Utah coach believes the Big Split is coming = Super Conferences

NT80 · August 13

Q: You’ve talked about the future of major college football. That a line will be drawn in the sand and that Utah needs to be on the right side of the line. When is that coming? How many teams will it include? What do you see?

A: Well, yeah, I think there is a major realignment coming, and it’ll be a big one. I think it will create even more of a divide and exclusivity for the teams that are on the right side of that line. 20 months to four years? How about that for a time frame? In my opinion, it’s going to look very much like an NFL minor league.

I see an expansion of the playoff with that to 16 teams. The short version is Super Conferences. I think it’s going to boil down to 40-60 maybe teams in the Super Conference. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t play anybody but other Super Conference teams. Make that a division as far as who you play. Like I said, a full-blown playoff. Whether or not the players will be employees, officially, remains to be seen, but I think that’s very likely. I think that’s where it’s heading.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-utah-footballs-kyle-whittingham

UNTLifer · August 13

12 hours ago, NT80 said:

Q: You’ve talked about the future of major college football. That a line will be drawn in the sand and that Utah needs to be on the right side of the line. When is that coming? How many teams will it include? What do you see?

A: Well, yeah, I think there is a major realignment coming, and it’ll be a big one. I think it will create even more of a divide and exclusivity for the teams that are on the right side of that line. 20 months to four years? How about that for a time frame? In my opinion, it’s going to look very much like an NFL minor league.

I see an expansion of the playoff with that to 16 teams. The short version is Super Conferences. I think it’s going to boil down to 40-60 maybe teams in the Super Conference. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t play anybody but other Super Conference teams. Make that a division as far as who you play. Like I said, a full-blown playoff. Whether or not the players will be employees, officially, remains to be seen, but I think that’s very likely. I think that’s where it’s heading.

https://www.johncanzano.com/p/canzano-utah-footballs-kyle-whittingham

So as to not shoot the messenger, I will post my reaction below in this comment:

Not surprised but Sick Hugh Jackman GIF by First We Feast

DeepGreen · August 13

If it comes down to a "super conference" with 40-60 teams, and assuming we would not be included, if a "super" team did want to play UNT, we should expect nothing less than $2 - $3 million for such a game. Fu.k-em!

NT80 · August 14

6 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

If it comes down to a "super conference" with 40-60 teams, and assuming we would not be included, if a "super" team did want to play UNT, we should expect nothing less than $2 - $3 million for such a game. Fu.k-em!

I believe they will all still need "non-super conference" OOC games. They all want their 7-home game yearly schedules and revenue, plus some easier games to spread out their killer conference schedules, like another bye week to them. They can't just play each other and all get 7 home games.

untcampbell · August 14

The money will be so high that playing 12 Super Conference teams, 6 at home, will be just fine to the bottom line. They will make more per game, home and away, win or lose. More in any one game, home or away, than an early season home game against SFA.

GMG

NT80 · August 14

2 hours ago, untcampbell said:

The money will be so high that playing 12 Super Conference teams, 6 at home, will be just fine to the bottom line. They will make more per game, home and away, win or lose. More in any one game, home or away, than an early season home game against SFA.

Not so sure. Extra home games are very valuable at these 85K+ stadiums with huge fanbases. Similar level super conference opponents doing a home/home agreement usually just have the home team keeping all their revenue.

However if they added an extra home game instead every year, they would only need to pay an SFA-type team around $1.5 mil to be OOC fodder with no return game. At A$M for example, each home football game generates about $7 mil in ticket sales alone and another $12.5mil in parking, concessions, shirts, etc. Not to mention the benefit to the surrounding towns and businesses with additional home game revenue...

"In 2023, Texas A&M's football games generated $88.26 million in operating revenue and $48,801,301 in ticket sales."

"The vast majority of home game economic activity ($107 million) comes from spectators. And of this amount, out-of-town visitors generated $91 million in spending in Brazos County while visiting for home football games."

untcampbell · August 14

Great points. But the amount of money that will be negotiated into the next TV contract, exclusive to the CFBMostElite, in a world where there will never be a Georgia vs Campbell (or North Texas, for that matter) September or November game, where literally every game will mean something, where every seat is more valuable because of the importance of each game (ticket prices go up)....well, I won't feel sorry over any "lost" revenue the CFBME teams may realize.

GMG

Dannymacfan · August 14

6 hours ago, untcampbell said:

Great points. But the amount of money that will be negotiated into the next TV contract, exclusive to the CFBMostElite, in a world where there will never be a Georgia vs Campbell (or North Texas, for that matter) September or November game, where literally every game will mean something, where every seat is more valuable because of the importance of each game (ticket prices go up)....well, I won't feel sorry over any "lost" revenue the CFBME teams may realize.

GMG

That's why I don't think they want us to go completely away. They still need non conference wins to pad their records. Just like we play teams like SFA and Portland State and the like.

TIgreen01 · August 14

16 hours ago, NT80 said:

I believe they will all still need "non-super conference" OOC games. They all want their 7-home game yearly schedules and revenue, plus some easier games to spread out their killer conference schedules, like another bye week to them. They can't just play each other and all get 7 home games.

Why couldn't they just play each other home AND away? (obviously depending on limiting divisions to manageable sizes)

TIgreen01 · August 15

4 hours ago, NT80 said:

Scheduling an OOC game as home and away won't achieve 7 home games "every" year.

Take Alabama as an example, since they have no neutral site games. They have 8 SEC games (4 home, 4 away).

They have 4 OOC games (3 home, 1 away) = 7 home games. That's what all the "super conference" teams want, for the extra revenue and the easier OOC buy-games.

If these OOC games were all home/away series (back to back years for the example) then next season Alabama would only play 5 home games and 7 away games. But since 3 of the OOC home games are buy-games, no return away games needed.

Sorry, what I meant is why couldn’t they just play their own in-conference rivals twice a year (once home, once away, every season) if the goal is to keep home games high. Who’s to say they play ANY OOC games in the future if all conferences are guaranteed spots in the playoff?

NT80 · August 15

11 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

Sorry, what I meant is why couldn’t they just play their own in-conference rivals twice a year (once home, once away, every season) if the goal is to keep home games high. Who’s to say they play ANY OOC games in the future if all conferences are guaranteed spots in the playoff?

Good point. But I wouldn't want to be the unlucky team with Bama as a rival and have to play them twice each season. I'd prefer to be Vanderbilt's rival!