solich. Their "pretty boy" coaches couldn't coach. By moving to the Big 10, they lost their recruiting base in Texas and across the south. From day 1 in the Big 10, they were ignored, not feared, and sent to sit in the back of the room. The Big 12 style of play did not work in the "off tackle right, off tackle left, repeat" Big 10. I would note that to say they are just another Wisconsin is another put down. If you slotted them into the Big 12 now, they would sit near the bottom for quality of play.

Their last conference championships were in 1997 and 1999. Their last bowl game was in 2016, as was their last winning season, and the last time they beat a ranked team. Quite a comedown for a team still ranked as the 9th winningest college team with 5 national championships and two Heisman Trophy winners in the 70's-90's.

 

[Cyhig]

I actually have a wild idea similar to relegation, but that utilizes the current season's results to effectively evaluate the teams vs. one another and determine who plays meaningful games at the end of the season. Rosters turn over so much in college I think this is necessary. Think about all the wacky outputs the metrics generate in college basketball when the previous seasons' results are still factoring in heavily.

Let's have 48-60 teams all in the same level competing. College football doesn't have as many large fanbases as pro sports, so we probably need lots more teams to get enough viewers for games. We could call it "Division I" or something along those lines.

Let's group those teams into somewhat regional groups that compete directly with one another. We can call them "conferences."

Then based on those results from that very same season(!) we can take the top 16 or so teams and allow them to play in a small tournament to determine the champion. We can call it a "play-off" or something like that. The name is a work in progress, so I'm open to suggestions.

Reminded me of this family guy clip