College Football: the pros and cons of super conferences

The pros of conference realignment

A greater variety of matchups

Perhaps one of the biggest upsides to potential super conferences, at least in my eyes, is a greater variety of matchups.

Take Penn State for example; for the past eight seasons, half of their schedule has consisted of the same six teams every year, with their other conference games each season being 2-3 of the same seven teams from the western division.

However, with super conferences, fans will get to watch a greater variety of matchups year in and year out – especially if these conferences reach 20+ teams apiece, which they likely will.

Why does a team like Ohio State have to beat up on Rutgers by 50 every year, or Georgia dominating Vanderbilt? If they’re going to win by a lot, might as well have it at least not be the same few teams over and over every year.

Plus, while leaving behind some old rivalries is definitely a downside of realignment, forming some new ones by playing some unfamiliar opponents could be a lot of fun as well.

A better postseason format?

At a certain point, once conferences get too big, they’ll likely have to have a bracket to determine a conference champion.

For this hypothetical, let’s just say that the Big Ten and SEC each have 20 teams total, with four divisions of five teams apiece. Each division champ would receive a bid into the conference’s four team tournament, where the four division champs would battle it out for the conference title.

From there, if there are four “power conferences” – Big Ten, SEC, and two more made up of what’s left of the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, and top-tier Group of 5 schools – each conference’s champion could receive and automatic bid into the College Football Playoff.

So essentially, that would be a 16-team playoff with a clear path to a National Championship. Win your division, then run the table with four consecutive postseason wins.

In theory, that acts as an expanded postseason while not devaluing the regular season, because a team still was to be able to win their division, yet we now how more teams nationwide who are qualifying for a bracket that will give them a direct path to the playoff and a shot at a national title.

A potential for less “cupcake” games?

With conferences expanding, is there a chance that the number of conference games per season increases, which in turn decreases the number of “cupcake” non-conference games? Maybe not, and maybe this is just wishful thinking, but if it does come to fruition, it would certainly be a good thing.

The Big Ten currently plays a nine-game conference slate, but could they increase it to ten if a few more teams (on top of USC and UCLA) join the conference? They used to play eight conference games, but the addition of Maryland and Rutgers in 2014 forced the conference to increase the conference slate to nine in 2016. So, an increase in conference games isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

With a 10-game conference schedule, in a season where a team schedules a marquee non-conference matchup – such as Penn State vs Auburn this year and last – then there would only be room for one “cupcake” game to be played, which means less blowouts and more competitive matchups for fans to enjoy.

TV deals

While TV/streaming deals could potentially be a downside for the fans, the potential for the money that these deals could bring to the schools is definitely a plus.

For example, the Big Ten’s “top tier rights” are currently a 50/50 split between Fox and ESPN/ABC at $31.4 million per school. That information is from an article from Corn Nation (a Nebraska Cornhuskers centric site), which has an excellent breakdown of the current state of college football TV deals. I encourage you to check it out if you are curious about how the TV deals for each conference currently works.

Anyway, that number that each school receives annually will almost certainly increase as conferences get bigger and more powerful, which is certainly a good thing.

Travel

Another aspect that can be both a pro and a con, depending on how you look at it, is travel.

Sure, it might be a bit much to ask for college football teams to travel across the country numerous times per year for a road game, but for fans, this could be a plus.

Having a more schools in more parts of the country in each conference gives fans an opportunity to see more towns/cities, more campuses, and more stadiums while still watching their favorite team.

An example might be an Oklahoma fan that wants to take in a game at LSU’s Death Valley. Could they have done it previous to realignment? Sure, but planning around the Sooners’ schedule would make things more complicated. Now, it’s an easy decision as to when to go to Baton Rouge to take in a game.

Conference expansion makes it easier for fans to travel to new places, as opposed to taking in games in the same handful of road stadiums year after year.