NCAA football playoffs (namely the BCS) have always sparked debate among fans for the past several years. Now, however, a new issue has come to the forefront. An issue that, if completely implemented, will completely change college football as we know it: conference expansion.
After Alabama won the national title this year, conference expansion talks began. The Big Ten, the nation’s oldest conference established in 1896, has wanted to add another school to their group for the last several years or so to make an even 12. The 12th team would allow for a conference championship game, like the SEC and Big 12 have. To those that think there is no point for this, you’re right. As with most questionable acts in sports and even society, it’s always about money.
A conference championship game would bring in a large sum of money from a television network, and those games are always played on a neutral professional football field, bringing in millions from ticket, merchandise and vendor sales for the schools participating. Not to mention, the Big Ten along with the SEC are the most lucrative conferences; the Big Ten especially because they have their own television network with over 40 million subscribers.
Bringing in another school with raise the Big Ten revenue by a considerable amount and is definitely beneficial for all the other 11 schools in the conference. The last time the Big Ten accepted a new school, Penn State in 1990, proved a very successful move. Penn State is now the second largest grossing football program in the country at $49 million, behind only Texas.
The most popular choice for the Big Ten is Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are in the geographical area of the Big Ten, have great academics, a lucrative football program and can provide the Irish with much needed competition instead of them playing USC, the Armed Forces and the bottom Big East teams every year. However, this is unlikely to happen. Notre Dame has an independent contract with NBC, garnering them millions more than any other college program’s TV deal. They can schedule their own games instead of being regulated from the conference and essentially recruit players that want national attention right away. And who wouldn’t want that?
The possible one-team expansion could cause for major problems though. It is reported that the Big Ten is not only trying to absorb one team, but five more to total 16. These five teams potentially could come from the Big East, ACC and Big 12, with the most notably rumored being Pittsburgh, Iowa State, Nebraska and Boston College.
This large expansion would cause a significant chain reaction throughout the entire NCAA. The SEC has claimed that if the Big Ten becomes a 16-team power conference, it too will expand by absorbing Big East, Big 12 and ACC teams. The Pac 10 will likely also take schools like Boise State, Hawaii, BYU and Utah to create its own power conference. The creation of large conferences will destroy what is already such a great system.
With three power conferences, the smaller conferences like the Mid-American, the Missouri Valley, or the Western Athletic that don’t even get enough attention as it is will slowly die out. There will be no point showcasing their games on national television with so many great match-ups going on within the conference every single week. Inter-conference play will reduce since a 16-team conference will provide enough competition and talent for opposing teams. It would even be difficult determining a definitive conference champion since one team will not be able to play all the other teams in a single season in the same conference since college schedules are about 12 games long.
All these reasons and more could completely change NCAA football as we know it. The Big 12, Big East and ACC would all dissolve into the Big 10, Pac 10 and SEC. All the small conferences will cease to exist and too much controversy would ensue based on who would be a conference champion.
It’s best that the NCAA keep everything the way it is. If they allow this, it will destroy college football. Right now, mid-majors are getting all-time high ratings, recruits and money from sponsors. It is unfair to them and all their fans if this plan actually goes through. Besides, doesn’t the NCAA have other things to worry about, like creating football playoffs?
When will Milwaukee get D-1 college football? Trust me, it makes sense.
In less than 10 years UWM could be in a mid-major conference, in fact the MAC would take a UW-M team immediately. Not many TV markets the size of Milwaukee are without football.
Why should we watch Cincy and Louisville get to play in BCS games? Why not UWM?
The argument that interconference play would die out is completely false. In a 16 team super conference there would be two 8 team divisions (7) games plus the conference title game for a total of 8 conference games a season. Add in traditional rivalries like Wisconsin vs Minnesota or Ohio State vs Michigan so they happen once a year still and you probably are maxing out at 9 games for most teams… Its what they already play… That still leaves 3 games a year for out of conference opportunities.
Even if teams were losing a week to play out of conference games, the number of quality games is already low. Teams like Texas and Ohio State are filling their schedule with Youngstown State and Arkansas Pine-Bluff anyways…
Controversy over who is champion? Huh? Thats the entire point of the title game. Division winners play for the title. End of story… Its already like that in the Big 12 and SEC and they seem to love it.
The NCAA does not regulate conference re-alignments. They have no say in whether to keep things the way there are right now.
interconference games would change. right now a team like iowa can play 7 or 8 out of 11 Big Ten teams. Id say that is representative of making a decision on if they are the best in the conference. instead if big ten becomes big 16, playing 7 or 8 out of 16 is inconclusive. iowa will have to play more big 16 teams instead of filling out the schedule with youngstown or arkansas pine-bluff thus reducing interconference play. those “fill-in” matchups would go to more big 16 matchups in order to determine a more definitive conference champ.
we dont watch UWM in bowl games because UWM doesnt have the money/popularity or talent to make it to a bowl game in the first place. thats a dumb question.
Next year, sub-.500 teams might get into a bowl. It’s not about playing in bowls – every conference has multiple entrants in bowls – the problem is the mid-majors’ being left out of automatic bids for bowls, as well as their conferences’ cut being significantly smaller than those of BCS conferences.
Let’s get football back. It’s a long time coming.
” Notre Dame has an independent contract with NBC, garnering them millions more than any other college program’s TV deal. ”
actually this is untrue. the big ten network pays ALL their teams more money that ND at 22 million per year.
Sam,
How is playing 7 or 8 out of 11 any more conclusive considering the scheduling effects who you get to play. Big 10 for example, you could miss Ohio St and Penn St but play the bottom of the conference instead.
Does going 7-0 playing the bottom 7 teams of a conference make you a better team than going 6-1 against the top 7 teams of a conference? No way. Certainly some years one division will be stronger than another but at least you can select the team with the best record among common opponents, as the division winner.
Scott,
With regards to ND’s contract with NBC vs Big Ten Network — the Big 10 network pays out that money for broadcasting basketball, baseball, wrestling, soccer etc. ND’s contract is football only – of which it is the richest football broadcast deal out there.
Where this is going is four super conferences such that a playoff can be created. The only this will happen is for one of two scenarios. Either the B10 takes the ENTIRE big East or they take the Big12 North schools. The other half of the B12 (in the latter scenario) would probably go to the SEC which really puts the ACC in a bad way. Good thing for the ACC it probably makes more sense for the B10 to look east. In that case look for a super merger of the ACC and SEC. Then the B12 and the P10 can split up the MW.
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