Wow! Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC! The possible directions the dominoes will fall as the result are endless.
The SEC has left everyone else behind. They’ll be playing poker with a 60-card deck. The Big12 won’t exist unless they poach the Pac12 or Mountain West. The Big Ten and ACC could come out either stronger or weaker, although ESPN has the ACC hamstrung with a terrible long-term TV deal. And the ACC has neutered itself with a rights agreement which eliminates the chance that any ACC member can leave the conference.
There are the “Power Five” conferences and a few other lesser FBS conferences who will all be desperately jockeying for position. But the real power will lie with two powerhouse TV networks, ESPN and Fox Sports. It’s likely that those two networks are going to dictate how top-level college football is organized after all the dominoes stop falling. It’s equally unlikely that the NCAA will have anything to say about how the college football structure is re-formed. In fact it may be likely that the NCAA itself is a victim of the events of the next year or so.
Will the Power Five become the Power Four? Might the two big networks decide to work together to create a new structure, regardless of what individual teams or conferences desire? Could an NFL-like single national college conference be the result? How will the playoffs be effected? What will happen to the bowl games?
No one can reasonably predict how the dominoes will fall as the result of Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC. But who will be most influential in determining how college football will be reformed is more certain—the two big TV networks.
As has been the case so often in the past—follow the money.
The SEC has left everyone else behind. They’ll be playing poker with a 60-card deck. The Big12 won’t exist unless they poach the Pac12 or Mountain West. The Big Ten and ACC could come out either stronger or weaker, although ESPN has the ACC hamstrung with a terrible long-term TV deal. And the ACC has neutered itself with a rights agreement which eliminates the chance that any ACC member can leave the conference.
There are the “Power Five” conferences and a few other lesser FBS conferences who will all be desperately jockeying for position. But the real power will lie with two powerhouse TV networks, ESPN and Fox Sports. It’s likely that those two networks are going to dictate how top-level college football is organized after all the dominoes stop falling. It’s equally unlikely that the NCAA will have anything to say about how the college football structure is re-formed. In fact it may be likely that the NCAA itself is a victim of the events of the next year or so.
Will the Power Five become the Power Four? Might the two big networks decide to work together to create a new structure, regardless of what individual teams or conferences desire? Could an NFL-like single national college conference be the result? How will the playoffs be effected? What will happen to the bowl games?
No one can reasonably predict how the dominoes will fall as the result of Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC. But who will be most influential in determining how college football will be reformed is more certain—the two big TV networks.
As has been the case so often in the past—follow the money.
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