A group that includes “several” college president have tabled a proposal to dramatically alter the way college football is organized, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand and Stewart Mandel.
The group, which is called “College Sports Tomorrow,” has floated the idea of creating a two-tiered structure among FBS schools.
“The current CST outline would create a system that would have the top 70 programs — all members of the five former major conferences, plus Notre Dame and new ACC member SMU — as permanent members and encompass all 130-plus FBS universities,” Marchand and Mandel reported.
“The perpetual members would be in seven 10-team divisions, joined by an eighth division of teams that would be promoted from the second tier.”
Plenty of fans will argue college football is trending toward a “Super League” of sorts. The Big Ten and SEC are increasingly concentrating their power, and the revenue for their member schools is widening the chasm between the haves and have nots.
Following the newest round of realignment, separating football from the traditional college sports model is equally as inevitable.
Football teams have the resources to traverse the country for conference games and the travel logistics are easier when teams play once a week. Having teams in non-revenue sports make the same trips simply isn’t sustainable.
Marchand and Mandel outlined how the CST proposal would streamline the rules regarding player movement and compensation as well.
“While the CST model would eliminate the longtime conference structure for football, it would create one entity to negotiate with a prospective union that would represent the players on NIL, transfer portal and salary structure rules,” they reported. “This embrace of collective bargaining could allow it to avoid the antitrust issues that have limited the NCAA’s ability to enforce its own rules.”
According to Marchand and Mandel, the idea may not even be able to get off the ground, though. While the ACC board of directors reportedly listened to a presentation from CST officials, the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 all canceled plans for a similar sit-down.
ESPN just agreed to a media rights deal for the expanded College Football Playoff, while the SEC and Big Ten aren’t close to the expiry of their respective television contracts. It’s almost impossible to wrap your head around the logistic behind ripping up the current TV deals and figuring out the broadcasting rights for a two-division college football “Super League.”
If nothing else, this might be the opening salvo in what promises to be a much larger fight.
