With everyone casting their thoughts/solutions on where this expansion is headed, I figured why not try my hand in it. Below is a mix of where I see this going alongside what I’d do if I were in control. I believe I touch on just about everything so feel free to flame, agree, discuss, tell me what I missed, etc
IMO, this is heading to 2 mega conferences who are aligned together separate from the NCAA, much like the AFC-NFC under the NFL umbrella. Those two mega conferences will be the SEC & B1G. Both will need to rebrand as their identities will need to be reconfigured to reflect their new looks. B1G will be known as the Northern Athletic Conference (NAC) and the SEC will be known as the Southern Athletic Conference. Both will compete under the newly formed ECFL (Elite College Football League).
Both conferences will consist of 24 teams each. I’ll list the teams both will be adding below:
SEC/SAC = Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Clemson, Miami, Florida St, North Carolina, Duke, Ga Tech, Virginia, & Virginia Tech.
B1G/NAC = USC, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Kansas, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Boston College, Arizona, Arizona St.
You’ll notice, I added 11 teams to each conference which means both conferences will have to cut their current memberships by 1. SEC/SAC and B1G/NAC will remove Vanderbilt and Rutgers, respectively. Neither university brings anything to the table and are just financial vampires, this is something that the TV networks will not tolerate - they will be the ones making the major decisions here.
Each Conference will be divided into 3 pods of 8. I have the divisions listed below:
SEC/SAC Divisions
South West Division = Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Ok St, Arkansas, Missouri, LSU, Ole Miss
Mid South Division = Mississippi St, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, UGA, Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida St
South East Division = Miami, North Carolina, Duke, South Carolina, Clemson, Kentucky, Virginia, Virginia Tech
B1G/NAC
North West Division = USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona St, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Nebraska
North Central Division = Minnesota, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Northwestern, Indiana
North East Division = Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St, Boston College, Syracuse, Penn St, Maryland, Purdue
Scheduling
The Conferences will play 12 games spread over 14 weeks allowing for all teams to have 2 bye weeks. Each team will play their division annually (7 games) + 3 teams rotating from the other 2 divisions based on competitive balance (3 games) + 1 permanent opponent from intraconference based on rivalry/tv choice + 1 cross conference opponent based on previous season finish (SEC vs B1G Challenge type) = 12 games.
Example Schedule: Ole Miss
7 division games: Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, Ok St, Missouri, Arkansas, LSU
3 Rotating from other divisions: Georgia Tech, Auburn, Miami
1 Permanent Opponent: Miss St
1 Cross Conference: Notre Dame (both ND & OM made NY6 games last year)
Post Season
The top 16 teams from each conference will qualify for post season play. Games. will be in a playoff style format in which the winner advances to the next round a la NFL style. There would be a total of 5 rounds. Rounds 1, 2, & 3 would be played on campus with the higher seed hosting. Round 4 would the conference championship round pitting the top 2 contenders from each conference against one another at a neutral site (Georgia Dome and Indy as it is now). Winner of round 4 will advance to Round 5 which will be the Super Bowl/National Championship.
NIL & Beyond
Obviously, with the breakaway, there will have to be some major kinks to work out in the way of how this new league will want to be run. Players will need to unionize and collectively bargain against the Universities, Conference Representatives, and Networks. This is where I believe you will see the NIL cap system come into play much like any other “professional” league. Maybe it will look more like the MLB where you restrict how much a recruiting class or draft class can spend or if they want to go full on NFL where teams have a salary cap.
As far as the non-football sports, there will obviously be adjustments but they will carry on like normal. They will continue to compete under the NCAA umbrella and the NCAA will allow it because without these Universities participation, it will cease to exist. So the NCAA Basketball, Baseball, Softball, etc tournaments will continue.
IMO, this is heading to 2 mega conferences who are aligned together separate from the NCAA, much like the AFC-NFC under the NFL umbrella. Those two mega conferences will be the SEC & B1G. Both will need to rebrand as their identities will need to be reconfigured to reflect their new looks. B1G will be known as the Northern Athletic Conference (NAC) and the SEC will be known as the Southern Athletic Conference. Both will compete under the newly formed ECFL (Elite College Football League).
Both conferences will consist of 24 teams each. I’ll list the teams both will be adding below:
SEC/SAC = Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Clemson, Miami, Florida St, North Carolina, Duke, Ga Tech, Virginia, & Virginia Tech.
B1G/NAC = USC, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Kansas, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Boston College, Arizona, Arizona St.
You’ll notice, I added 11 teams to each conference which means both conferences will have to cut their current memberships by 1. SEC/SAC and B1G/NAC will remove Vanderbilt and Rutgers, respectively. Neither university brings anything to the table and are just financial vampires, this is something that the TV networks will not tolerate - they will be the ones making the major decisions here.
Each Conference will be divided into 3 pods of 8. I have the divisions listed below:
SEC/SAC Divisions
South West Division = Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Ok St, Arkansas, Missouri, LSU, Ole Miss
Mid South Division = Mississippi St, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, UGA, Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida St
South East Division = Miami, North Carolina, Duke, South Carolina, Clemson, Kentucky, Virginia, Virginia Tech
B1G/NAC
North West Division = USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona St, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Nebraska
North Central Division = Minnesota, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Northwestern, Indiana
North East Division = Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St, Boston College, Syracuse, Penn St, Maryland, Purdue
Scheduling
The Conferences will play 12 games spread over 14 weeks allowing for all teams to have 2 bye weeks. Each team will play their division annually (7 games) + 3 teams rotating from the other 2 divisions based on competitive balance (3 games) + 1 permanent opponent from intraconference based on rivalry/tv choice + 1 cross conference opponent based on previous season finish (SEC vs B1G Challenge type) = 12 games.
Example Schedule: Ole Miss
7 division games: Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, Ok St, Missouri, Arkansas, LSU
3 Rotating from other divisions: Georgia Tech, Auburn, Miami
1 Permanent Opponent: Miss St
1 Cross Conference: Notre Dame (both ND & OM made NY6 games last year)
Post Season
The top 16 teams from each conference will qualify for post season play. Games. will be in a playoff style format in which the winner advances to the next round a la NFL style. There would be a total of 5 rounds. Rounds 1, 2, & 3 would be played on campus with the higher seed hosting. Round 4 would the conference championship round pitting the top 2 contenders from each conference against one another at a neutral site (Georgia Dome and Indy as it is now). Winner of round 4 will advance to Round 5 which will be the Super Bowl/National Championship.
NIL & Beyond
Obviously, with the breakaway, there will have to be some major kinks to work out in the way of how this new league will want to be run. Players will need to unionize and collectively bargain against the Universities, Conference Representatives, and Networks. This is where I believe you will see the NIL cap system come into play much like any other “professional” league. Maybe it will look more like the MLB where you restrict how much a recruiting class or draft class can spend or if they want to go full on NFL where teams have a salary cap.
As far as the non-football sports, there will obviously be adjustments but they will carry on like normal. They will continue to compete under the NCAA umbrella and the NCAA will allow it because without these Universities participation, it will cease to exist. So the NCAA Basketball, Baseball, Softball, etc tournaments will continue.
