Are Conferences necessary anymore?

[bob5150]

People bitching about how shitty the B10 is with the old boy network. Forgot about Texass in the B12, and of course, plenty of bagman shit to complain about in the SEC. The NCAA is at large has less and less control. My complaints about ways that college football has been and will be ruined have gotten more in-depth since November 2001, and I'm sure many others have a sliding scale of complaints that matches up with a similar timeline.

Is ridding FBS of conferences one fix, or a Pandora's Box of new issues? If it's even feasible, Is there a TV contract negotiation strategy for conference-less football? Could that be done? If so, post your ideas below.

 

[Charlie Marlow]

No

 

[sloth316]

I wish they would do a 16 or 24 team playoff and revert back to smaller, regional conferences like the old Big 8…I like some of the road-trips in the BIG (Madison is fun) but I think it would be more fun doing the day trips the old Big 8 provided…it will never happen because of $$$ but that’s what I’d do if I was in charge

 

[scarletred]

🤪🔫

 

[TarheelHuskerFan]

I'm glad we are in the big 10 or else hardly any of our games would be televised outside of the local area

 

[SickOfPractice]

I'm glad we are in the big 10 or else hardly any of our games would be televised outside of the local area

No kidding. That PPV period we went through was painful.

I refused to pay $20 or whatever it was to watch a game in my home.

Instead I went to a sports bar and spent $40 on wings and beer to watch. It was the principle of the thing.

 

[Dean Pope]

People bitching about how shitty the B10 is with the old boy network. Forgot about Texass in the B12, and of course, plenty of bagman shit to complain about in the SEC. The NCAA is at large has less and less control. My complaints about ways that college football has been and will be ruined have gotten more in-depth since November 2001, and I'm sure many others have a sliding scale of complaints that matches up with a similar timeline.

Is ridding FBS of conferences one fix, or a Pandora's Box of new issues? If it's even feasible, Is there a TV contract negotiation strategy for conference-less football? Could that be done? If so, post your ideas below.

I think that it's slowly happening on its own. What is a conference really? I think of it as a collection of schools that are close to each other geographically. Rivalries and traditions develop. With all of this expansion, some of that is going away. Teams aren't playing each other every year (if at all). Seems to me that conferences work best at 8-10 schools. As you get gradually larger, some of what makes a conference special gets diluted.

We could eventually have a couple mega conferences that will be divided into "divisions" of 8-10 and we'll be right back where we started.

 

[RedCap]

People bitching about how shitty the B10 is with the old boy network. Forgot about Texass in the B12, and of course, plenty of bagman shit to complain about in the SEC. The NCAA is at large has less and less control. My complaints about ways that college football has been and will be ruined have gotten more in-depth since November 2001, and I'm sure many others have a sliding scale of complaints that matches up with a similar timeline.

Is ridding FBS of conferences one fix, or a Pandora's Box of new issues? If it's even feasible, Is there a TV contract negotiation strategy for conference-less football? Could that be done? If so, post your ideas below.

Well I think you got it, conferences are necessary more than ever to negotiate media contracts. Now individual schools "could" negotiate their own contracts but you'd get a much more uneven playing field with rich schools (like Ohio State and Texas) dominating the take vs schools in much lower population settings. Nebraska is fortunate to be part of the B1G media contract.

The solution to a more equal setting would be a super conference of say 30 or more teams negotiating one contract and equally splitting up the proceeds (more like the NFL). It might come to that eventually but we're not there yet.

 

[Blackshirt316]

No kidding. That PPV period we went through was painful.

I refused to pay $20 or whatever it was to watch a game in my home.

Instead I went to a sports bar and spent $40 on wings and beer to watch. It was the principle of the thing.

The entire reason we were put on PPV so much was that we would consistently draw big numbers of viewers. Nebraska's games on PPV would outdraw the other Big 12 games they put on free TV. Drawing a 2.0+ rating for ppv football was unheard-of and you would have been laughed at to suggest it was possible. Until Nebraska did it regularly. Interest since then has slipped a bit but yet;

For 2022 Nebraska averaged 1.98Million viewers per game. The 16th most nationally. Despite being dreadful and not making a bowl game in half a decade. If Nebraska is ever not absolute trash we easily land in the top 5.

As a small idea as to the tv viewership numbers: #12 Oregon drew 2.21M, they went 10-3 and have been good for a while. #13 TCU they went 13-2 and played for the national championship. #14 USC drew 2.07M, they went 11-2 and get a bump from the P12 championship game. #15 FSU drew 2.03M, they went 10-3. Every team above Nebraska won 10+ games and played in a good bowl game.

Nebraska would be on TV, conference or no conference. But combining into conferences is what allows schools to demand such high prices from the networks for those TV rights. Because they are guaranteed a certain amount of games between those teams that draw well and not just 100 different contracts that have wildly random schedules year to year.

 

[JabroniBlvd]

It's going more of the NFL model....I hate when people say that because I like college football 100x more than the NFL. Hopefully it doesn't get ruined over the next decade.

 

[SLOHusker]

I wish they would do a 16 or 24 team playoff and revert back to smaller, regional conferences like the old Big 8…I like some of the road-trips in the BIG (Madison is fun) but I think it would be more fun doing the day trips the old Big 8 provided…it will never happen because of $$$ but that’s what I’d do if I was in charge

Conferences are unnecessary in my opinion. They made sense when college sports was primarily regional and required bus travel but the money available now to schools in the Power 5 has changed that. I think we will evolve into effectively two 32-team super conferences that are currently called Big 10 and SEC. They will then merge into a single 'conference' with its own championship for football. Football will break away from the NCAA entirely
Basketball has more small schools so that will remain under the control of the NCAA.

 

[Dr_Alan_Grant]

No kidding. That PPV period we went through was painful.

I refused to pay $20 or whatever it was to watch a game in my home.

Instead I went to a sports bar and spent $40 on wings and beer to watch. It was the principle of the thing.

I remember just listening to many games on the radio. I'm glad all our games are on TV now, but those were simpler happy times. I also remember my parents liking radio announcers more, so lots of times they muted the tv, and had the radio on instead.

unrelated, but in 2006 iirc my cousin would drive to my house for games, and we would always buy a 2 Liter of Dr pepper and a bag of salt and vinegar chips and watch our early games.

 

[king_kong_]

Big Ten Network is year-round PPV

I predict major college football will be unified under the leadership of a commissioner before long (before 2043), which will make conferences a vestige of the past

this will be a positive development for Nebraska, a top dozen national brand regardless of conference affiliation

 

[huskerfan1414]

I believe conferences are necessary for scheduling purposes, but they are not a big deal anymore. Winning your conference isn't that important, especially if you are in the sESPNc. While the SEC is the premier conference on top, it isn't as good as they make it, and winning the conference title becomes less important each year. That kind of happened to us anyway when we moved geographically and more and more teams are doing that.

 

[huskerfan1414]

Big Ten Network is year-round PPV

I predict major college football will be unified under the leadership of a commissioner before long (before 2043), which will make conferences a vestige of the past

this will be a positive development for Nebraska, a top dozen national brand regardless of conference affiliation

I just don't know how that would work. We'd be right back where we started. I think this is what is going to happen with the super conferences anyway.

So let's say we have one commissioner like you said.

The commissioner and "governing body" will immediately put us all into conferences/divisions. We'd still have conferences. Maybe they'd be geographically relevant again.

Likewise, as we go toward superconferences and have 20 or more team conferences, we're just going to end up in divisions. Before you know it we're back in a big 8-style "division" that we have to win to move on. I like it.
I just worry it's going to end up happening with us in a "big 10" division with USC, UCLA, Cal, Oregon, Washington, etc. and then we're basically in the pac 10 by default. Yuck.

 

[king_kong_]

I just don't know how that would work. We'd be right back where we started. I think this is what is going to happen with the super conferences anyway.

So let's say we have one commissioner like you said.

The commissioner and "governing body" will immediately put us all into conferences/divisions. We'd still have conferences. Maybe they'd be geographically relevant again.

Likewise, as we go toward superconferences and have 20 or more team conferences, we're just going to end up in divisions. Before you know it we're back in a big 8-style "division" that we have to win to move on. I like it.
I just worry it's going to end up happening with us in a "big 10" division with USC, UCLA, Cal, Oregon, Washington, etc. and then we're basically in the pac 10 by default. Yuck.

the "conferences" in this instance - or individual teams, for that matter - would have none of their own bargaining power/sway over how a national champion is crowned like they do today