A Jersey Guy: A Plan to Save CFB
It's chaos now, but the people at ESPN and Fox are working 24/7 to put together for debuts at stadiums near you.
After looking at all the reports coming from all meetings being held, we at TMG have solved the puzzle that is perplexing the college football world.
With room for fine tuning and some tweaking such as division breakdowns , this is what we predict will happen and should happen.
The basics.
70 FBS teams.
4 Power Conferences
In alphabetical order:
The Atlantic-Pacific Conference (20 teams) (Federated meaning a football only conference. In all other sports, the Pac-10 remains untouched.
1. Clemson
2. Florida State
3. Miami
4. Georgia Tech
5. Syracuse
6. North Carolina
7. North Carolina State
8. Wake Forest
9. Duke
10. Virginia
11. Virginia Tech
12. Pittsburgh
12. Syracuse
13. Boston College
14. Louisville
15. Oregon
16. Oregon State
17. California
18. Stanford
19. Washington
20. Washington State
The Big Ten Conference (16 teams)
1. Rutgers
2. Maryland
3. Penn State
4. Ohio State
5. Michigan
6. Michigan State
7. Indiana
8. Purdue
9. Northwestern
10. Illinois
11. Wisconsin
12. Iowa
13. Nebraska
14. Minnesota
15. .UCLA
16. USC
Big 12 Conference (16 teams) (In football only, the four Pac-12 teams go back to the Pac-10 in all other sports)
1. Kansas
2. Kansas State
3. Iowa State
4. Oklahoma State
5. Baylor
6. TCU
7. Texas Tech
8. West Virginia
9. Cincinnati
10. Central Florida
11. Houston
12. BYU
13. Utah
14. Colorado
15. Arizona
16. Arizona State
The Southeastern Conference (16 teams)
1. Florida
2. Georgia
3. South Carolina
4. Tennessee
5. Vanderbilt
6. Mississippi
7. Mississippi State
8. Alabama
9. Auburn
10. LSU
11. Kentucky
12. Arkansas
13. Texas A&M
14. Missouri
15. Oklahoma
16. Texas
Independents
1. Notre Dame
2. Army
There you have it. Four super conferences, with some old rivalries intact, some wide spread geographic footprints.
What makes this work for the ACC, Pac-10 and Big 12 is that the arrangement is for football only.
In all other sports, the Pac-10, Big 12 and ACC stay the same.
The SEC and Big Ten are still the big boys, but the other two, with some good coaching and good luck could be contenders.
Notre Dame can be the happy independent making decent money with new expanded contract from NBC and shares from Fox and ESPN.
The disparity in the payouts will still be wide, 100 million to 50 million, but a new 12 team playoff starting in 2024 when all of these new leagues begin play will off set that.
Make it work guys.