LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- As long as college football is determined to act on its uncontrollable bi-weekly urge to realign, why not do what the game’s leaders and top programs have wanted to do for the last decade?
Shake the game through a total makeover. Start with a 16-team upper, upper crust, super-duper division where only the absolute best, blue-blood barracudas get in.
Everybody else is chum.
Every other sport is footnote.
Everything we ever thought about geography, tradition and natural rivalries is shredded.
Let Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, LSU and eight other select schools break away and form their Kings of Football league. It’s the way they want to take the sport. Why keep pretending otherwise?
Just make certain they “man up” and play their entire 12-game schedules against each other. They get all the money, all the prime television slots, all the most desirable bowl games and all the playoff spots.
All the wins. And all the losses. Two or three coaches would be on a perpetual Hot Seat without the chance to pad theirs records with three or four guaranteed wins on their schedules. That’s the breaks. Nobody said life was fair.
Texas and Oklahoma notified the Big 12 on Monday that they will not be renewing their grants of media rights following expiration in 2025, the schools said in a joint statement. https://t.co/nOv65iDDQH
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 26, 2021
That’s my reaction to the latest twist that figures to feature Texas and Oklahoma dumping the Big 12 so they can play football in the Southeastern Conference with Alabama, Georgia and LSU.
On Monday, the Longhorns and Sooners took the next step by informing the Big 12 they will not renew their grant of media rights with the league in 2025. They’re tired of life in the shadow of the SEC, especially Texas A&M.
Adding Texas and Oklahoma will allow the SEC to continue to separate itself from college football.
It will also create riveting basketball games like Oklahoma vs. South Carolina or Texas vs. Vanderbilt, but I believe I warned you that basketball is irrelevant.
Don’t believe me?
Baylor just won the men’s NCAA basketball title, and today, the Bears are simply one of eight Big 12 programs quivering with financial fear about how they’re going to survive after Oklahoma and Texas bolt. The Big 12 is toast.
This realignment stuff has been going on for more than three decades. Different schools have been involved, but the driving force has been consistent: Do what is best for college football. Basketball is on its own.
What would be best for college football would be that Kings of Football super conference.
You don’t have to be Lee Corso or Kirk Herbstreit to identify the programs eager for life in a league of their own.
If Oklahoma and Texas joined this SEC today, where would they rank for the 2021 season?@PFF_Anthony gives his rankings: pic.twitter.com/zI1l9hvIXS
— PFF College (@PFF_College) July 26, 2021
Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Notre Dame and Oklahoma belong on line one.
Georgia, Texas A&M, Penn State, LSU and USC would be my next five.
The next three are tricky, but give me Florida, Michigan (Jim Harbaugh won’t be there forever) and Texas.
Selecting the final three spots would create all the ruckus. My picks are Florida State, Miami and Auburn.
I would listen to arguments from Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington, Tennessee, Iowa and North Carolina.
But my 16 would include eight teams that will be members of the new SEC after it grows into Norman, Oklahoma, which sits 720 miles west of the league office in Birmingham, Alabama and Austin, Texas, which is a mere 785-mile trip.
If you’ve already got eight of the top 16, better go ahead and grab the eight other programs that will be howling for their opportunity after the SEC controls most of the prime television inventory.
Notre Dame is a natural.
Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State are the brands that matter in the Big Ten.
Miami and Florida State are not what they used to be, but the Hurricanes and Seminoles are parked in the nation’s best recruiting territory. With the right coaches, they’re capable of returning to glory.
Clemson has separated and outgrown the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Yes, USC is old money and currently asleep, but the Trojans are the program most likely to deliver the west coast.
What happens to everybody else?
The remaining schools from the Power 5 leagues can gather in the Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 leagues. Louisville and Kentucky could make their arguments for Tier 2 but might get squeezed into Tier 3.
Indiana has a stronger outlook for the 2021 season, but the history of IU football would relegate the Hoosiers to Tier 3.
Did I just use the word "relegate?’"
Go ahead and mix in the European soccer model, where relegation is a way of life. Bump two teams up and down between tiers at the end of every season. That would make the Hot Seat lists even juicier, especially if you make everybody play all 12 games against teams in their tier. No scheduling your way to glory.
It would also get us to the Super League concept that the best programs in college football have wanted for years.
Why keep pretending otherwise?
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