The end of college football as we know it

Jonnyeagle · January 8

On Monday night, college football as we know it will end. After Michigan plays Washington in the College Football Playoff Championship Game in Houston, the sport will fundamentally reconstruct itself.

Washington, UCLA, USC and Oregon will join the Big Ten; Oklahoma and Texas will join the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams, while the Pac-12, a conference that originated in 1915, just three years after Arizona became a state, will wither and die.

This is the end. And it is also, of course, just the start.

What did 2023 teach us about what we should be prepared for in the years to come? Here are six lessons from The Last Season Of College Football As We Knew It.

The death of conferences is only beginning

The death of the Pac-12, a conference that went from having its own cable channel to no longer existing seemingly overnight, is one of the more stunning things to happen in college sports in decades. Its disappearance leaves only four major conferences, but if you’re in the Big 12 or (especially) the ACC, you shouldn’t breathe all that easy just yet.

read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/06/opinions/college-football-playoff-championship-leitch?cid=ios_app

Jonnyeagle · January 8

Excuse me if I post one other excerpt, this one really grabbed me at pertinent to the situation and how I feel about the changes (not good):

In the long term, these changes to college football seem potentially fatal. Sure, in the short term, they’ll work: I’m as excited to watch next year’s 12-team College Football Playoff as anyone. But in the long term, when you pattern yourself after the NFL in order to get some of their television juice, when you jettison the traditions and orthodoxies that made people fall in love with the sport in the first place, you stop being college football: You simply become Minor League NFL. And no one cares about minor league anything.

Wag Tag · January 8

I love the conference we are in and the exposure that we get with the AAC. (television and a championship game) If this is our destiny great. A playoff for a national champion at this level should be the next step.

UNT78 · January 8

This is happening! We were never going to be a major player nor will SMU. Maybe, this is the new UNT for the better and a playoff in the future could be in our reach someday @ whatever they call this division with 100 teams left out.

keith · January 8

This statement about the new ideal college football fan is sad: "It's instead a bored, distracted, unaffiliated gambling aficionado who doesn’t really care about college football but will look up from his phone when the television is showing a game with a brand-name team he recognizes."

Unfortunately it's true and I know many that fit this description. They are betting on everything, every day.

SilverEagle · January 8

47 minutes ago, UNT78 said:

This is happening! We were never going to be a major player nor will SMU. Maybe, this is the new UNT for the better and a playoff in the future could be in our reach someday @ whatever they call this division with 100 teams left out.

But it gives me great satisfaction that they have paid MUCH MORE for their situation than we have.

JT Hammons · January 8

This is it. This is exactly what I was thinking about this entire situation and just could not put it into words. They are greedily grabbing everything they can now because they know it will eventually not be there anymore.

Green Otaku · January 8

The schools are the ones to blame ultimately. They would rather give up those traditions and historical ties for money, no one is forcing them to move conferences. They decided that their traditions are worth less than making more money.

Meangreen Fight · January 8

2 hours ago, Green Otaku said:

The schools are the ones to blame ultimately. They would rather give up those traditions and historical ties for money, no one is forcing them to move conferences. They decided that their traditions are worth less than making more money.

DING DING. That why I push back so hard on those with the opinion demonizing the players and NIL. The guys playing today enjoying NIL don’t remember classic Bowl games that were more than just named for a product. They don’t remember classic Big 10 vs PAC 10 Rose Bowls. They don’t remember guys running around with Roses or Oranges looking ecstatic to be in a Bowl game. Every time schools/conference got to a decision tradition vs more money they chose more money. As a whole you can not tell me that a four team playoff after the bowl games would have resulted in more money for EVERYONE than a 12 team playoff. That EVERYONE is the problem. You can’t make decisions as independent entities in a league at the long term expense of the sport and expect not to harm your own program in the long term. Almost everyone in the media is late preaching caution and doom. The formation of BCS was the last chance they had to get off this dead end cut throat greed but they chose greed.

GoGreenBeans · January 8

2 hours ago, Green Otaku said:

The schools are the ones to blame ultimately. They would rather give up those traditions and historical ties for money, no one is forcing them to move conferences. They decided that their traditions are worth less than making more money.

Not saying they were the first, but the biggest catalyst of this breakdown is...

Yell Texas Am GIF by Texas A&M University

Green Otaku · January 8

10 minutes ago, GoGreenBeans said:

Not saying they were the first, but the biggest catalyst of this breakdown is...

I disagree, teams have come and gone to different conferences. The SWC ending after 82 years and merging Texas, A&M, Baylor, and Tech with the Big 8 was a bigger catalyst than just A&M leaving. The biggest shift is games being televised, and the court ruling to allow conferences to negotiate their own media rights. Without TV college football doesn't have the explosion of revenue that we see today.

El Paso Eagle · January 8

45 minutes ago, Meangreen Fight said:

DING DING. That why I push back so hard on those with the opinion demonizing the players and NIL. The guys playing today enjoying NIL don’t remember classic Bowl games that were more than just named for a product. They don’t remember classic Big 10 vs PAC 10 Rose Bowls. They don’t remember guys running around with Roses or Oranges looking ecstatic to be in a Bowl game. Every time schools/conference got to a decision tradition vs more money they chose more money. As a whole you can not tell me that a four team playoff after the bowl games would have resulted in more money for EVERYONE than a 12 team playoff. That EVERYONE is the problem. You can’t make decisions as independent entities in a league at the long term expense of the sport and expect not to harm your own program in the long term. Almost everyone in the media is late preaching caution and doom. The formation of BCS was the last chance they had to get off this dead end cut throat greed but they chose greed.

I would say there is enough greed to blame both sides. The schools and the players care about what they feel is best for them, and if you think either side gives a damn about fans (other than wanting them to spend their money), you are mistaken. For these university presidents to even say "student-athletes" is a joke. Also, many of these players are willing to hop from school to school, so I find it hard to think getting an education is a high priority for many.

Pavlovs Eagle · January 9

13 hours ago, keith said:

It's instead a bored, distracted, unaffiliated gambling aficionado who doesn’t really care about college football but will look up from his phone when the television is showing a game with a brand-name team he recognizes.

Sounds like the 12 year old kid sitting in front of us at the Tulane MBB game on Saturday. He was betting on the game on his phone and showing his mom the bets he was placing. I don't think he was old enough to get into a PG13 movie. Mom was just "okay honey" and didn't say anything to stop him.