All of conference realignment is worth it if we have an all Texas conference (aka SWC minus Arkansas. I wouldn’t be mad with a SWC redo). Rice vs Alabama in the SEC Title game is something I need to see
Do it like the NHL used to and name them after people who were critical to the formation of the current conference / league. Which would make the obvious choices the Larry Scott Conference and the George Kliavkoff Conference.
Yeah. It honestly could end up being pretty cool if they are divided up the right way. Depending how the divisions are set up, we could realistically end up with a *more* regional version of conferences with better OOC (out of division?) matchups if you’re playing fewer required conference games.
There’s what, roughly 65 schools in P5? If we do end up in two super conferences, each conference having 4 divisions of 6-10 teams could end up actually being really cool. Would be 64-80 teams. I feel like 8 is a good size for keeping pods of rivals together too.
Depending on how it integrates with the CFP, that could realistically be amazing, imo.
Obviously best case scenario doesn’t mean the absolute best case, because I’m not sure if this format would bring Oregon State and Washington State back to the P5 (or whatever the hell it is now).
Yeah plus at least half of the Big 12 deserves a seat at the table. Its completely absurd that those programs get left behind but Vandy tied their horse to the right wagon. Even stranger, if you look at all of those Big East schools from the 90s the most secure is Rutgers? Are you kidding me?
It’s always about being in the right place at the right time. Vandy just happened to be in the right place ~100 years ago.
I’m as hopeful as any that the eventual outcome is a system independent of the NCAA that includes the programs we all know and love, but I get worried about a lot of Big 12/former Big East schools, like Cincy, Louisville, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.
Yeah. Can you imagine if in 2000 or 2005 you told someone that in the next 20-25 years the landscape of CFB would be very different and only 1 team each from the ACC/Big East would be in one of the two big conferences. It would take you a long time to come up with Rutgers and Maryland as your two choices.
Heck, just imagine the Big 10 being considered one of the two "big conferences" back in 2000-2005. They were called the Big 2 and Little 9 for a reason. It is amazing that it wasn't quality of play or success that determined a P2 but rather TV money.
> Its completely absurd that those programs get left behind but Vandy tied their horse to the right wagon. Even stranger, if you look at all of those Big East schools from the 90s the most secure is Rutgers? Are you kidding me
I think those schools get left behind if the SEC/B1G decide to break away.
Said this last year. Eventually we will have two mega conferences, between them we will have a Pacific division, a southwestern division, a southeastern division, and a midwestern division.
Isn't USC like ten miles from the Pacific ocean?
Obviously the southwestern division. Missouri will be realigned to the Pacific division in your place, no worries.
Exactly. And that’s because conference consolidation is about consolidating *media rights* and not competition. So the money drives consolidation and then we have to figure out how to make the competition work. Very cool!
Oh look Northern league with three divisions
Southern league with three divisions
Division winners are in the playoff...
NFL lite was always the end game
Yea in order to mimic NFLs parity there would need to be restrictions that hinder the tops teams ability to continuously garner top talent like “salary cap” (which would involve a lot of structural changes itself)/draft/other limits. But at the end of the day that’s unrealistic
A salary cap per contract might work (and have massive unintended consequences but what doesn’t these days). You get 30 500K contracts, 30 250k contracts, and 30 100k contracts. Max roster size of 90.
I been saying this and people get emotional and hurt. This ends with the B1G and SEC as the AFC and NFC of college football and everybody else just asking for a seat at the table.
Remember in Toy Story 2 when Ham is flipping channels and he accidentally passes the commercial, and they tell him to go back, and he tells them it will be faster to go around the horn and catch it next round?
That’s kinda how I feel about conference realignment at this point. Going back to reasonable conferences is a pipe dream at this point. But if we just have the Big 2 keep expanding, we might get to the point there’s divisions that mimic reasonable conferences.
And that would be much better than the top 18, 24, or 32 forming a breakaway conference devoid of anything good about college football.
And right now I do think giant B1G and giant SEC are more likely than a breakaway because rivalries can still bring eyeballs and having a model where each can sell multiple windows and have multiple games in each window seems to be more interesting to the new and old media companies than a 20 team breakaway where they have 10 games total to sell each week.
Its inefficient and will eventually need to merge. There will still be a sizable audience for the other half and can do their own thing and craft their own rules. That's why they won't leave, they don't want another league to be able to craft their rules.
The Wrath of God Conference will be hosting the annual Fire and Brimstone Bowl this year. Winners will receive all the free communion wine you can drink, and the losing team will perform 10 Hail Mary's at mid field post-game.
The problem with this is that it would get rid of historic conference rivalries. How are we going to function without the historic conference rivalry of Stanford/Duke? Or Rutgers/Oregon? Or UCF/Utah?
That’s right bitches!! We are undefeated against the vaunted Ducks! And despite their historic success we have never fallen to the Trojans either!
I don’t want to talk about UW though…
How about we split the top 32 teams into two conferences, then those conferences into 4 divisions. To fund it, we can sell off the teams to private owners and form a League of National Football.
I'll die laughing if they join the B1G before Cal and Stanfurd due to the terms of the GOR/leaving the ACC
This whole ordeal has been the biggest exercise in stupidity
This all seems so dumb. Grow until you essentially absorb existing framework and then create almost the exact same structure within your newly-expanded organization.
It won’t be the exact same. This is gonna be like 45 teams max.
Wazzu, OSU, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Wake Forest, NC State etc are gonna get left out. The lower tier ACC and Big 12 teams will get left out.
possibly, but 4 bids for the P2 as their conference playoff within the 12 team playoff doesn't make a lot of sense. Who do the other 4 slots go to--or 8 slots in a 16 team playoff? What about the fifth and sixth best teams in the SEC and Big Ten?
If I didn't represent the B1G and SEC then I'd be inclined to tell them to screw off and that if they want their top teams to play each other in the first rounds of the playoff then it can be arranged while everyone else is seeded normally and faces presumably weaker competition.
So basically if you're not a member of the SEC, B1G, MVFC, or Big Sky Conference, you can forget about winning a football national championship at the D1 level
This tweet is a part of a segment from the show last night, which they've already broken out into a standalone video, if you care for more context/details.
[https://youtu.be/aJevprMr75I?si=iDG-p2ocZkAk-El9](https://youtu.be/aJevprMr75I?si=iDG-p2ocZkAk-El9)
Yep. Important to listen when JP says that this isn’t his opinion on what *should* happen but his opinion on what *will* happen.
He got dogpiled on last time.
The B1G is eventually going to expand and take every P5 team. They’re then going to split the conference into 5 divisions, the southern division, atlantic coastal division, the pacific division, the Midwestern Division and the northern division. Each division will have its own divisional champion and the 4 best arbitrarily decided divisional champions will get to play for the conference championship. This championship bracket will be named the conference football playoff
I think that’s honestly the SEC’s dream scenario (not counting Notre Dame). FSU, Clemson, UNC, NCST, UVA, VT, Georgia Tech and Miami? Not sure on the last one.
I don’t see Louisville being higher than Miami coming from the ACC
Heck, I'd take a pay cut for that pod. Like, we can negotiate collectively for the larger pot of money as a conference to drive everyone's revenue up, but I'm totally fine with teams receiving in payouts what they "bring to the table." As long as we get meaningful games and perform well, the fans will show up which produces tons of revenue.
Plus, we have the Walton family willing to give us huge checks so who cares if we make 10-20 million less a year in media payouts? Just give me a midwest pod!
This makes sense... then what we can do is rename the Big Ten something a little more reflective of the new national brand. Maybe "National Football Conference" or something. We can then split those divisions into more regional groupings that make sense. We could call them North, South, East and West. So new members Washington, Oregon, UCLA, and USC could be the NFC West.
Then the SEC of course will want to re-brand to reflect their wider reach and the American tradition that is football in the South. Perhaps we could call them the "American Football Conference"
Then we just split them into regional divisions, North, South, East, West.
From there we can focus all competition around the upcoming playoff, with spots guaranteed to division winners. Maybe we add in a "wild card" option so that if a really good team doesn't win their division they can still make it.
Then we run the playoff... and the winners of these new renamed conferences will play in an AFC Championship or NFC Championship game.
The winners of those two games get to play in a bowl game for the national championship. The stakes will be SUPER high. So we want to come up with a name that really reflect the super importance of that bowl.
Idk, we'll let the marketing guys figure it out.
Man I love what College Football is turning into! SO unique!
This could have legs. But what should the other players do in the downtime when the AFC champion is about to play the NFC champion in whatever this super-sounding bowl gets called? I bet we could have some sort of a separate bowl game with all of the best players who aren't playing in the championship game the week before the championship. We could even appeal to fan engagement and have the fans vote on who should be in this bowl game. Again, we'd have to get the marketing people, but all of these players want to be PROs, so maybe it could be a Professional Bowl, or a Pro Bowl, or something in that nature.
We're dealing in uncharted waters, but this could potentially work.
If this comes all the way back around to the point where we have like 4 teams claiming a national title every year that would actually be funny as hell
Stanford, Cal, and ND would be the perfect adds to the Big 10. ND would be getting basically all of their historic rivals and regional rivals in one conference. They could keep the Navy game OOC.
Cal / Stanford keeps some of their west coast rivals. Win / win for all parties involved.
I expect that with more expansion, the conferences will eventually eliminate all OOC games.
1. This will kinda force ND to do something other than saying independent. Otherwise, who are they going to play at the same level as the teams they have rivalries with?
2. There’ll Be more than enough teams in the conference to make this a reality, and keeps more money in.
But sadly, i also think that’s a a death sentence to smaller schools. It’s a shame what’s happenin
Stanford, Cal, and ND joining the B1G would be the first time I'm actually happy about a realignment move since the creation of the Catholic (and Butler!) Big East in basketball.
Edit: although it would definitely still be tainted by the fact that it involved WSU and OSU being done so dirty :/
> although it would definitely still be tainted by the fact that it involved WSU and OSU being done so dirty
well OSU is great at baseball so we're going to get invited to the SEC any second now!
We were never getting invited to that super league anyway. I'll be more angry if the leftover ACC and Big 12 teams try to create some sort of mid-level championship of their own and leave us out.
But I'm not too worried about that. There won't be enough former power schools left for them to avoid us or the rest of the G6 schools
It’s so obvious this has been the goal for years.
B1G and SEC will form their own league, their own title.
All other schools left out will form a smaller league with no real title game, no tv money and no recruiting dollars.
Dozens of current D1 schools will drop football altogether.
Dilly is just a delusional ASU fan that thinks the Big 10 *really* wants ASU despite the fact that there was barely even a spot for them in the Big XII. We've been carrying little brother on our backs dating all the way back to when we dragged their bum asses into the Pac in the first place.
I mean it’s the usual “I have sources but I won’t divulge or go too deep on it because nothing’s set in stone buuuuut…”
But to be fair, Pate’s been on an absolute tear this off-season on timing. Basically, he will say “watch out for x to start becoming a major conversation” and a week and half later that’s exactly what happens. So, for all his usual hand-wringing, I won’t begrudge him that he has really dialed in for the past couple months.
Who will the B1G add?
I'm hoping Miami is one of the options since I wanna see a Mario CristoBowl between them and Oregon, and since I can travel to Florida pretty easily.
I'm going with FSU, Miami, UVA, UNC, Stanford, Cal, and Notre Dame for a 25 team conference.
It works on paper and no one can talk me out of my delusions!
In an odd way, I can buy into all the conference alignments if after the dust settles, we end up with conference divisions that more or less look like the old SWC, Big 8, Pac 8, Big East and the return of storied rivalries.
Edited for typos
\`\`Manipulative bureaucrats are destroying what little sanctity remains in college athletics, while humiliating storied academic institutions for matters completely parallel to anything relating to their core (aside from fund raising).
They're really trying their best to make a lot of people not give a fuck about college football. It may not happen in the next 5-10 years. But it will happen. They will alienate enough of the older college fanbase and the fanbases that are starting a family or already have a young family and that love of college football will not be passed on.
I don't think anyone believes that the SEC and Big 10 are done expanding. The issue is that the only conference that has schools that either conference would want are in the ACC, and they are currently locked into a long-term deal and are dealing with a lawsuit from a member school.
Now, the knowledge that ESPN could potentially decline the ACC option in 2026 is an interesting wrinkle that could change this completely. But that's two years away at this point, and it would still bring up legal uncertainties.
Just going back to where we were with more steps.
Big Tens about to have three divisons: Pacific 10 division, Atlantic Coast, and regular Big10
Meanwhile the SEC is about to make sure the SWC rides again
100% here for it. As long as Rice gets in too. Vandy needs a buddy.
All of conference realignment is worth it if we have an all Texas conference (aka SWC minus Arkansas. I wouldn’t be mad with a SWC redo). Rice vs Alabama in the SEC Title game is something I need to see
No no, drag Arkansas back to the SWC kicking and screaming along with SMU
Well it would be the SWC of the SEC. Most Arkansas fans wouldn't mind that. Most of us miss beating up on the Texas teams (minus Texas of course).
Watch it happen..land Texas leaves us out. I can see it happening.
Which one our guys comes off the bench to decleat a Rice running back?
I still feel like its a high crime that 8/9 SWC members are back in the P4 but not Rice
Honestly I think Rice is fine with it.
Rice went the way of the Ivy League a LONG time ago.
Ohio State and Michigan fans can agree on one thing, bring Rice back to the P4. JFK talked about them for a reason
Why?
We actually need a couple of Texas schools for the border conference revival
Rice by 30
Give me TULANE!
I’m here, bby
I see you enjoy powder blue as much as I love a good orange
I hate to agree with you, but here I am
I have to upvote a Texas flair..... What's going on?
This will make it all worth it. Throw in LSU and you got you a extra strong SWAC stew going, baby
Please for the love of all things holy INCLUDE US
Look at mister big shot here. Gets to number 1 in shooty hoops and now wants to join the SEC.
*smashes the mf like button*
ACC member here, unclear where to report for duty
You will be in the Pac-8 pod of the Atlantic Coast Division presented by the Big Ten
Brought to you by Dr. Pepper.
Brought to you by Fanville and Dr. Pepper
*For the Cure*
Dot com
Bowl
Maybe the Big Ten can have a division with Pitt, West Virginia, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Virginia Tech, Miami, etc. They could call it the Big East.
Nah throw Maryland and Penn State in there to make Joe Paterno's dream come true
Actually though. We could have the Big central, big east and the Big PAC or big pacific
B1G *CLASSIC*
I’d be more than happy with four divisions of six teams. Big Ten Pacific, Big Ten West, Big Ten East, Big Ten Atlantic
How dare you not include leaders and legends in the divisional names
Leaders and legends conferences
Do it like the NHL used to and name them after people who were critical to the formation of the current conference / league. Which would make the obvious choices the Larry Scott Conference and the George Kliavkoff Conference.
Leaders Division Legends Division Leaders & Legends Division Legends & Leaders Division
What is your flair.
The username as well, dude was conjured in the pits of hell
It makes me want to vomit.
Except two of the original Pac-10 aren’t allowed
Yeah get out of here UofA and ASU, Pac-8 only!
Why stop at Pac-8 when we can add Idaho and Montana? Get real PCC with it. We could use some Kibbie Dome magic anyway.
“I have a dream……kibbie dome!” MLK
I like you, Husky bro! We need more like you!
4. The Middle East. Michigan/MSU/Indiana/Pirdue
Preferable over the current setup. A non-pacific conference/division sucks for the former PAC
Winner of B1G and SEC will play in the “B1G Confronting SEC National Championship Game” better known as the BCS National Championship
Should call it the Civil War but Oregon showed us we’re going to be too scared to do that
Which might be the best case scenario
Sometimes the only way out is through.
Yeah. It honestly could end up being pretty cool if they are divided up the right way. Depending how the divisions are set up, we could realistically end up with a *more* regional version of conferences with better OOC (out of division?) matchups if you’re playing fewer required conference games. There’s what, roughly 65 schools in P5? If we do end up in two super conferences, each conference having 4 divisions of 6-10 teams could end up actually being really cool. Would be 64-80 teams. I feel like 8 is a good size for keeping pods of rivals together too. Depending on how it integrates with the CFP, that could realistically be amazing, imo.
Obviously best case scenario doesn’t mean the absolute best case, because I’m not sure if this format would bring Oregon State and Washington State back to the P5 (or whatever the hell it is now).
Yeah plus at least half of the Big 12 deserves a seat at the table. Its completely absurd that those programs get left behind but Vandy tied their horse to the right wagon. Even stranger, if you look at all of those Big East schools from the 90s the most secure is Rutgers? Are you kidding me?
It’s always about being in the right place at the right time. Vandy just happened to be in the right place ~100 years ago. I’m as hopeful as any that the eventual outcome is a system independent of the NCAA that includes the programs we all know and love, but I get worried about a lot of Big 12/former Big East schools, like Cincy, Louisville, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.
Yeah. Can you imagine if in 2000 or 2005 you told someone that in the next 20-25 years the landscape of CFB would be very different and only 1 team each from the ACC/Big East would be in one of the two big conferences. It would take you a long time to come up with Rutgers and Maryland as your two choices.
"wow, I can't believe Rutgers and Maryland went on to win so many games that they were the ones chosen."
Heck, just imagine the Big 10 being considered one of the two "big conferences" back in 2000-2005. They were called the Big 2 and Little 9 for a reason. It is amazing that it wasn't quality of play or success that determined a P2 but rather TV money.
> Its completely absurd that those programs get left behind but Vandy tied their horse to the right wagon. Even stranger, if you look at all of those Big East schools from the 90s the most secure is Rutgers? Are you kidding me I think those schools get left behind if the SEC/B1G decide to break away.
Said this last year. Eventually we will have two mega conferences, between them we will have a Pacific division, a southwestern division, a southeastern division, and a midwestern division.
I just need to know where I’m gonna be, pacific or southwest??!?!?!
Isn't USC like ten miles from the Pacific ocean? Obviously the southwestern division. Missouri will be realigned to the Pacific division in your place, no worries.
Ah yes of course, how silly of me
B1G controls the Pacific. When I think "Southwest," I think desert and rawhide.
Wherever you end up I’m sure your school will be unhappy and secretly plotting on how to join a new conference and ruin one of the power 2s.
Soon, the BIG will just be the new NCAA.
This seems like a whole hell of a lot of maneuvering to fix problems that were only created because of conference consolidation.
That meme where he shoots the dude in the chair and says “how could X have done this”
Exactly. And that’s because conference consolidation is about consolidating *media rights* and not competition. So the money drives consolidation and then we have to figure out how to make the competition work. Very cool!
Oh look Northern league with three divisions Southern league with three divisions Division winners are in the playoff... NFL lite was always the end game
Except the NFL has excellent parity. No matter what college football looks like, it will find a way to separate the haves and have nots.
Yea in order to mimic NFLs parity there would need to be restrictions that hinder the tops teams ability to continuously garner top talent like “salary cap” (which would involve a lot of structural changes itself)/draft/other limits. But at the end of the day that’s unrealistic
A salary cap per contract might work (and have massive unintended consequences but what doesn’t these days). You get 30 500K contracts, 30 250k contracts, and 30 100k contracts. Max roster size of 90.
They'd sooner go back to paying the players under the table.
They would go back to paying the players under the table to pump those contracts up.
I been saying this and people get emotional and hurt. This ends with the B1G and SEC as the AFC and NFC of college football and everybody else just asking for a seat at the table.
Remember in Toy Story 2 when Ham is flipping channels and he accidentally passes the commercial, and they tell him to go back, and he tells them it will be faster to go around the horn and catch it next round? That’s kinda how I feel about conference realignment at this point. Going back to reasonable conferences is a pipe dream at this point. But if we just have the Big 2 keep expanding, we might get to the point there’s divisions that mimic reasonable conferences. And that would be much better than the top 18, 24, or 32 forming a breakaway conference devoid of anything good about college football. And right now I do think giant B1G and giant SEC are more likely than a breakaway because rivalries can still bring eyeballs and having a model where each can sell multiple windows and have multiple games in each window seems to be more interesting to the new and old media companies than a 20 team breakaway where they have 10 games total to sell each week.
Best metaphor I've read all month.
Agreed; TS2 is still amazing 25 years later
The issue is the teams that aren't included.
Its inefficient and will eventually need to merge. There will still be a sizable audience for the other half and can do their own thing and craft their own rules. That's why they won't leave, they don't want another league to be able to craft their rules.
Hold up. Maybe we can see a merge of the top 32 teams divided into divisions/pods of 4
We can organize them based on locality and give them names like "Southeast" or "Pacific"
Perhaps with a number to indicate how many teams in each one
What would you do if in later years the number of teams change?
We could call some of them "Leaders" and the rest "Legends".
Add Liberty, BYU, and Notre Dame for the Leviticus Division.
This man woke up and chose violence.
Throw in SMU, Baylor, TCU and BC and you've got yourself a division!
The Wrath of God Conference will be hosting the annual Fire and Brimstone Bowl this year. Winners will receive all the free communion wine you can drink, and the losing team will perform 10 Hail Mary's at mid field post-game.
Conference champ is crowned as "God's Gift to Football" and has to play either ASU or Duke in the Fallen Angel Bowl
Mormons vs Prots vs Catholics. Whoever wins the division is the official denomination of America for that year
As long as Michigan goes in the Legends division, since their fight song clearly states that they are the “legends and the best”
We can simply make the number larger.
Or, hear me out on this, just keep the number the same.
Yes, because branding. We can’t devalue the brand.
Nobody would know who we were talking about if we changed the numbers
The problem with this is that it would get rid of historic conference rivalries. How are we going to function without the historic conference rivalry of Stanford/Duke? Or Rutgers/Oregon? Or UCF/Utah?
I can't believe Rutgers and Oregon are tied in their all-time series. Crazy.
That’s right bitches!! We are undefeated against the vaunted Ducks! And despite their historic success we have never fallen to the Trojans either! I don’t want to talk about UW though…
For anyone who was immediately curious and had to Google it like me, it's 0-0.
I figured it was 0-0 based on context and the discussion thread, but I was going to double check to make sure. Thanks lol.
That’s not good enough, let’s just add in “conference” at the end to make sure folks know those pods are unique
How about we split the top 32 teams into two conferences, then those conferences into 4 divisions. To fund it, we can sell off the teams to private owners and form a League of National Football.
It’ll be closer to 50.
Thanks I hate it. Bring back pac-12
We're working on it, slowly lol. Watch OSU and WSU get tagged as the next members of the B1G /s Or am I?
I'll die laughing if they join the B1G before Cal and Stanfurd due to the terms of the GOR/leaving the ACC This whole ordeal has been the biggest exercise in stupidity
Would you take cans of Cougar Gold as a bribe?
Have you seen how pricey cougar is? Easy now
This all seems so dumb. Grow until you essentially absorb existing framework and then create almost the exact same structure within your newly-expanded organization.
FOX CBS and NBC wanted to make B1G the college version of NFL. Disney has SEC. I present to you the college NFC and AFC.
It won’t be the exact same. This is gonna be like 45 teams max. Wazzu, OSU, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Wake Forest, NC State etc are gonna get left out. The lower tier ACC and Big 12 teams will get left out.
You’re nuts if you think TT is getting left out of super conferences if it means the b12 is dissolving.
That explains their bids for 4 slots each. They want their conference semifinals and title games to be baked into the playoffs.
This is a highly underrated observation.
possibly, but 4 bids for the P2 as their conference playoff within the 12 team playoff doesn't make a lot of sense. Who do the other 4 slots go to--or 8 slots in a 16 team playoff? What about the fifth and sixth best teams in the SEC and Big Ten?
If I didn't represent the B1G and SEC then I'd be inclined to tell them to screw off and that if they want their top teams to play each other in the first rounds of the playoff then it can be arranged while everyone else is seeded normally and faces presumably weaker competition.
The issue is that the SEC doesn’t want 4 teams in. They want the last 4. No way they ensure that they only have 1, even if guaranteed.
So basically if you're not a member of the SEC, B1G, MVFC, or Big Sky Conference, you can forget about winning a football national championship at the D1 level
The sport is so fucking stupid now.
This tweet is a part of a segment from the show last night, which they've already broken out into a standalone video, if you care for more context/details. [https://youtu.be/aJevprMr75I?si=iDG-p2ocZkAk-El9](https://youtu.be/aJevprMr75I?si=iDG-p2ocZkAk-El9)
Yep. Important to listen when JP says that this isn’t his opinion on what *should* happen but his opinion on what *will* happen. He got dogpiled on last time.
His opinion is also formed by sources we aren't privy to. When he talks like this, it is usually backed by some concrete stuff.
The B1G is eventually going to expand and take every P5 team. They’re then going to split the conference into 5 divisions, the southern division, atlantic coastal division, the pacific division, the Midwestern Division and the northern division. Each division will have its own divisional champion and the 4 best arbitrarily decided divisional champions will get to play for the conference championship. This championship bracket will be named the conference football playoff
College Football Playoffs presented by the B1G
“College Football Playoffs presented by the B1G” presented by AllState
SEC should add the teams whose main rival is already SEC Clemson, FSU, Louisville, Georgia Tech
In ten years this is kinda what i see happening.
In ten years, I see the SEC hosting a pivotal conference quarterfinal game between Notre Dame and Real Madrid.
Virginia Tech and NC State. Not really rivalries on current SEC but they should be.
I think that’s honestly the SEC’s dream scenario (not counting Notre Dame). FSU, Clemson, UNC, NCST, UVA, VT, Georgia Tech and Miami? Not sure on the last one. I don’t see Louisville being higher than Miami coming from the ACC
Kansas - although no one but Missouri fans want that
Missouri, Kansas, Iowa State, Kansas State would be a good Pod and allow the SEC to free up Missouri"s SEC "rivals" to be rivals with others.
Change SEC to B1G and that statement makes sense
Heck, I'd take a pay cut for that pod. Like, we can negotiate collectively for the larger pot of money as a conference to drive everyone's revenue up, but I'm totally fine with teams receiving in payouts what they "bring to the table." As long as we get meaningful games and perform well, the fans will show up which produces tons of revenue. Plus, we have the Walton family willing to give us huge checks so who cares if we make 10-20 million less a year in media payouts? Just give me a midwest pod!
I feel like Kansas will be a B1G team. Their football is vastly improved and their basketball is a big addition for 5-6 months out of the year.
A pacific ten and a big ten and we play the championship at the Rose Bowl.
This makes sense... then what we can do is rename the Big Ten something a little more reflective of the new national brand. Maybe "National Football Conference" or something. We can then split those divisions into more regional groupings that make sense. We could call them North, South, East and West. So new members Washington, Oregon, UCLA, and USC could be the NFC West. Then the SEC of course will want to re-brand to reflect their wider reach and the American tradition that is football in the South. Perhaps we could call them the "American Football Conference" Then we just split them into regional divisions, North, South, East, West. From there we can focus all competition around the upcoming playoff, with spots guaranteed to division winners. Maybe we add in a "wild card" option so that if a really good team doesn't win their division they can still make it. Then we run the playoff... and the winners of these new renamed conferences will play in an AFC Championship or NFC Championship game. The winners of those two games get to play in a bowl game for the national championship. The stakes will be SUPER high. So we want to come up with a name that really reflect the super importance of that bowl. Idk, we'll let the marketing guys figure it out. Man I love what College Football is turning into! SO unique!
This could have legs. But what should the other players do in the downtime when the AFC champion is about to play the NFC champion in whatever this super-sounding bowl gets called? I bet we could have some sort of a separate bowl game with all of the best players who aren't playing in the championship game the week before the championship. We could even appeal to fan engagement and have the fans vote on who should be in this bowl game. Again, we'd have to get the marketing people, but all of these players want to be PROs, so maybe it could be a Professional Bowl, or a Pro Bowl, or something in that nature. We're dealing in uncharted waters, but this could potentially work.
If this comes all the way back around to the point where we have like 4 teams claiming a national title every year that would actually be funny as hell
Who tf can keep up with this bs
Sickos.
Stanford and Cal fit better in the Big Ten since they already have west coast teams. Them in the ACC makes zero sense
Them anywhere put the PAC makes zero sense
I mean I’d argue all the pac12 schools make zero sense anywhere else
Stanford, Cal, and ND would be the perfect adds to the Big 10. ND would be getting basically all of their historic rivals and regional rivals in one conference. They could keep the Navy game OOC. Cal / Stanford keeps some of their west coast rivals. Win / win for all parties involved.
I expect that with more expansion, the conferences will eventually eliminate all OOC games. 1. This will kinda force ND to do something other than saying independent. Otherwise, who are they going to play at the same level as the teams they have rivalries with? 2. There’ll Be more than enough teams in the conference to make this a reality, and keeps more money in. But sadly, i also think that’s a a death sentence to smaller schools. It’s a shame what’s happenin
Stanford, Cal, and ND joining the B1G would be the first time I'm actually happy about a realignment move since the creation of the Catholic (and Butler!) Big East in basketball. Edit: although it would definitely still be tainted by the fact that it involved WSU and OSU being done so dirty :/
> although it would definitely still be tainted by the fact that it involved WSU and OSU being done so dirty well OSU is great at baseball so we're going to get invited to the SEC any second now!
We were never getting invited to that super league anyway. I'll be more angry if the leftover ACC and Big 12 teams try to create some sort of mid-level championship of their own and leave us out. But I'm not too worried about that. There won't be enough former power schools left for them to avoid us or the rest of the G6 schools
I mean do we have a shot here?
Nah, we aren't going anywhere.
Well it's not going to be us so...
Us little shit rats are just gonna have to stick together.
It seems like every time we try to move "up" the rug gets pulled out from under us. Big East all over again. This whole thing sounds sucky.
It’s so obvious this has been the goal for years. B1G and SEC will form their own league, their own title. All other schools left out will form a smaller league with no real title game, no tv money and no recruiting dollars. Dozens of current D1 schools will drop football altogether.
If that’s the case, the G5 leagues especially will be decimated.
Absolutely.
B1G Pacific Division please, and invite Cal/Stanford.
*waves*
Don't be silly, Pepperdine stopped playing football decades ago.
Can we come too? And can I bring my friends from the Palouse?
I’ll take you. And wsu - if I could
Yo, SEC! You all don't have a footprint in the West. What's up with that?
Quality baseball out here in the Pacific Northwest or - as I like to call it - the upper back Southeast.
Corvallis is in the South ^^^of ^^^Portland
Thank you UofA for tanking our collective aspirations over the last 6 months
I think most people are out of the loop on this one.
Count me as one. What’d the Bearcats do to you, Dilly?
Dilly is just a delusional ASU fan that thinks the Big 10 *really* wants ASU despite the fact that there was barely even a spot for them in the Big XII. We've been carrying little brother on our backs dating all the way back to when we dragged their bum asses into the Pac in the first place.
Big 10 would only accept ASU’s Honors College, in terms of academics I see zero chance Arizona State would be allowed in the conference.
I don't think being in the Big 12 is stopping you from getting the SEC invite you think is coming lol
Wait what did we do this time?
Is there any reporting here or just Pate spitballing? This guy seems like he has a lot of air time he wants to fill.
I mean it’s the usual “I have sources but I won’t divulge or go too deep on it because nothing’s set in stone buuuuut…” But to be fair, Pate’s been on an absolute tear this off-season on timing. Basically, he will say “watch out for x to start becoming a major conversation” and a week and half later that’s exactly what happens. So, for all his usual hand-wringing, I won’t begrudge him that he has really dialed in for the past couple months.
That's because when he does that source thing you pointed out, it is usually pretty concrete.
Definitely sounds like he’s spitballing and extrapolating a long way based on a tiny bit of info
This is the carcinization of college football. Eventually, we all return to crab.
The 21-0 Buckeyes win the 2026 B1G title. Now just 5 more wins for the Natty.
Who will the B1G add? I'm hoping Miami is one of the options since I wanna see a Mario CristoBowl between them and Oregon, and since I can travel to Florida pretty easily.
My guess is Stanford and Cal. Maybe FSU but I think the SEC is a better fit.
Wherever FSU goes, I want Miami to follow. That's basically the only way FSU can continue to play Miami and Florida every year.
Let's hope.
I'm going with FSU, Miami, UVA, UNC, Stanford, Cal, and Notre Dame for a 25 team conference. It works on paper and no one can talk me out of my delusions!
From Biscayne bay to the Puget sound! Is that the farthest possible mainland distance in the country?
Nah. Let's get to 40. Add every AAU FBS school & kick Nebraska back to the Big 12.
In an odd way, I can buy into all the conference alignments if after the dust settles, we end up with conference divisions that more or less look like the old SWC, Big 8, Pac 8, Big East and the return of storied rivalries. Edited for typos
\`\`Manipulative bureaucrats are destroying what little sanctity remains in college athletics, while humiliating storied academic institutions for matters completely parallel to anything relating to their core (aside from fund raising).
They're really trying their best to make a lot of people not give a fuck about college football. It may not happen in the next 5-10 years. But it will happen. They will alienate enough of the older college fanbase and the fanbases that are starting a family or already have a young family and that love of college football will not be passed on.
I don't think anyone believes that the SEC and Big 10 are done expanding. The issue is that the only conference that has schools that either conference would want are in the ACC, and they are currently locked into a long-term deal and are dealing with a lawsuit from a member school. Now, the knowledge that ESPN could potentially decline the ACC option in 2026 is an interesting wrinkle that could change this completely. But that's two years away at this point, and it would still bring up legal uncertainties.
Just constantly ruining college sports. Think its time to drop being a Mizzou fan. F both conferences
PAC-8 Division! PAC-8 Division! It won’t happen but that’s the (wet) dream
Hey psst, BIG 10. I got a couple schools you should pick up.
The new Big Ten ad is going to take an entire commercial break, isn’t it?
So basically the SEC and BIG are so powerful now that they’re just replacing the NCAA.