protect themselves from being left behind, which I think is the likelier outcome.
their per capita revenue, and that would be inevitable if teams with lesser following are added to the ones they already have in their conferences.
This is of course why Syverud and Gee are conceding up front to unequal revenue distribution, but all that would do is perpetuate what we already have by trimming the sails a little bit.
What I'm envisioning is a world in which the Indianas and Vandys would end up better off than they currently are since they would only effectively be competing with around 40 other schools, all with equal media revenue, instead of 134. It's debatable what the "right" number to land on is, but 70 seems to me to be far too many.
Keep in mind that cutting players in on the media revenue, which is where I think this is headed and where it needs to go, is going to dilute each school's current profit. That's another reason why 70 is too optimistic, even with unequal revenue. Recall, their proposal assumes that the full value of media revenue hasn't been tapped yet, which I think is a little dubious. The article even suggests as much, "One TV executive called the idea that there is a lot more untapped money in the market 'naive.'”
It won't be 134 and it won't be SEC + Big10 as currently constructed. It will be in between as many schools not in those two leagues will be involved in any Super League and an SEC+Big10 is an inferior product to a TBD Super League.
That should be a non-starter...at least long term. I could see certain assurances being given to certain teams that they won't be relegated for the first x years (I'd suggest 2-4), but to NEVER be relegated is a sham.
I posted about it before, but I still think there is a path for a 2-level, 4 conference, 8-division system. Based on geography. I linked a spreadsheet where I looked at this before.
64 teams in the top level/64 teams in the lower level
4 conferences of 32 teams (16 teams in the top level, 16 in the lower level)
2 divisions of 8 teams in each conference per level.
12 game regular season where each top level team plays:
1 team in the lower tier but part of its same conference/division
2 teams from any other conference of the top level
2 teams from the opposite division within its conference
7 games against the other 7 teams in its division
Regular season champs of each division within a conference play each other (conference championship)
That leaves four teams in the 'playoffs'.
Last place team in each division is relegated and the division champs from the lower division replace them.
should be permanently protected from relegation as a consequence of their geographically convenient membership in the Big 10 and SEC is laughable.
The list could easily keep growing.