https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/45451273/ohio-state-rya...
For those that want the synopsis (not from an AI agent since that seems to be hot right now) - Ryan Day wants the Big 10 to have 4 automatic qualifies for the CFP. Basically a guaranteed reservation for 4 out of the 16 teams. Given the current format and shenanigans, I think he can (respectfully) get bent. Until the format changes and the entire FBS get their act together to act as a premier league and not a collection of conferences under a shell of an association, ideas like this will continue to pop-up as each conference tries to extract more money from Disney.
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B1G along with $EC have been angling for this for some time...
+1 for Buster Scruggs reference
No disagreement. This is just the most overt statement yet, and college footballs falls down another peg on my list of enjoyable things.
B1G and $EC scared they won't get 4 bids each without them being gifted to them?
No - B1G and $EC know that if 4 bids is standard, the odds of getting 5 or 6 is even better.
I hate this idea just as much as every non-P2 college football fan, but I think it's more likely than not to be the new reality (I think there's about a 60% chance that SEC and B10 are guaranteed half of the bids in the next playoff iteration)
You're dreaming if you think the inevitable CFB premier league is going to be 130-some FBS teams. It's going to be somewhere between 16 and 30ish teams after the bluebloods and nuevo riche teams break away from FBS in 2030 when the SEC and B10 GoR both expire.
I just hope that there is a promotion/relegation structure, but I'm really concerned/pretty confident that this won't be the case.
"It's going to be somewhere between 16 and 30ish teams after the bluebloods and nuevo riche teams break away from FBS in 2030 when the SEC and B10 GoR both expire."- Yep and your school won't be part of it. It's funny when you kill the sport based on fake numbers and emotional arguments that these unintended consequences rear their heads. VT will be playing glorified club football because "ballers didn't get paid for their services". Lifes a bitch.
This is primarily a consequence of playoff expansion rather than NIL, in my opinion.
However, I think a third defensible stance would be, that regardless of NIL or playoff expansion, there still may have ended up being a, or a push for a, super league if the top teams could get the most broadcast money from that, eventually.
Absolutely- There is never enough money. Must get more- if that means Boise and VT are playing club football, so fucking be it. Money.
I truly think that cutting out the fans of 100 teams will really hurt the ratings of a super league long term
I sure as hell ain't watching.
If anything, it makes it super convenient for me to avoid them because they'll never play a team I'm interested in.
Me neither.
Yeah, I would certainly find something else to do.
It's almost as if they have forgotten you need to fight for viewers.
Nah, OSU Michigan will get huge ratings, Bama LSU, etc. People are stupid.
I think you, and the TV/League execs, underestimate how many people watch those games because its the league their own team plays in .... and more and more it doesn't feel like the other teams play in that league. You can tell the difference even in the workplace where coworkers who used to be all in on CFB don't even talk about it at lunch anymore because they only watch their team now. I have seen a measurable disengagement across the fanbase. Those big name matchups are juicing and orange that was grown in an orchard that they cut down to use the wood for more juicers.
I'm guessing they have data to support what they're doing.
My guess is, they feel like people who didn't go to college still have favorite college teams, and that those teams will just start being whoever is on TV. And people who don't go to a football school will still have favorite college teams.
I know a guy who went to JMU before they became an FBS school, and I still see him at Lane, in a one-orange sleeved Marcus Vick jersey at least twice a year.
VT was his team before JMU was his school, and that hasn't changed.
ESPN has been building their army of SEC fans who didn't go to their respective schools (or live in that state) for years. By the time they lose all the diehard VT fans, they'll replace them with diehard SEC fans who have been trained up to invest in the SEC for decades now.
Still? After everything?
EDIT: referring to the Marcus Vick jersey
anOSU has over 60,000 students on campus. Michigan isn't far behind that. Woody and past coaches on both sides made it a war, so between those that attended these schools and the residents of each state, there's a lot of eyeballs invested in this one.
And for the egg bowl, you are born either roll tide or war eagle. Periodt. It's personal down there. They could geofence that game and not show it outside the state and still draw big ratings.
It's life. In both of these games. And these 2 games happen to be in the big dragon conferences that drive the decisions.
FYI egg bowl is Mississippi (believe you mean iron bowl) but your point still stands.
Yes, fast fingers and neck deep in proposals got me again.
Nah, I haven't watched either of those games in over a decade.
Agree. I think they're out punting their coverage, but only time will tell. The general sentiment seems to be that the casual fan is becoming less and less interested (or the diehard fan for that matter, depending on your team), however the screws keep getting turned tighter. We shall see.
Doesn't matter. ESPN runs sports- all sports. They shove a terrible product and league in millions in debt- the WNBA in your face, like it matters. They essentially killed the NHL when they didn't get that contract. Their hockey coverage consisted of one spot a week with Barry Melrose as attendance on average was much better than the NBA. They cover hypothetical NBA trades that will never happen more than any other sport than the NFL. They have had personal reporters for LeBron. They ignore major league baseball for meaningless NBA games where teams openly tank. Point is... if they continue to push the SEC only and shove Ole Miss auburn down your throat 24/7 the casual fan will think that game is as big as the super bowl. Perception is reality. ESPN is in control. They said Sheduer Sanders was great and the number one pick- until they didn't.
I think the majority of the country consumes college football in a very different way than you and I do.
I used to watch everything, I have two sides by side tvs mounted in my basement, and would bring in a third for football season. I have seen games in over 50 college stadiums and a lot were not VT. I have seen 2 games in person in a single day. I've watched the Thursday night games in person then drove to another Saturday gane multiple times. I've been to multiple bowl games in a single bowl season. I've ran back to the car, or people's houses or how ever just to get a game on because I was at UTenn when VT went to 3rd OT vs cuse, or at Clemson when Stanford hard a top 5 statistic upset of Stanford or where ever just to see the game or hear the call. Other than ASU v Texas while I was at the gym, I haven't seen an SEC team play in 2 years. I've been to Bama twice, I went to Vandy, MSU, OU, Tenn, UGA, USC. I've seen every P2 team in person except Indiana, Minnesota, and Illinois.
The iron bowl is meaningless. OSU-Michigan is meaningless. It all no longer matters. I dont care about the playoffs one bit. I wouldn't watch a super league because we have that it's called the NFL.
Realignment is the primary culprit IMO. If we returned to 2010 conferences, and had NIL + Transfer portal + playoff, none of this would be an issue. Nebraska/Texas/OU would be in the B12, USC/Oregon/UW still in the Pac12, and the B10/SEC wouldn't have enough bluebloods to demand double the TV revenue as the other conferences. Each power conference would get 1-2 autobids; the idea that the SEC/B10 should get double the autobids of the other conferences would be laughable.
I think this is a good point, but I think this is a result of the Southeast (+ Texas, who consolidated their biggest brands + OU into the Southeast) and the Midwest being the most popular areas for college football is what caused the realignment. You saw the biggest brands from those areas head to the SEC or B1G because those were the markets with more long term college football sustainability. So the underlying issue is still that those two areas, and by extension, those conferences, were sort of destined to consolidate power for money, a la my third stance.
Voila - we have the NFL minor leagues at the AAA, AA, and A levels
Problem there is how do you determine the top 4/bottom 4 for the promotion/relegation if all 32 teams don't play each other ? For instance , in soccer, the teams within each division play each other(e.g. each British Premier League teams plays every other team twice and points are awarded-3 for win an 1 for tie and margin of victory/goal differential is used to resolve ties in position).
Issues I see
1) How would/could you do this without playoffs at each level to determine the "top 4 that would be promoted?
2) And much more difficult, how could you determine the bottom 4 to relegate?
3) The promotion relegation model really only works where there is NO playoff anywhere and the regular season is all that matters.
I'm good with that BUT no way you could fit 31 games needed for a 32 team division. Given the lack of needs of playoffs, you would need to have somewhere around 16 team "levels" which would keep the total number of games similar to what occurs today. This would also make bowl games obsolete I think.
Two conferences of 16 teams, 2 divisions per conference (4 divisions total), and 8 teams in each division. Bottom dweller from each gets knocked down based on record alone. None of this touchy-feely ranking BS. Records matter.
He's not dreaming, in fact he is awake as hell. He understands that the top 15 things that matter in college football are dead presidents printed on green tint. He fully understands that. Money talks. Money buys players, money pays agents and hs coaches bribes, money pays professors to pass athletes that can't read, money is ALL that matters. Period. This is what the fans wanted- the NFL part 2. It's what equating college tuition to no monetary value got you. The B1G has the second most money. That's all the CFP is about- money. So he's dead on that they will get 4 automatic spots. If not, like any rule trying to govern the sport- they will sue of course- and win- easily. Can't cap or limit the B1Gs potential TV money. That's illegal. That's not fair trade. Money.
Wish I could give more legs because this is 110% spot on
Except for the "this is what the fans wanted". I don't believe that any fan wanted to see this. I was okay with a stipend, like the kind that other scholarships give. But not this shit.
I think he's referring to all the people that said it was unfair that the athletes couldn't be/get compensated for playing a game for their school that their school and coaches profited from. Scholarships weren't good enough, worthless even.
No one stopped to think about how it could become the wild Wild West.
Yes, some of us did and recognized exactly what was going to happen.
The landscape has been circling the drain for years. Now with the House settlement it's going to be interesting to see how far the big players actually take this. It's going going to be extremely interesting to see how long state-funded colleges and universities remain funded by their respective state. I'm not in favor of state taxes going to pay athletes beyond the scholarship.
Its not dreaming, its the proposal that the SEC and Big Ten are trying to force on everyone else starting this upcoming season. They want 4 auto bids each, and the rest of us can fight for scraps.
AND I bet the ACC agrees to it in exchange for 2 autobids, because Phillips thinks that the ACC is too pathetic to have 2 teams finish top 16 in most years.
As long the 2 autobids excludes Notre Dame, he should jump on that deal.
In a world where legit conferences literally die- the Pac 12, and The SEC poaches Texas and Oklahoma and UCLA plays road conference games at Rutgers, Notre Fucking Dame- One major bowl win in 32 years- has as much power as the entire SEC. fucking mind boggling.
Phillips will sell our soul in football if it means an under the table guaranteeing us of 6 or 7 autobids in basketball
Fuck 6 or 7... how about 14? Like the SEC got this year. Those 17-14 teams were awesome I tell you. Especially the ones that finished 5-13 in the SEC and didn't win a league game after Jan 15th.