The Rest of College Football

[froot loops]

There is always a lot of talk about the big schools breaking away and forming a separate league but it never seems like they say what the benefit would be in terms of more dollars and more eyeballs. A lot of the people who pay attention to college football are alumni or followers of Division 1 football teams that have no earthly shot at the CFP. But they pay attention because those teams do get on TV when they are served up as cupcakes.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Once the Big Ten adds two teams (for example, let's say ND and FSU), I propose these divisions:

Division A:

Michigan
Ohio State
Iowa
Indiana
Purdue
Michigan St.
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Illinois

Division B:

Penn St.
Oregon
Nebraska
ND
FSU
Washington
UCLA
USC
Maryland
Rutgers

I'd switch any one of Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois for ND in Division A.

Something is going to happen wrt the existing structure of CFB. When that will be formalized is anyone's guess.

I kinda agree with Froot: there's a lot of talk (mostly from fans) that CFB needs to be organized such that it pulls out of the NCAA and forms super conferences organized like the NFL is organized and falling under a rules body commissioner/commission. This talk surfaces anytime the NCAA does something stupid and/or the existing FBS CFP selection committee does poorly in selecting playoff teams.

Such talk usually makes membership in the B10 and SEC as a prereq for inclusion in whatever a CFB commissioner comes up with. As Froot points out, there doesn't appear to be any advantage from an eyeballs and dollars standpoint to doing this, id est, it ain't gonna happen like some envision it will.

What is more likely to happen, IMO, is the NCAA will continue to regulate CFB, find footing in regulating NIL and the portal and will fight tooth and nail to have a say in the regular season while demanding some of the action in a CFB playoff. Survivors among the current conferences will organize its members in divisions similar to what Mike proposes for the B10 for regular season scheduling purposes.

I also agree with Talent that regular season games, including existing rivalries, will fade in importance. So will the conference championships much like they have faded in importance in Men's Basketball. Pointing to getting a bid from the selection committee to the CFP will be CFB teams primary goal (no autobids for conference champs). With a robust number of teams getting picked to play in the CFP, going undefeated would be nice and probably getting there in the B10 or SEC (strength of schedule) will get you a higher seed but losing regular season or conference championship games to legit competitors won't automatically shut you out of a the CFP.

[Da Geezer]

I like Mike's divisions. The sooner we get back to the Big Two and the little eight, the happier I am.

I do think some kind of crossover game(s) between similarly situated teams in the two divisions would be a way of assuring that a 4th place team in one Division might be able to get into a 16-game CFP

Congratulations to Talent on the Buckeyes' championship.

[iam416]

Anyway - I don't think I appreciated that a 12-team CFP is an absolute seismic shift in terms of the game. But, I think it's there's now a pre-12 and post-12 era. The bump to 16 won't matter, but from 4 to 12 is absolute massive and it changes, IMO, the nature of game. It's no longer life or death.

Worked out for Ohio State. And I do think the CFP format suits CRD. So, eh -- bully for me. But, a very significant part of me misses the absolute fight to the death nature of the regular season. We probably won't see an OSU-M game as meaningful as, say, 2023 until they play in the CFP. On the other hand, an inexplicably awful performance like, say, at Iowa or at Purdue won't irreversibly fuck your season.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Two ten team divisions means you basically won't play the other division except in the championship game. I'm not wild about that at all. Sorry, traditionalists, but I make sure to watch us play Penn State every year. I have no problem skipping games against Northwestern or Minnesota. A league where all the more successful historic programs are shoved into one division that OSU/Michigan never play does not work for me.

4 divisions of 5 instead. 4 games against your division every year and 5 games against a rotating division. Means you'd play every team in the conference at least once in a 3 year span. Take the two best division winners for the conf title and figure out a tiebreaker.

[Da Geezer]

Which are "all the more successful historic programs are shoved into one division..." Do you figure Oregon as a historic, successful, program? I think the old Big 10 has plenty of historic programs.

Besides, getting back to the little 8 and the Big 2 makes the whole world better and ensures that The Game has its rightful place as a de facto championship game.

Since 2014, OSU has won the B10 5 times, UM 3 times, MSU, PSU and Oregon once each. So the historic B10 (division A) won10 of 11 championships. It is goofy to say that there are too many successful and historic programs in division B.

[Dr. Strangelove]

A division structure where Division A contains OSU and Michigan and Division B contains USC, Notre Dame, Penn State, Washington, Oregon, UCLA, Nebraska, and presumably some ACC power, has way too much power crammed into Division B.

I consider Penn State a bigger rival than anyone in the “old” Big10 other than Michigan. Probably because I’m not old enough to be collecting social security.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Oregon has had a significantly better program than Minnesota for 30 years. I don’t care that Fritz Crisler and Bernie Bierman had some riveting 10-7 contests back in the day. Oregon is a vastly more important program nationally than the Gophers. The only people that consider Michigan-Minnesota an indispensable rivalry are all wearing Depends. It’s high time to stop listening to such people.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Penn State, USC, Nebraska, and Notre Dame are all significantly more prestigious programs than anyone in the Little 8. UCLA and Washington are at LEAST the equivalent of MSU or Wisconsin. Iowa is okay but a step below and one of the most boring programs in football today. Citing Minnesota and Illinois as if they were power programs or big draws based on pre-WWII success is pretty ridiculous.

[lineygoblue]

Notre Dame isn't going to join the Big Ten or any conference for that matter, unless they are forced to do so to continue making big money. As long as they can stay independent with an exclusive TV contract that pays the same as the B1G and/or SEC, they'll stay independent. It seems to be important to them to be able to control their schedule.

The sacrifice in all of this super conference stuff will be the traditional rivalries. There's no way they can have guaranteed matchups every year, and still keep some sort of equitable rotation of games. Ohio State and Michigan will have seasons that they don't play unless they meet in the playoffs. Same with MSU and Michigan. So what you'll see is OSU playing for instance Washington instead of Michigan, because the rotation works out that way. Or Michigan may play Penn State instead of MSU because of a rotation.

Look at the NFL. That's what happens there. College football conferences are going to become a mini-NFL.

[froot loops]

You fellas are searching for something in these conference arrangements that nobody in charge cares about. The Frankenconferences are created for TV markets. They just went away from divisions, they certainly aren't going back to them and truthfully for the Big Ten in makes no sense to go back to divisions. The Big Ten just had 4 teams in the CFP and won a second straight title. The setup is working for the Big Ten!

The reason anyone would want to go back to a time where it's big 2 and little 8 is that was because it was your time in the sun. It's never going back (leisure suits and Nehru jackets!). The thing you have to remember about college football is they advance everything by piecemeal. Getting anything done is like trying to herd cats.