Everyone's talking up these super conferences with 16-20 teams each, that pool a lot of money, but don't necessarily make football sense (imagine Big XII North vs. Big XII South in the early 2000s doubled). But if we're talking a complete NCAA realignment, why not start a 4 or 5 team conference of truly elite programs instead. ND, OU, Michigan, and Ohio State for instance. No one would be hurting over media or television deals as they could all easily bank their own fan bases if necessary. Or you could easily pool 5 of the largest fan bases without having to carry any dead weight a la Baylor. No one would be shuttered from the bowl system from playing the elite teams, as you could fill your nonconference schedule with up to 9 powderpuffs (UNT, Rice, etc). It might make it a little harder to reach the national championship game, but if someone did run the table in the conference, tell me who on earth would leave out a Texas team that beat Michigan, tOSU, ND, and OU all in the same year. Or if that might be too rough, you can subtract one from the conference, and replace it with a rivalry slot to be filled by TT, TAMU, etc.
Because Michigan and Ohio State are happy where they are. Just because Texas is unhappy doesn't mean everyone is going to clamor to join us.
This actually sort of makes sense. Too bad the Big 12 can't just shed the lower half of the teams and end up with more average money per team since you don't have to split the pile with teams who aren't pulling their weight. Texas, OU, Kansas (for basketball), maybe Tech and Okie State, maybe Missouri, try and add BYU. End up with 5 or 6 teams. Not great, but actually not any worse top to bottom than any other conference because there's not much near the bottom.
Doesn't have to Michigan and OSU. Though I suspect if there's a major shift where you start seeing 16-20 team conferences, nothing will be for certain. You really think Michigan, OSU, and even Penn State will want to be carrying 13-17 teams worth of Purdues and Louisvilles?
I've been preaching 6 team conferences that team up and play other 6 team conferences for a 2 year stint, and the championship game between the 2 would/could be the first round of playoffs. 6 teams include all the local/regional rivals that then can take a on a conference in anther part of the U.S. for regional pride. Do you really want to be connected to Kansas and Iowa State forever? The idea is starting to take hold as well. Lou Holtz said 8 teams makes since to him, as a super conference would basically be two 8 team conferences anyway without having to be tied together for ever....set my people FREE!!!
