The Future of College Football

I've written plenty on this blog about what I think should or should not be done to alter college football so that it can be even better. But now I want to give my prognostication about what changes I think will happen over the next 5-10 years which could drastically alter the structure of college football.

1. With all the conference realignment of the summer of 2010, not much ended up happening, but there was some movement. But really, I think that was a bit of foreshadowing for what is to come in the near future. The Big XII, which only has 10 teams, is basically Texas plus nine...and Texas A&M and Oklahoma don't like that. I think there is a very real possibility that A&m and possibly Oklahoma branch off and join the SEC. This would force Texas to become an independent and leave the other 7 schools scrambling for somewhere to go...I assume Missouri and Kansas would join the Big 10, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to the PAC 12, and Iowa St., Kansas St. and Baylor to Mountain West, Big East, or CUSA. So basically, the Big 12 will dissolve like the Southwest conference did.

2. If the above happens, then the Big 10, PAC 12, and SEC would all have 14 teams, and would need two more to have a nice 16 number. The SEC picks up Clemson or N.C. State and Virginia Tech. The Big 10 (or now 16) picks up Rutgers and Syracuse. The PAC 12 (or now 16) picks up Boise State and either SMU, TCU or Baylor. So, now you've got (3) 16-team conferences, the Big East with 7 or 8 teams, the ACC with 10 teams, and a few high-profile independents.

3. The big conferences are sick of having to share the revenue for the BCS and everything else with the 50+ non-BCS schools. And these schools keep making the jump from I-AA to get their hands on that money, and they aren't contributing very much, but complaining about how they can't get into the BCS Championship, etc. Not to mention the NCAA's horribleness, the major conferences want to do something about it. With the three major conferences, they branch off and create their own 'College Football Association' with or without the involvement of the NCAA.

4. Schools like Florida State, Miami (FL), West Virginia, GA Tech and other high-profile schools left out of the big 3 conferences go independent in football and pay the hefty entry fee to be included in the 'College Football Association'. Approximately 60 schools will be in the CFA, with approx. 12 being independent. Maybe the ACC or Big East is able to enter as a smaller conference, but they will not join together due to basketball so there would still be a handful of independents.

5. While the CFA would be making a ton more money than it was previously, it would be chaos without a governing body so we use our democratic system to elect one instead of creating another communist organization like the NCAA was.

6. Everything lines up for an obvious 8-team playoff. Each of the 3 conferences have championship games, and either the top 2 independents or top independent vs. Big East/ACC Champ plays to get into the 4-team playoff...and it's played out from there.

It might not all go down this way, but I think it will happen something like this. It might be impossible to get rid of the NCAA, but mega conferences are inevitable and branching out of the 'FBS' is something I think will happen.

JB