It should probably divided into two conferences, though.

Ooh, and maybe they could further divide those conferences into divisions--by geography? Each division winner could then go to the playoff, with the best non-winner getting a spot as well. They could call that team the "wild card."

At some point, they will probably want to absorb a few more teams--maybe to get up to 32. Then they could have 4 divisions in each conference and they could expand the playoffs even further--maybe include more wild card teams in teach division.

Sounds familiar.

10 teams per conference, everyone plays 9 conference games and steps out of conference for 3 games. The schools can sort out who lands in which conference.

With a 12 team playoff field, I'd stipulate you're not playoff eligible if you haven't played 12 FBS opponents.
I'd grant a playoff spot to 6 conference champs (since conference championships seem to be of such importance to these codependents).
The other 6 playoff teams would be at-large & selected in a manner similar to as has been done for the playoff the last few years, as would playoff seeding.

Unfortunately, it would never work because it would force the self-proclaimed worldwide leader and the other networks to get more creative with their contracts for media rights; it would eliminate too much revenue from unnecessary conf championship games; it would eliminate too many guaranteed wins from schedules; and it would cost the cupcakes too much revenue.


I liked college football a lot more when I was a kid.

Teams either don't play football or are in smaller conferences. Will these be football only alliances?

in that arrangement. I think we would be forced to join fully. Depending on how the contracts read, we may be able to hold out until the 2034 or 35 when the current grant of rights agreement expires. Beyond that though, I bet we would have to go all in or out.

for football. I can't see the SEC having any interest in Syracuse, BC, Wake Forest, or Duke football. And if I were Louisville, Georgia Tech, or Pitt, I'd also be looking over my shoulder.

That leaves Clemson, FSU, Miami, Va Tech, NC State, UNC, and maybe UVA. Maybe they would throw in Ga Tech to make it a majority so that the conference could presumably be dissolved, which might make the grant of rights issue easier to dispense with.

If this were to happen, then it makes intuitive sense that the B1G would also expand to 24. To do that, they would add:
USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Iowa State, University of Arizona, Stanford, Cal, Colorado, and Utah. The three non-AAU Pac-12 members (ASU, Washington State, Oregon State) get cut.

That would leave two "conferences" of 24 schools each with ND and BYU independent and making it 50 in all.

want Georgia Tech. South Carolina won’t want Clemson. They might tell SC to shut up and take it, but Georgia and Florida have a lot of pull in the conference.

Will Duke and Kansas basketball do anything for the schools in conference realignment? I'm guessing not.

I don't think that getting into an expanded super-conference/SEC would be any good for Duke football anyway. They are struggling in the ACC coastal. What are they going to do in a super-SEC? Lose I guess. In the ACC coastal, it looks like they had a bit of success in 2013-14 and perhaps could hope to have some winning conference records again. Hard to see how they'd have any hope of that in a super-conference.

Duke isn't unique in that regard. Clemson would be competitive. FSU might be able to get back into things. I'm not sure about Miami in the changing landscape. Va Tech if the stars align? UNC?

They should have invited Penn State before the Big 10 gobbled them up.

Misplayed cards in the early 90s created oath dependencies.

1982 is the year Penn State came up for a membership vote in the Big East. The Big East actually voted 5-3 in favor of admitting Penn State, but a 2/3 vote for admission was required, so it failed.

Because of the secrecy of the vote, we'll never know how/why that happened, but a few theories have surfaced. It's been rumored that Boeheim didn't want Penn State in the Big East. OTOH, it's also been rumored that the three dissenting votes were cast by Georgetown, Villanova and St. John's. Not defending Boeheim, but I think the latter possibility is more plausible -- those schools likely would have seen Penn State as less institutionally/athletically compatible, perhaps irreconcilably so.

In any event, this spawned Mike Tranghese's memorable comment that "We will rue the day" when we denied Penn State admission. It took 30 years to completely come true, but Tranghese certainly was right.

Hard to imagine how different the landscape would look today if the Big East had taken Penn State back then. I don't think the Big East would have added football immediately, but it would have happened sooner than it did. And a Big East with Penn State certainly would have been a stronger football conference than a pre-Florida State ACC.

Southern sport now at the HS level. And that skewing will probably increase over time. Thus an SEC-ACC kind of combination - in recognition that football is king - makes sense. Even more so if Texas and OU join the SEC.

And SEC hoops would probably benefit.

I see the Big 10 being further isolated. Maybe they hold their noses and pick up a Kansas and West Virginia - and form some sort of partnership with the PAC.

And whatever is left joins up in some sort of AAC Big 12 leftovers mega conference.

The SEC didn’t take any of UT’s nonsense, and it would not likely be inclined to give us any special privileges.

Still way better than the Big 10 in every football related sense.

are serious about FB and respect ND's tradition. I was working with some UGA consultants the last couple years and they were so enamored of coming to ND for a game. It was a huge deal for them - not unlike some of the ACC schools like Clemson.

And has been discussed in the BR in the past, the South's incursions into the Midwest for HS seniors of an academic nature is serious. Clemson, UGA, Alabama, LSU, UNC, Ga Tech, UVA, Va Tech, FSU, UF, South Carolina, Vandy, Wake Forest...even Tennessee and Kentucky, have growing representation in Chicago surburban HS graduating classes.

ND needs to continue to establish a geographical footprint in the South beacause that is the direction of the Midwest's gravitational pull.

Younger SEC alumni have one universal perspective on traditional powers outside the south: “This isn’t 1940 anymore, y’all! What’s your record since 2006??? Wooo, yeeehawwww!”

I fear that’s the way their perspective is more broadly shifting.