599 replies to this topic

[BSLMikeLowe]

I hope dook has to join the Sunbelt 

 

I saw on Twitter a while back a half-serious proposal that when all the valuable brands congregate into one entity, and a lot of current power conference schools are left out like Oregon State and Washington State have been, that some schools should form a southern version of the Ivy League. It would be Duke, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Tulane, Rice, and several others. Instead of the Southern Ivy League, I think they should call it the Kudzu Conference...has a better ring to it.

[BSLChrisStoner]

I would think FSU and Clemson to the SEC make sense because:
 

1) It will start a chain reaction that either severely hurts or mortally wounds the ACC. If there is no ACC for ESPN, that should be more dollars for the SEC. 

2) You add two more programs with history, cache... creating that many more interesting conference matchups. 

3) There is immediate culture fit.  They look like they belong.

4) If you are the SEC, and you know that FSU and Clemson want to leave the ACC, you don't want them joining the Big Ten, or Big 12.

 

 

The idea of the SEC wanting UNC / UVA makes sense to me...   UNC / UVA wanting to be part of the SEC does not. 
That doesn't seem like a realistic culture fit to me. 
The Big Ten makes a lot more sense for those schools in-terms of look imo. 

[BSLMikeLowe]

I would think FSU and Clemson to the SEC make sense because:
 

1) It will start a chain reaction that either severely hurts or mortally wounds the ACC. If there is no ACC for ESPN, that should be more dollars for the SEC. 

 

You gotta be real careful if you're going to be that Machiavellian. It's hard to pull off that kind of thing without a trail of communication and planning between the entities, much of which would be discoverable in an anti-trust lawsuit. I'd love to learn more about Fox's role in the Pac-12's implosion, but right now it seems OSU/WSU have other matters they need to tend to. Since it would almost certainly be more than 2 schools left out in the cold from the ACC, they might have the numbers to try it.

[BSLMikeLowe]

Florida State has posted its legal filing.

 

https://news.fsu.edu...Complaint-4.pdf

 

Interesting tidbits in there. One that struck me (paragraphs 112-114) was FSU argues that instead of Cal and Stanford the ACC should have added Oregon State because they have had the better-ranked football team the past couple years. That'll go over well out here.

 

Also makes significant references to MD's ACC exit.

[BSLMikeLowe]

Ross Dellenger

 

@RossDellenger

 

The ACC filed its own suit against the FSU Board of Trustees... yesterday.

 

 

All the lawsuits.

 

[BSLMikeLowe]

Just cancel the CFP. The undefeated College Football National Champion of 2023 is, in a landslide, Billable Hours University.

[BSLChrisStoner]

Ahh hell, through all of this, I completely forgot about Cal, Stanford, and SMU headed to the ACC. 

We need to get through to the other side of all of this...  

[BSLChrisStoner]

ESPN: UCLA's Chip Kelly advocates for single Power 5 conference

https://www.espn.com...five-conference

Mike, what did you think about Kelly's argument here?

[Mike in STL]

They're gone, Clemson will go with them. 

See people rumoring the Big Ten, or Big 12 with them the last few days... pretty hard for me to imagine it won't be the SEC.

Seems like a better geographic and culture fit. 

That takes the SEC to 18.

 

If FSU, and Clemson pull the plug... then all eyes go to UNC, and NCST.  Well, really UNC, with lil bro in tow. 

 

Big Ten should be pushing for UNC, NCST, UVA....  and one of Notre Dame (their dream), or Georgia Tech (much more likely). Also still believe they should be adding Stanford and Cal too, with the Big Ten having 4 divisions...  with ND, something like: 

 

D1:
Maryland
UNC

UVA
Penn State
Rutgers
NCST

 

D2:
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Indiana
Illinois 
Notre Dame

 

D3:

Iowa

Minnesota

Purdue
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wisconsin

 

D4:
UCLA
USC
Oregon
Washington
Cal

Stanford

I think this is where they should head. Pretty much have football be its own separate entity from conferences, do away with conferences for football. Have 2, 35 team leagues made up of the Big10/Pac12/ACC in one and the SEC/Big12/ACC in the other + ND and another school. Each league with 5 divisions of 7. Your 12 games are 6 in your division, 4 in the same finishing position from the other divisions as the year before. 2 more from a rotating pool of other members.

 

NO POLLS!

 

Your 5 division winners and 1 wild card from each league make up your 12-team playoff. 

 

Group of 5 conferences could honestly do the same. Could get real squirrely and have relegation so a team like JMU, Liberty, Bosie for a number of years, could move up and prove themselves the following year. 

[BSLMikeLowe]

Mike, what did you think about Kelly's argument here?

 

It's what everyone has been thinking for a long time.

 

College football has become this chaotic in large part because it lacks any central governance (the NCAA, per the 1984 SCOTUS ruling in NCAA v Board of Regents, is feckless). Every conference is out for its own best interests, which often times are the antithesis of what is best for the sport. Athletes in non-football sports are now going to have absurd and entirely unnecessary travel conditions put on them because they have to go where football goes (as Kelly says, they don't have to, but the idiots in their ivory towers seem to want it that way)

 

Players now jump around year-to-year as hired mercenaries because instead of treating them as employees and collectively bargaining with them, thus giving schools the ability to contractually bound them, the schools insist on continuing to treat them as students (and the courts say you can't restrict a student's freedom of movement).

 

Where Kelly's idea falls apart, IMO, is that the sport's most valuable brands are no more than about 20. Through their sheer greed, I don't see them signing up for a 64-team league where TV money is shared equally. I'm sure the likes of Alabama and Ohio State already hate sharing money equally with Vanderbilt and Purdue, respectively. And for Kelly's idea to happen, you need the Alabama's and Ohio State's on board.

 

I think ultimately we are looking at a subdivision that numbers somewhere around 30-ish teams. That will draw a lot of casual fans and TV money. It will also leave fans of a lot of schools on the outside, such that I'm not sure it would ultimately be a good thing. Despite the lack of parity, college football has had at least the veil of inclusivity about it. Saying to most of the 130+ FBS teams that "you are no longer part of our club" might have a damaging psychological effect on how a lot of people view the sport.

[BSLMikeLowe]

I'll just post it here since we're on the topic...but one thing I haven't seen anyone else mention before, and that's because it's kind of radical, is that I think once you get to the point where college football players are no longer treated as students, then you also get rid of the whole eligibility nonsense with it.

 

If a 27-year old isn't good enough for the NFL but is still a pretty good college-level player, why not let him continue to play? Imagine how much larger the pool of good players will be? Now that is the sort of thing that will bring about a lot more parity in the sport, way more than NIL or expanding the playoff. Then maybe you don't need to limit the new league to just 30 teams because teams 31-64 are suddenly much more competitive.

 

For those who think the idea is absurd, consider this.....thanks to the COVID season plus NCAA medical waivers we've already seen several players who have, or will, be participating in their 7th season with a college program.

[BSLChrisStoner]

I'll just post it here since we're on the topic...but one thing I haven't seen anyone else mention before, and that's because it's kind of radical, is that I think once you get to the point where college football players are no longer treated as students, then you also get rid of the whole eligibility nonsense with it.

 

If a 27-year old isn't good enough for the NFL but is still a pretty good college-level player, why not let him continue to play? Imagine how much larger the pool of good players will be? Now that is the sort of thing that will bring about a lot more parity in the sport, way more than NIL or expanding the playoff. Then maybe you don't need to limit the new league to just 30 teams because teams 31-64 are suddenly much more competitive.

 

For those who think the idea is absurd, consider this.....thanks to the COVID season plus NCAA medical waivers we've already seen several players who have, or will, be participating in their 7th season with a college program.

I love that. 

If you are paying the players, and they are no longer amateurs.... completely agree... zero reason to have eligibility rules. 

[SonicAttack]

"League administrators do not permit schools from holding electronic or physical copies of the grant of rights, and school attorneys who make the trip to North Carolina to review the document are “heavily monitored” by conference personnel. Attorneys are not permitted to take photographs or copy the grant of rights verbatim, FSU’s counsel told board members Friday."

 

https://sports.yahoo...-170309756.html

 

That is bizarre.  Why would the schools agree to that stipulation?  Or did they not know?  

[Chris B]

“I’m gonna steal the Atlantic Coast Conference Grant of Rights”

[BSLChrisStoner]

CBS Sports: Florida State's lawsuit spectacle was full of bluster, but Seminoles' eventual exit from ACC is inevitable

https://www.cbssport...-is-inevitable/

[Pedro Cerrano]

“I’m gonna steal the Atlantic Coast Conference Grant of Rights”

Ok this made me legit lol

[BSLMikeLowe]

Clemson has joined Florida State in going the litigation route to get out of the ACC.

 

https://www.espn.com...itant-exit-fees

[BSLMikeLowe]

As expected the ACC has filed a countersuit against Clemson to go with its countersuit against Florida State.

 

https://www.espn.com...onetary-damages

[BSLMikeLowe]

And here's the live look-in from the latest conference gathering.

 

[BSLMikeLowe]

The Athletic: Inside the college football “Super League,” one powerful group’s idea to fix a “dead” system

 

If you had asked me as recently as a year ago if I’d like this idea, I’d probably say no way. But given where things have gone since then and where they continue to appear to be headed, I’d say this might be about the best outcome for the sport you could hope for.

 

For those who can’t read the article, they want to take all 70 of the current and former Power Five teams (so it includes Notre Dame, plus SMU who just got in, as well as Oregon State and Washington State who were just kicked out) and form 7 divisions of 10 teams. Then there would be an 8th division of 10 G5 teams who would be subject to promotion/relegation between the SL and whatever becomes of the rest of FBS. The 8 division winners plus 8 wild cards would then compete in a playoff. The players would be paid directly, and the transfer portal/NIL could then be managed in a way that brings stability that’s badly lacking now.