Superconferences & Realignment

greyhammer90

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Yeah, co-signed.

The true death of the sport will be indifference to the middle and lower levels. That will probably be a slow process, though.

Yep. The people on this board are the exception to the rule. Most people care about college sports because they care about seeing the college they attended beat the nearby rival. If you remove that from the sport, they're not going to get another team to watch, they'll just stop watching altogether.

A blue-blood has more fans than a smaller program, but there are way more small programs than blue-bloods.
 

irishjim

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So I'm sure Bevacqua has started negotiations with the Big/SEC to see who lets us in for Olympic sports. Doubt ACC can survive in any way with all those schools leaving

 

ndfanatic78

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Ahh I am scared of change. Change is bad. Change destroys all. Nothing can withstand change. Ahhh not change. Change is the boogeyman. :eek::sleep::giggle:

Thats what all this sounds like to me.
 

ndfanatic78

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So I'm sure Bevacqua has started negotiations with the Big/SEC to see who lets us in for Olympic sports. Doubt ACC can survive in any way with all those schools leaving

They supposedly already have a handful of schools ready to join to replace the schools that are supposedly leaving so that they will not fall below 15 schools.
 

stlnd01

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Yeah, co-signed.

The true death of the sport will be indifference to the middle and lower levels. That will probably be a slow process, though.
This is what worries me. It has more to do with the transfer/NIL rules than conferences.
If you're a fan/alum of some mid/lower-tier Power Five school - and there are many - how many times are you going to watch your best players be bought off by the big boys - like Jahmyr Gibbs from Ga. Tech or that WR who went from Pitt to USC - before you start feeling like a AAA baseball team. And no one cares about AAA baseball teams.
 

IrishLax

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It'll end up being a "Big 3"... the Big Ten will have all the northern and high academic schools, SEC will have all the flagship state universities in the south, and the Big 12 will have the coast-to-coast "we care about sports but people don't really care that much about us" schools.
 

greyhammer90

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Ahh I am scared of change. Change is bad. Change destroys all. Nothing can withstand change. Ahhh not change. Change is the boogeyman. :eek::sleep::giggle:

Thats what all this sounds like to me.

It's alright to be distrustful of change under certain circumstances. Circumstances like "We're blowing up centuries of regionality and tradition... and this is bad for most student athletes... and isn't what any fans want... but our early projections indicate that Disney/Fox/NBC sport viewership for Q42024 are going to be up ~5%!"
 

BobbyMac

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Another step towards yearly games vs MI, MSU, Purdue...

It's the haves vs the have nots.

 

OhioIrish

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It'll end up being a "Big 3"... the Big Ten will have all the northern and high academic schools, SEC will have all the flagship state universities in the south, and the Big 12 will have the coast-to-coast "we care about sports but people don't really care that much about us" schools.
In this scenario, give me ND in the SEC. Maybe add Duke, Virginia, and UNC for an academic boost. That’s a conference I’d be into!
 

BobbyMac

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In this scenario, give me ND in the SEC. Maybe add Duke, Virginia, and UNC for an academic boost. That’s a conference I’d be into!

You'll get a game in Columbus every other year and like it.
 

Blazers46

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I was wondering how long this would take.

Next up: limits on scholarships. After that: limits on player eligibility.
Unlimited eligibility, just have to be enrolled… as a formality but don’t have to take any classes. Then they will realize how stupid everything is and just call it minor league football.
 

Bishop2b5

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Not sure why the schools would approve this or want it. If everyone can have unlimited staffs, it's no advantage to any of them. It just means you have a bigger payroll. I'd think schools would want a limited coaching staff.
 

KMac151993

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At what point does the billion dollar NFL step in? If colleges become a "league" and players are making as much to play as the NFL why would they bolt?
 

zelezo vlk

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Not sure why the schools would approve this or want it. If everyone can have unlimited staffs, it's no advantage to any of them. It just means you have a bigger payroll. I'd think schools would want a limited coaching staff.
Because ND, Bama, Georgia, Texas, and A&M can afford unlimited staffs and many other schools can't. It's an arms race at the top but it further widens the gap between the haves and have nots.
 

BobbyMac

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I'd like to see 6 years of eligibility as long as you are on pace to get a bachelors in 4 and a masters in 6.

You then have a choice of trying to be a Bama/UGa/OSU 5* hunter who leave in 3 or a Harbaugh@Stanford model where you rely on 5th & 6th year college studs who are making as much/more with NIL than they would in the League.
 

stlnd01

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I'd like to see 6 years of eligibility as long as you are on pace to get a bachelors in 4 and a masters in 6.

You then have a choice of trying to be a Bama/UGa/OSU 5* hunter who leave in 3 or a Harbaugh@Stanford model where you rely on 5th & 6th year college studs who are making as much/more with NIL than they would in the League.
This would be a great model for us. We’d get a few of those high-star three-and-outs too, and have a bunch of grown-ass dudes to roll out in between them.
 

Pops Freshenmeyer

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Not sure why the schools would approve this or want it. If everyone can have unlimited staffs, it's no advantage to any of them. It just means you have a bigger payroll. I'd think schools would want a limited coaching staff.
The holding of the Supreme Court case (Alston) was that limits on education-related compensation violated the Sherman Act's anti-trust provisions. The coach limits are pretty certainly in violation for the same reasons.

The first lawsuit would have taken that rule down. This change was a fait accompli.
 

Irish#1

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They're running around the campus at Texas and Oklahoma swapping out conference logos.
 
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zelezo vlk

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Texas had a big party on campus yesterday celebrating the change to the SEC
 
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