The cost of playing big time college football is skyrocketing. Only a handful of programs make any kind of profit and that's eaten up by the overall athletic department which is operating in the red. The only people happy (i.e. making money) with the current paradigm are the networks and the bowl administrators. For too long, the content providers, the universities themselves, have been leaving a huge amount of money on
the table. The NCAA and the member schools have shown the capability to organize and monetize a major playoff scenario, March Madness. It's the NCAA's prime source of income. It brings in approximately
$1Billion/yr. in TV rights, sponsorships, ticket sales, concessions, etc. But there are 351 member schools in Div. 1 to take a cut of that.
College football is a different animal. There's only a few dozen schools with the caliber program to win a national championship. No one doubts a true college football playoff would be won, 90% of the time, by one of the blue bloods that have already won one or more MNCs. But as I said, the cost is exorbitant and going up. More and more smaller programs are choosing not to try and keep up with the arms race.
The Power 5 commissioners, who take their marching orders from the school presidents, have all laid out, in the last 6-8 months, what it's going to take to be a player in the new paradigm.
The point of the above background information, is that the time has come for major CFB to take control of it's content and reorganize to fully monetize their product. This, of course, has been quietly building momentum behind the scenes for years. Make no mistake, Texas and Deloss Dodds have been one of the driving forces behind this move. If you're thinking "realignment" then you're still thinking inside the box.
What's needed is a complete reorganization from the ground up. All schools need to be willing to sacrifice a little in order to gain a lot.
Tradition is a huge part of the allure of CFB. Some will complain about the commercialization of good ol' State U. But there also needs to be a concerted effort to retain, and in some cases, recapture the traditions of the past. Old, established rivalries are one of the biggest component of this concern. Almost, invariably, these are regional rivalries. The new borders and scheduling priorities need to reflect this.
The only way this can be accomplished is if all the major players are willing to share and share alike. The most obvious analogy is the NFL. Money is pooled and shared equally. Divisions and conferences are drawn to reflect regional similarities and traditions but also, fairness and cost effectiveness.
There should be one central body that not only ensure an even playing field for all but is in charge of scheduling and officiating. There should be a centralized training and evaluation organization to enable the best possible officials and pay them accordingly. They should be paid by the central organization and rotated through the different divisions so there can be no charge of favoritism.
Ideally, IMO, there would be 72 teams involved. There would be 8 conferences of 9 teams each. Every school plays 8 conference games and 4 OOC. The 4 OOC games would, of course, be among the 7 other conference members. These 4 games would rotate so that there would always be good interconference games every week and each school could be reasonably assured of good cross-regional exposure.
A huge problem is recruiting. There has to be a central body with real enforcement teeth to thoroughly vet all aspect of recruiting nationwide. This is where some teams (and some entire regions) are going to have to sacrifice a little so everyone can gain a lot. I'm not even sure if it's possible to break the Omerta like, code of silence, that exists in some parts of the country, but a good start would be to grant the enforcement division subpoena power.
All of this would have seemed like a fantasy, pie-in-the-sky, hallucination just a few years ago. But real world challenges, not the least of which are legal challenges, have made this scenario a real possibility.
The real question is, do the school presidents have the stones to grasp the bronze ring.
Stay tune, it should be an interesting ride.
