Imo it becomes less complex, and regional, as you consolidate top brands into a P2 of north-south polarization. Better product identification, more hate too.
A P2 of 48 of the biggest brands is a big tent. Outside of a few grandfathered in franchises, it hits on the largest areas of and removes redundancy. There just are not many Iowa State types in the other 20 that are being culled- most don't have enough non-casual viewers that will emotionally protest cancel for there to be a loss of interest in that area. An even Iowa St, advertisers will get into Iowa just fine with the hawks. Networks will count on a lot of hate watching in these situations.
Yes, what you’ve described is exactly what I was referring to as the “engineered” system.
My conjecture here is that the cornerstone is consensus.
Based on that what I find particularly amusing is that collectively college football is so ostentatiously traditionalist, but behaving in comically ahistorical fashion now.
Balancing consolidation of power/money against the necessary quorum to produce a viable consensus isn’t going to be easy.
If there is an opening to generate clicks or viewers or subscribers or whatever can be monetized by undermining that consensus then I’d wager it will happen.