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September 26, 2021 By: Mark Knudson

Who should end up where in College Football’s “Super Conference” – and who should be left out

No matter the size of the party, you can’t invite everyone.

Same holds true when you’re forming the inevitable College Football Super Conference.

Now that the Big 12 has gone ahead and added four new members – none of whom were previously members of Power Five conferences – that league is back to having 12 members for the first time in a decade. It appears that’s where they’ll stay, at least until the next seismic shake-up.

The Southeastern Conference will have 16 teams when Oklahoma and Texas officially join, while the Big 10 will stay at 14 members (for now), same as the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Pac 12 will stand pat with their even dozen.

Do the math. When you add in independent Notre Dame, it comes out to 69 programs.

That’s too many, even for a Super Conference.

The right number is 64. It divides into four very nicely, as we see with the NCAA basketball tournament. The Super Conference will use that model so they can end up with their coveted “Final Football Four” each season.

“College” football as we know it at the highest level will soon become the equivalent of Triple A professional baseball, if it hasn’t already. And professional leagues can’t be a hodgepodge of different leagues with different numbers of teams. It will need to be symmetrical and easy to schedule.

So 64 it will have to be.

When the day arrives (within the next five years) that the Power Five decide to officially break away from the overwrought NCAA and form their own Football Super Conference, exactly which programs will make the move? And who will be the unfortunate ones left behind?

There are programs in the Power Five that don’t have the unbridled devotion to football that will be a requirement. There are still schools that value basketball and other sports almost as much as money, err, football and can remain behind in what will be a revamped Division I/FBS level of true collegiate football. They can remain members of their conferences in basketball and still reap good to great paydays in that way.

Another school that’s currently in the Group of Five will be part of the new alignment – Boise State. That means six members of the current Power Five will need to be given notice, and not become part of the Super Conference. Those six are easy to identify.

To be in the Super Conference, you have to meet some specific and absolute criteria. Like:

Be able and willing to spend lavishly on facilities and coaches salaries. Yes, the Supers will make a ton of money, but they will spend a ton of money too.
Have a willingness to sell out to win a championship. It’s only cheating if you get caught…and with the loosing (abandonment?) of rules, not that much will be cheating anymore anyway.
Pack your stadiums to the gills (even during the pandemic) every Saturday.
Be in a huge media market where tons of TV money can be generated.

Here’s how it should look:

Western Conference

Pacific Division

Cal
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington State

Mountain Division

Arizona
Arizona State
Baylor
Boise State
BYU
Colorado
Texas Tech
Utah

High Plains Division

Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Iowa State
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wisconsin

Southwest Division

Arkansas
Kansas
Kansas State
Houston
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas

Eastern Conference

Northeast Division

Cincinnati
Michigan
Michigan State
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Pitt

Central Division

Kentucky
Louisville
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Missouri
Tennessee
Texas A&M
West Virginia

Gulf Coast Division

Alabama
Auburn
Central Florida
Florida
Florida State
Georgia
LSU
Miami (Fla)

Atlantic Division

Clemson
Maryland
North Carolina
North Carolina State
South Carolina
Syracuse
Virginia
Virginia Tech

This means a permanent demotion for Boston College, Vanderbilt, Rutgers, Duke, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest.

These are all very fine institutions with very solid athletic departments, a couple of which have fielded pretty decent football teams in recent years. They just don’t do so consistently, and most importantly they simply don’t appear willing to sell their souls to win at big time football. Vandy for example has a far better following in baseball than in football. A recent trip to play Colorado State included only roughly four dozen Commodore fans. By contrast, Vandy baseball fans pack the park for a similar trek to the College World Series.

The Boston College admin originally voted against giving college athletes additional stipend money several years ago due to budget concerns. They were the only ones. They simply aren’t all in on competing with the big boys. Same with Wake Forest. Rutgers has been pretty miserable in football over the years, and while Georgia Tech has been fun to watch with the old-school option attack, they’ve become pretty much hopeless in terms of competing in the ACC as well.

Duke, Wake Forest and even Georgia Tech to some degree are more basketball focused anyway. No reason the Blue Devils won’t continue to be a college basketball powerhouse.

Yes, there are a few members of the select 64 that will never be contenders for even their division title, but they will at least try. All six of these football programs would be better off as football-only members of the new-look American Athletic Conference, the league that’s the biggest loser in the recent Big 12 expansion. These programs, and the others left behind will find a new benefit – the chance to win a championship at this new level of true “college” football, which could have long term benefits for all.