Fans of college football have been in angst the past 16 months, ever since Nebraska bolted the unstable Big-12 for the Big Ten on June 12, 2010.
Nebraska had been affiliated with the Big-12 for a 100 years, as it was a member of the Big-Eight and Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
What followed with Nebraskas migration to the Big Ten was the early rumblings of a seismic shift in the Division-I, Football Bowl Subdivision college football landscape.
Two days later, Big-12 member Colorado headed west to the Pac-10. A conference primarily made up of more peer liberal research institutions. The Pac-10 nearly swiped the Big-12 of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
Well, that didnt happen. The Pac-10 settled on the addition of the University of Utah to become the Pac-12.
What happened within the last year has nearly every FBS school nervous about what college football could become. Conference shifting is among us once again.
With the Big-12 mad at each other, and by that I mean mad at Texas, other conferences and their schools are trying to protect themselves.
Texas $300 million Longhorn Network deal with ESPN created unequal network sharing by a wide margin in the Big-12. Texas conference mates are envious, and for good reason. Recently ousted Big-12 commissioner Dan Beebe basically let Texas do whatever it wanted and gave Texas all the power in the Big-12. A&M didnt like it. Thats why it is going to the Southeastern Conference. Oklahoma didnt like it. Thats why it explored going to the Pac-12, again. Reports had the Pac-12 possibly adding the Oklahomas, and Texas and Texas Tech once again to create a 16-team super conference.
While all this went on, the Atlantic Coast Conference poached the Big East of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to get to 14 teams. College football is what drives the financial bus in college sports. So why add Syracuse and Pitt? Pitt hasnt been great in football since Dan Marino and Syracuse, well, um, since Jim Brown was there? OK, OK, from 1995-98, the Donovan McNabb led Orangemen were pretty darn good, as he went onto be the No. 2 pick in the 1999 NFL Draft.
Bottom line, college football is a business and its worth billions of dollars. Syracuse and Pitt add many TV viewers.
The Pac-12 now has a top-20 market with Denver, adding Colorado. Is Colorado the football power it was 20 years ago? No. Will it be in the near future? I highly doubt it. But the CU Buffs did the right thing. Colorado is in a position of stability both financially and with conference affiliation.
Thats what used to be great about college football. It wasnt about the money.
Where does that leave non-automatic qualifying Bowl Championship Series schools like Colorado State and Air Force? The gap between BCS automatic-qualifiers and non-AQs is already wide in FBS football. If there are four 16-team super conferences created, that gap between the BCS and non-BCS schools, competitively and financially, will be wider than the Grand Canyon.
The chances of a non-AQ playing for a national title in the current BCS system is slim, but it will become nonexistent with four super conferences. The best of the super conferences will play for the title and claim all the BCS bowls. Some say four super conferences can finally lead to a playoff in FBS football with the conference winners duking it out on the field to determine the best. Hmm, maybe. There could be a playoff now, but there isnt one. With four super conferences, there will be teams with multiple losses playing for a national championship, and teams with four to five losses in BCS bowl games. Remember in 2007 when LSU won the BCS title with two losses, and UCONN played in the Fiesta Bowl with four losses last year? People complained. Except for those in Baton Rouge, La., and Storrs Town, Conn., of course
Thats why every FBS institution feels backed into a corner and feeling like they need to do something and not be left out of the round of conference musical chairs.
The Big East, one of six BCS, AQ conferences, is left scrambling with Pitt and Syracuse leaving. Thats why Air Force is rumored to have been in contact with the Big East to join the conference as a football-only member. Air Force, currently in the non-AQ Mountain West, would leave a league of longtime geographic rivals like Colorado State, Wyoming and New Mexico. Why? Simply because the Big East has AQ status and Air Force would be on the inside should the super conferences happen. Not to mention easier access to BCS bowls and the chance to play for a national championship. That is why Mountain West mate TCU is slated to join the Big East next year, should the conference survive. TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, would be Air Forces closest conference rival at 700 miles apart. Colorado Springs is a mere 133 miles up I-25 from Fort Collins.
So there you have it. College football isnt about regional rivalries and conference loyalty anymore. Its every man for itself. Is it fair to the fans? No. Can something be done about it? Maybe , maybe not. But with the Pac-12 not expanding this year, and the Big-12 and Texas trying to kiss and make up. College football, for the ever changing moment, isnt on the verge of conference Armageddon.
In 2012, the Mayans prediction may come true in the world of college football.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at [email protected].
