Movin' and Groovin': A Take on the NCAA Conference Shake-Up

In the last two days there have been some moves shaking the the NCAA's conference structure to its very core.  The Big 12 is a dying animal, wheezing out its last breaths as Colorado hops ship to the Pac 10 and Nebraska defects for the Big 10.  Another big move is Boise State leaving the conference they have dominated for the past decade, the Western Athletic Conference, for a much more competitive conference, the Mountain West.  Now, anybody who knows anything about college sports knows that when it's all said and done with, these moves are all about the money.  And since football is the NCAA's number one money maker, for the purposes of this article, I will focus on how the shifting conferences affects the college football landscape.  More after the break...

Of the three moves that have transpired so far, Boise State's move from the WAC to the MWC makes the most sense purely on the football side of things.  Boise State, despite being at or near undefeated every year, always has trouble making any sort of noise in the BCS because of the WAC's lesser level of competition than that of the BCS power conferences.  By joining a Mountain West Conference that already boasts perennial BCS busters TCU and Utah, not only is Boise State's profile raised, but so is the profile for the entire MWC.  That makes it easier for any team from the MWC to argue their claim for BCS respectability and get in on that sweet BCS cash.  Just sayin'.

Nebraska's move to the Big 10 was the straw that broke the Big 12 camel's back.  Other teams--mainly Texas, which is what the Big 12 basically always was, just Texas and everyone else--had said that if Nebraska would have stayed in the Big 12, they would have looked to stay as well.  Well, too bad.  Nebraska bolts for a conference offering extremely lucrative payouts from having its own television network, the immensely popular in its region Big Ten Channel.  Big 10 commissioner Jim Delaney had been very public for years about wanting to expand the Big 10 from eleven teams (The Big 10 had eleven teams, what's up with that?) to an even twelve so it could form divisions and have a Conference Championship.  Now he gets his wish.  As a conference with a conference championship, you get looked at more favorably in the eyes of the BCS' all-knowing computers, which is why despite having just as much talent as a conference, the Big 10 was always looked at as inferior to the Big 12 or the SEC, conferences that did feature conference championships.  Now the Big 10 can generate even more revenue by selling rights to its Conference Championship Game and having a bigger claim on some of that aforementioned BCS cash.

Although it was the first move to happen, I've waited to discuss Colorado going to the Pac 10 because I don't think they'll be the only team heading that direction, and the ramifications could be oh so awesome.  Colorado was the first school to look West, but all signs point to them being far from the last.  It is rumored that not only Colorado will end up moving to the Pac-10, but so will Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State.  This follows from the eleven teams thing again.  The Pac 10 doesn't want eleven teams; they want more so they can have a conference championship game because it means more money and a better standing in the BCS.  And who else would raise an expanding conference's profile more than teams on the move like Texas and Oklahoma?

If all those teams follow the Buffaloes' lead, the Pac 10 would end up with a whopping sixteen teams, setting up the first of the inevitable Superconferences.  The Big 10 would follow suit and expand their ranks perhaps by bringing in Notre Dame and stealing away some members of the Big East conference, then the SEC, ACC and perhaps MWC expansions would ensue, leaving an NCAA controlled by no more than five megaconferences.  Now, the BCS is not going anywhere for a while--the BCS' current television contract runs through the 2013-2014 season--but by the time the dust settles from all the conferences' moving and shaking, we may be looking for a new system to help us define a National Champion.  The Superconferences idea makes it very easy to come up with a possible tournament scenario.  Hallelujah!  From the four major conferences left standing (still, sorry Mountain West) you would would have four conference championship games played between teams with more diverse résumés than what they currently are due to the wider array of teams played in their respective regular seasons.  This would hopefully leave eight teams with a legitimate shot at a National Title going head-to-head in a single elimination tournament.  The four conference championship game winners would then face off, and so on, all the way to finally having a team worthy of being crowned National Champion.

Governed by a system as mucked up as the BCS, it is very easy to accept change in an institution ruled by so much tradition.  Tradition has to go out the window, right along with the BCS, and we need to have a legitimate National Champion.  For God's sake, let there be Superconferences and let the teams settle it on the field.

--from Eric