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By Andy Staples Jul 29, 2021
166
The Wheel Of Realignment is spinning again, and boy do you ever have questions. …
When the aborted Super League idea came to prominence in soccer, people talked about what a CFB Super League would look like. True or false: When discussing conference realignment, if your school is not a potential Super League team, then no one is looking to add them to their conference. — Craig
The answer is true, but with a few caveats.
First, don’t use only the list from my Super League column from the day the soccer clubs proposed their (since-abandoned) idea. I included only 15 schools because that’s how many soccer clubs were going to be in the actual Super League. If there were a college football Super League — made up of the programs TV programmers really, really want — the number would be larger. It probably would contain 30-40 schools.
Second, this doesn’t mean no conference would want a school that isn’t in that group. It means it wouldn’t make financial sense for the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 or SEC to add a school from outside that group because it ultimately would cost existing members money when the league divides television revenue. I realize those are the conferences most fans would want their teams invited into, but there are other leagues who play good football but don’t make the galactic sums from television that those leagues make. And yes, I realize the Big 12 is still making a ton of TV money at the moment, but that changes the second Oklahoma and Texas leave.
So let’s try to populate the list of schools that any conference should want. Remember, this isn’t based necessarily on on-field performance. It’s based on what TV programmers would want in their inventory. …
Alabama
Auburn
Clemson
Florida
Florida State
Georgia
Iowa
LSU
Miami
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Oregon
Penn State
Tennessee
Texas
Texas A&M
USC
Virginia Tech
Washington
Wisconsin
That’s 24 locks. These are the schools that any league should take if that school wants to come aboard. Of course, 15 of these are in the Big Ten or the SEC and two are moving to the SEC. The other seven are in the ACC or the Pac-12, and if given a truth serum, their leaders probably would say they’d be better off in the Big Ten or the SEC.
That doesn’t mean that would be the entire list if some kind of Super League did form in college football. There is an equal number of teams not on that list that could make a compelling case. But they’d have to do some convincing. The same goes for schools trying to get into the best conferences now. If you’re on that list, someone probably wants you. If you’re not, you’ll need to do a lot of politicking.
I was listening to ESPNU today and Dalen Cuff and his partner didn't have us in their top 30.
On the Wheel Of Realignment, there are 24 super schools in the inner circle for TV programmers: Dear Andy
By Andy Staples Jul 29, 2021
The Wheel Of Realignment is spinning again, and boy do you ever have questions. …
When the aborted Super League idea came to prominence in soccer, people talked about what a CFB Super League would look like. True or false: When discussing conference realignment, if your school is not a potential Super League team, then no one is looking to add them to their conference. — Craig
The answer is true, but with a few caveats.
First, don’t use only the list from my Super League column from the day the soccer clubs proposed their (since-abandoned) idea. I included only 15 schools because that’s how many soccer clubs were going to be in the actual Super League. If there were a college football Super League — made up of the programs TV programmers really, really want — the number would be larger. It probably would contain 30-40 schools.
Second, this doesn’t mean no conference would want a school that isn’t in that group. It means it wouldn’t make financial sense for the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 or SEC to add a school from outside that group because it ultimately would cost existing members money when the league divides television revenue. I realize those are the conferences most fans would want their teams invited into, but there are other leagues who play good football but don’t make the galactic sums from television that those leagues make. And yes, I realize the Big 12 is still making a ton of TV money at the moment, but that changes the second Oklahoma and Texas leave.
So let’s try to populate the list of schools that any conference should want. Remember, this isn’t based necessarily on on-field performance. It’s based on what TV programmers would want in their inventory. …
Alabama
Auburn
Clemson
Florida
Florida State
Georgia
Iowa
LSU
Miami
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Oregon
Penn State
Tennessee
Texas
Texas A&M
USC
Virginia Tech
Washington
Wisconsin
That’s 24 locks. These are the schools that any league should take if that school wants to come aboard. Of course, 15 of these are in the Big Ten or the SEC and two are moving to the SEC. The other seven are in the ACC or the Pac-12, and if given a truth serum, their leaders probably would say they’d be better off in the Big Ten or the SEC.
That doesn’t mean that would be the entire list if some kind of Super League did form in college football. There is an equal number of teams not on that list that could make a compelling case. But they’d have to do some convincing. The same goes for schools trying to get into the best conferences now. If you’re on that list, someone probably wants you. If you’re not, you’ll need to do a lot of politicking.
I was listening to ESPNU today and Dalen Cuff and his partner didn't have us in their top 30.
