In fact, they should have started the season last month so we can play all the required games
With the transfer rule loosened up a bit (transfer anytime, anywhere, anyhow), an individual player conceivably could play for and against his original team 4 and 3 times, respectively, more so if he would be permitted to transfer within any given game.
I'm surprised Jack never thought of this. And they called him a visionary. Some visionary.
Swarby Parker, at our disservice
These two mega conferences are likely threatening to leave the NCAA and start their own mega league and want everyone else to bend over and take whatever is being offered. Call the bluff, let them go.
The new Big10/SEC basketball tournament isn’t going to be watched by too many people aside from alums of the participating schools. The NCAA tournament will remain a multi billion dollar enterprise.
ESPN isn’t going to pay the same money for a football playoff that’s only Big10/SEC. I have a strong feeling that these two conferences will be quite disappointed at the bottom line if they form their own league.
until their exposure re FSU, and Clemson, Miami, and UNC, by extension, is determined. FSU's lawsuit is non-frivolous, which the ACC well knows.
If it was truly non-frivolous, wouldn't Clemson and North Carolina already have joined or filed suits of their own?
Going from memory, but isn't the only real issue regarding the extension of the exercise date on the media option? Wouldn't the ACC still control the conference member media rights to negotiate a new media agreement even if ESPN opted to not exercise their option?
doing the work for them? Plus, not joining preserves their relationship with the ACC, such as it is.
IMO, FSU has a reasonable chance at having the court modify the GOR to 2026, which I would guess is their real hope.
Football drives these decisions.
If it wasn't, Kansas would have been on the first bus out of the B12, not stuck despite multiple rounds of realignment affecting the B12.
Even assuming basketball mattered, while I don't disagree that a B1G/SEC basketball tournament won't be some massive draw, the NCAA tournament would take an enormous financial hit if the B1G and SEC weren't in it.
However the other schools have no leverage in football. If the B1G and SEC entered in some alternate format where their champs played every year that would effectively relegate the rest of college football to a step above G5 status. The few remaining schools that are attractive to those two leagues would likely immediately bolt further cementing the leftovers in the ACC and B12 as second tier.
ND, the ACC, and the Big 12 will gladly place their elbows on the table.
Both have their own championship? In reality the Big 10/SEC would be division 1 and everyone else would be division 2. There is a zero percent chance that ND would be in division 2. ND will go where the money is.
Interesting
My point is that I don't think Big10/SEC will actually follow through and that they are bluffing. They'd lose too much money over the long run to split the sport up.
It looks like there's only two real options. Capitulate and take the shitty 14-team CFP deal the heavily favors the power 2, or dig in and draw the line somewhere reasonable.
What would you suggest? Going back in time and having someone other than Swarbrick in charge over the past 10 years while this deck was set is not an option at this point.
and then start the super league at the end of the CFP contract.
Givesyou time to get all the ducks in a row, and you can boot the IU/Vandy/Northwestern teams out and pick up the best of the remaining teams for a 32-40 team Super League, including ND.
Oh, and we'd be forced to take that or leave it, if we wanted to stay relevant, otherwise we may as well go Ivy League at that point (which some folks seem ok with).
I'm no fan of Swarbrick, but name me an active AD, school president, business executive, coach, or anyone anywhere working in the last twenty years that has shown the ability to get an entire industry to forego profit.
than the stupid 12 team playoff that we will have this year.
The thing that used to be great about college football was the fact that every game meant something (to contending teams). By the end of the regular season, you knew that there were a small number of teams that could reasonably claim that they were the best. It was extremely rare for that number to be more than three.
A twelve-team playoff will feature at least half a dozen teams that don't pass the smell test. You'd be insane not to expect a 9-3 team to get an at large bid this year. And a 9-3 or 10-2 team is not deserving of a title shot, regardless of "signature wins". Such a team failed to close too many deals.
This format is worse than the 2024 format, because there are more mediocrities in the mix, but it isn't like they would be ruining something that is pristine.
That would have made the CFP had the current proposal been in existence from the beginning of the CFP (i.e., 2014 season), based on next year's conference alignments:
2015: Oklahoma State (16)
2016: West Virginia (16)
2017: TCU (15}
2018: West Virginia (16), Syracuse (20)
2019: Virginia (24)
2021: Wake Forest (17)
2023: Louisville (15), Oklahoma State (20), Kansas State (25)
That's 10 Power 4 teams, in seven of 10 possible years, bumping a more deserving team from the CFP. That wouldn't happen in the 12-team format.
Once they decided they could just chuck longstanding tradition by instituting playoffs, the floodgates were open for any whim-of-the-moment tournament Bristol dreams up.
It will only vaguely resemble the college football we grew up with.
That's why he was so mad at the whale.
It’s a nice bribe to all those schools as they vote themselves out of meaningful existence.
It's a shame there isn't a strong voice from ND present to lead the others in pushing back on the nonsense.
conferences won’t play the other 1/2 each year.
Connelly put it so well. Those two conferences have spent the last 36 hours trying to socialize this change and make it a fait accompli. They should be told to pound sand all the way to the center of the earth.
Been trying to pay minimal attention to all this until the actual arrangement is finalized, but … this sport has a long history of naked power grabs, and this might be the most naked power grab of all time. Just spectacular insecurity on display here. https://t.co/PYwk340L5s In the most circulated version of the proposed 14-team CFP model, champions of the SEC & Big Ten would be guaranteed the two first-round byes, sources tell @YahooSports.
Intense debate and discussion among leaders continues.https://t.co/SBNluvjbre