Stop Conference Realignment Before It Ruins College Football
When Texas and Oklahoma requested to join the SEC, I, unlike many fans of SEC football, was firmly opposed to it. There was no way it was going to be good for the sport of college football. Instead, it created a ticking time bomb right at the sport’s core. Maybe super-conferences and consolidation would be good if you wanted college football to be like the NFL, but it’s not. The novelty of college football lies in each different conference having its own unique powerhouses and internal rivalries, then seeing those teams play in a few of out-of-conference games every season. Most times, in-conference rivalries are more fun than out-of-conference Marquee matchups. Of course there are exceptions, like 2017 Oklahoma vs Ohio State, 2019 LSU vs Texas, and 2021 UGA vs Clemson, but nine times out of ten I’d rather watch any given Egg Bowl or Bedlam than an elite team like Alabama curb-stomping a ranked USC Trojans or Miami team at a neutral site.
Now, we’re not even bothering to realign relatively regionally. Yes, adding Mizzou and Texas A&M was stretching the SEC’s geography a little. So then you could say, okay, Texas and Oklahoma are close enough to the new boundaries of the SEC. But now, UCLA and USC have decided to join the bigger-than-10 Big Ten, which can’t be renamed the Big Twelve because there is already a Big Twelve, and then the PAC-12 will soon be the PAC-10 again. But I digress. So, two teams on the far, far west coast are now in the same conference as Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State. That leaves the PAC-12 which, Oregon aside, has been the worst conference in football for about ten years, with basically nothing, much like the new Big Twelve starting in 2024.
With a little patience and some good coaching hires, the balance of power among the major conferences could have been restored again. The PAC-12 had USC, Oregon, and, at times, Stanford. A resurgence of USC and an improving Arizona State or Wazzou or even UCLA would surge the conference back to relevance. The Big Twelve had Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and, for a stint, TCU and Iowa State. Losing Texas A&M & Mizzou hurt the conference, but they still had the teams and the brands to be a strong conference. The Big Ten has Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The ACC, with a strong Clemson, just needs a resurgence of Virginia Tech and Florida State, and needs to add Notre Dame. We know what the SEC has…Bama, UGA, LSU, and a down Florida and Auburn. All of these brands, all of them, have the capability of balancing out the power in college football, and that is the most important thing that needs to be done to preserve everything that makes college football the best sports product in the world. With this point, one has to ask themselves, “Will teams that get less and less and less TV time struggle even more to recruit good players because they don’t get the brand exposure or the excitement of a big televised game, and therefore will not be able to be as competitive?”
The truth of the matter is that, as far as national championship contenders go, there are currently about 4 perennial contenders (Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson) with a rotation of three others (LSU, ND, and Oklahoma) that have a real chance to win. Four of them are going to be in the SEC in 2024 and Clemson is rumored to have expressed interest in joining the SEC as well. This is an absolute disaster for the sport. With the sport completely in the hands of championship teams now, consolidating and creating two super-conferences, what does that mean for everyone else? For the dozens of Power 5 teams outside this elite 7, let alone Group of 5 teams, the only thing they have to look forward to are their rivalries and trying to win their division, conference, and/or bowl game. Oh wait, none of that will be possible or enjoyable if we have consolidated super-conferences and have to rearrange the other conferences to fit with this new structure we are going for. ‘Non-elite programs, sorry, your rivalry doesn’t matter…we need the four teams in your pod to be balanced with others, but don’t worry, you’ll play your long-time rival every three years.’ Hell, it will even affect the rivalries of the elite teams. Georgia has to decide between Florida or Auburn, but Auburn and Alabama will definitely not be willing to sacrifice the Iron Bowl, so either you have a pod of Georgia, Bama, Auburn, and Florida, which would be absurdly stronger than all the other pods in the conference, or you have to drop a longtime rival. Perhaps your region’s oldest rivalry. What about non-conference rivals? Georgia-Georgia Tech? Florida-Florida State? Kentucky-Louisville? Clemson-South Carolina? USC-Notre Dame?
This greedy pursuit of turning college football into a playoff-focused, consolidated minor league for the NFL so top-tier football schools, conferences, and content providers can maximize their revenues and leave the other schools behind is going to destroy the college football we know and love. Sorry, Hokie alumni, you can’t watch Virginia Tech battle West Virginia for the “Country Roads” chorus bragging rights because ESPN and FOX need to make tens of millions in their lineup of Georgia-Oklahoma, Bama-Texas, Clemson-Florida, and Ohio State-Notre Dame, none of which would be played in your hypothetical time slot.
For goodness sake, make it stop. Maybe on my packed football season Saturdays I want to watch a little Virginia Tech-WVU after my Tennessee-Florida appetizer while waiting for my Georgia-Auburn dessert and my USC-Oregon State nightcap. Varietal college football games from noon to midnight and a very long bowl season—that’s what we need out of college football. Not three matchups per day in our region, as current TV contracts allow, unless you subscribe to additional premium channels and services. It won’t be long until there is an “NCAA Red Zone” channel and massive, expensive big box cable sports packages that give you access to teams you used to be able to watch without a special cable package, but can’t anymore, and even then you still can’t get access to as many teams as you used to be able to.
Leave college football the hell alone.