With news leaking about how the Big Ten protected games are going to shake out - which is the way that probably makes sense for this conference now - it got me back to thinking about how the Big Ten and SEC could grow into 24 to 28 team superconferences and basically break off from the NCAA.
Old ideas about taking "academic fits" kind of have to go out the window here as we're seeing college sports turn fully semi-pro. College sports are going to be less connected to the academic side of college than ever before. Even at a place like Michigan, while nominally being a student will still have to be a thing in order to maintain the tribal connection between students/alumni and players and because this still is a university after all... getting a bachelor's degree is going to be something you can and should do in your (up to) five years on campus... but no longer something that exists as anything resembling a 50/50 reason for being on campus.
This is big business, and the addition of more teams to the superconferences is going to have to go deeper than the market-size money grabs of Rutgers and Maryland. In the streaming era, growing the pie in the long term is going to be about content, which is why schools like Arizona and Kansas will likely be more appealing for their basketball programs than they were in the straight broadcast-driven media environment of 10-15 years ago.
With that in mind, here's my vision for a 24-school Big Ten and SEC.
For football, everyone would play the 5 in their division and one whole other division. For two years, say, the Big Ten North will play the Big Ten West, then rotate through the other divisions for two year home & homes. One nonconference game, which would be a de facto preseason warmup game.
The four division winners play off to be the conference champ. Then you have a college "super bowl" between the two superconference champions.
This is what it looks like...
BIG TEN
West: USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado
Central: Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Notre Dame
North: Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State
East: Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, North Carolina, Duke, Clemson
SEC
West: Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Missouri
Central: LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Bama, Auburn
North: Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia
South: Miami, Florida, FSU, Georgia, South Carolina, NC State
***
The Big Ten just rips off the band-aid and jumps on Clemson before the SEC does. In this environment, the collective link between the schools as research institutions and their athletic departments can't hold up. Clemson's a football power. Take 'em. It won't hurt anything. If top academic schools like UNC and Duke could exist with Clemson before, they can keep doing so. The Big Ten becomes a coast-to-coast entity with most of the "heritage" basketball programs and enough of the football powers to compete with the SEC.
Old ideas about taking "academic fits" kind of have to go out the window here as we're seeing college sports turn fully semi-pro. College sports are going to be less connected to the academic side of college than ever before. Even at a place like Michigan, while nominally being a student will still have to be a thing in order to maintain the tribal connection between students/alumni and players and because this still is a university after all... getting a bachelor's degree is going to be something you can and should do in your (up to) five years on campus... but no longer something that exists as anything resembling a 50/50 reason for being on campus.
This is big business, and the addition of more teams to the superconferences is going to have to go deeper than the market-size money grabs of Rutgers and Maryland. In the streaming era, growing the pie in the long term is going to be about content, which is why schools like Arizona and Kansas will likely be more appealing for their basketball programs than they were in the straight broadcast-driven media environment of 10-15 years ago.
With that in mind, here's my vision for a 24-school Big Ten and SEC.
For football, everyone would play the 5 in their division and one whole other division. For two years, say, the Big Ten North will play the Big Ten West, then rotate through the other divisions for two year home & homes. One nonconference game, which would be a de facto preseason warmup game.
The four division winners play off to be the conference champ. Then you have a college "super bowl" between the two superconference champions.
This is what it looks like...
BIG TEN
West: USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado
Central: Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Notre Dame
North: Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State
East: Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, North Carolina, Duke, Clemson
SEC
West: Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Missouri
Central: LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Bama, Auburn
North: Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia
South: Miami, Florida, FSU, Georgia, South Carolina, NC State
***
The Big Ten just rips off the band-aid and jumps on Clemson before the SEC does. In this environment, the collective link between the schools as research institutions and their athletic departments can't hold up. Clemson's a football power. Take 'em. It won't hurt anything. If top academic schools like UNC and Duke could exist with Clemson before, they can keep doing so. The Big Ten becomes a coast-to-coast entity with most of the "heritage" basketball programs and enough of the football powers to compete with the SEC.
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