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  • Saturday: A New World Order


    Bobby Burton

    ESPN reported yesterday that the SEC and Big Ten are joining to form an exploratory advisory committee to determine the future of college sports.

    That’s big. Like as big as it gets in college sports.

    The two heavyweights of college sports are officially prepping to leave the NCAA.

    So where do we go from here?

    I truly don’t know. Like everyone else, I can pontificate what it should be - 48 teams? 64? - but I don’t know the exact answer.

    The key question I have is this:

    What is the financial model between player, team and league going to be?

    Does college football follow the NFL model of financial parity? That’s unlikely because the Big Ten and SEC have already struck their own media deals. But there could be some abbreviated form of it that makes sense.

    Or do we see more of a Major League Baseball model where there’s a salary cap but teams can go over it if they want. That’s a move that would allow there to be a Yankees and Dodgers of college football, which frankly seems kind of on point. There’s not a ton of parity in college football today and that’s part of what makes it interesting.

    I don’t know which way this will go. But the model they construct will be the biggest question of all because it will determine what CFB looks like for generations to come.

    ***

    If you’re interested in this topic further, I highly recommend reading the report of Yahoo!’s Ross Dellenger. The report yesterday included interviews with the commissioners of both leagues on this very topic.

    I have linked that report below for those who want to read.

    https://sports.yahoo.com/sec-big-ten-uniting-to-tackle-pervasive-issues-in-college-athletics--pressures-are-mounting-172832810.html

     

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    Good stuff, Bobby. Yesterday’s news was huge for a number of reasons. It’s going to be interesting to follow and see how it all unfolds in the end. 

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    12 minutes ago, Texas fan in Georgia said:

    Minor League Football is upon us it seems. 

    Perhaps that’s the way it should be.

    Again, the problem I have is foreseeing what model should really be used. The current one has worked for so long, but I’m concerned that now it’s broken.

    Would anyone be mad if the NCAA continued to operate but just didn’t have oversight on rules? Maybe that’s the way out of this.

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    Glad we’re already in the big league.  Almost like we knew this was coming 😉.  Same for Sankey.  Ready to see how our personnel department shakes out.  Hook em.  

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    14 minutes ago, Drunk randoke said:

    Glad we’re already in the big league.  Almost like we knew this was coming 😉.  Same for Sankey.  Ready to see how our personnel department shakes out.  Hook em.  

    Imagine how yormark is feeling 😂

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    21 minutes ago, Bobby Burton said:

    Perhaps that’s the way it should be.

    Again, the problem I have is foreseeing what model should really be used. The current one has worked for so long, but I’m concerned that now it’s broken.

    Would anyone be mad if the NCAA continued to operate but just didn’t have oversight on rules? Maybe that’s the way out of this.

    Although we all know the NCAA had its issues before - I think the transfer portal and more importantly NIL accelerated its Demise. 
     

    I wonder if those smaller schools that don’t really generate the revenue through football- do they dissolve the football programs and just focus on other sports ?

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    To add, maybe it’s heading towards a model like how the NFL is the AFC/NFC with 32 teams, maybe we are heading towards a 64 team model split between the B10/SEC. But like y’all was saying on the show yesterday, what teams from the B12 would get the invite from the SEC or the B10 etc etc ..

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    It won't be 64 teams. The teams that aren't in that need to be are ND, FSU, and possibly Clemson and UNC. For football at least. 

    My question is what does this do to other sports. They just had the softball coach on (entertaining Kiwi for sure) and I wonder how his sport/job will be affected by all these changes for the sake of football. What happens in basketball where a lot of powers like Kansas, Baylor, Duke, and Houston aren't in SEC or Big 10 and don't have football programs that deserve to be.

    I hope football breaks away into it's own thing and all the other sports are left under the NCAA rule. That should have happened years ago. No need for softball or volleyball or Quidditch to be traveling cross country for conference games. Need to go back to regional conferences in non football sports. 

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    As long as they don’t call it an Alliance. I’d be curious to see what Fox and ESPN offer to split the games. Fox gets Big10 home games, SEC gets ACC home games with numerous cross conference games a year. 

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    2 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

    It won't be 64 teams. The teams that aren't in that need to be are ND, FSU, and possibly Clemson and UNC. For football at least. 

    My question is what does this do to other sports. They just had the softball coach on (entertaining Kiwi for sure) and I wonder how his sport/job will be affected by all these changes for the sake of football. What happens in basketball where a lot of powers like Kansas, Baylor, Duke, and Houston aren't in SEC or Big 10 and don't have football programs that deserve to be.

    I hope football breaks away into it's own thing and all the other sports are left under the NCAA rule. That should have happened years ago. No need for softball or volleyball or Quidditch to be traveling cross country for conference games. Need to go back to regional conferences in non football sports. 

    I don’t think it’ll reach 64 teams. I just think it’s a slight possibility. But to your point, what about the SEC teams that don’t excel in football but are national powers in other sports. Vanderbilt for example, we know they don’t accomplish much in football, but they are traditionally a powerhouse in baseball.  Lots to get situated here.

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    3 minutes ago, Realist Horn said:

    As long as they don’t call it an Alliance. I’d be curious to see what Fox and ESPN offer to split the games. Fox gets Big10 home games, SEC gets ACC home games with numerous cross conference games a year. 

    I’m still mad about the fact we won’t get to see a Texas game in that 3:00 slot for CBS🤦🏼‍♂️

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    Add

    SEC

    1. Clemson

    2. FSU

    3. Miami

    4.  UNC

    5.  NCST

    6.  Duke

    7.  Georgia Tech

    8.  Louisville

    Big 10

    1. Notre Dame

    2.  Virginia Tech

    3.  Virginia

    4. Pitt

    5.  West Virginia 

    6.  Kansas

    7. Kansas St

    8. Iowa St

    9. SMU?

    10. Utah?

     

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    Depressing. Wonder how many years until they don’t have to attend class. Players aren’t limited to eligibility years and can play as long as they want, or, as early as they want, leaving HS as a junior to sign with the highest bidder. There’s a reason I never watched the NFL much and only college and HS. HS is next. 

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    2 minutes ago, dentonhorn said:

    Depressing. Wonder how many years until they don’t have to attend class. Players aren’t limited to eligibility years and can play as long as they want, or, as early as they want, leaving HS as a junior to sign with the highest bidder. There’s a reason I never watched the NFL much and only college and HS. HS is next. 

    They’ve already passed a law here in Georgia that lets high school players benefit off their likeness. It’s wild.

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    Does this help FSU get out of the ACC? With possible replacement of NCAA that could lead to conference mergers to make up a 48 or 64 model.  Does this also force Notre Dame to join a conference and do away with independents?

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    The Longhorns football franchise, sponsored by the University of Texas.  

    In addition to the foundational business model, I’m anxious to see what the new talent acquisition model will be for the new league.

    Will we still have recruiting, or will it be replaced by a draft?

    Assuming we go to a model of revenue sharing between the big two leagues, and collectively bargained revenue sharing between players and schools, the next question is how do the schools distribute the football talent (players) to achieve an equitable / parity approach to the new competitive balance?

    TV partners aren’t paying billions of dollars to have certain schools in key TV markets completely tune-out because their favorite college franchise can’t attract the talent necessary to win any football games.  There’s no point in TV partners investing billions in this new model if certain franchises (Minnesota, Iowa, et al) don’t have an opportunity to stay within 50 points of the opponent (Bama, UGa, LSU, Texas) every Saturday.  

    The TV partners will want all TV markets to have some competitive balance, which means the talent (players) will need to be distributed in some equitable way across the franchises.  The lack of equitable resource distribution is a major reason we have the problems in college football that we have today.  

    The current reality is that maybe 10-15 schools can win a championship, and particularly so as we move toward a 12-team playoff (there won’t be any TCUs making the championship game going forward in the 12-team landscape).  And without some sort of mechanism to more equitably distribute the resources (players), you’ll simply have the same small handful of teams winning the championships every year - and they’ll all be concentrated in a small number of states across the country (Texas, Florida, Georgia, Bama, Louisiana, Ohio, and occasionally Michigan).  That’s a very small number of TV viewers relative to the entire country, so if the goal is growing the sport of college football a la the NFL, you need a talent model that fosters a competitive balance across all 48 or 64 schools.  A draft?

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    You’re going to need a governing body that has way, way more power than the NCAA.  For example, at a minimum, they need to have the power to subpoena.

    -a new subdivision (how many teams?)

    -a governing party with real power. Tampering is a HUGE problem as I type. 

    -complete transparency with NIL

    -universal set of rules… example: one portal transfer; 30 day portal window when a head coach leaves (could potentially give a player two moves).  We have that now.  But, many more are needed. 

    -NIL salary cap? That’s a tough one.  I do think schools should be able to use funds from organizations like the LHF.  Maybe a hard cap that only a few schools could reach, but they can’t exceed it.

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    Whatever happens, it sure feels good to be in the SEC. We get to sit back watch everything unfold and influence how we see fit. The BBs being in the box feels good man. 

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    Going to be interesting how it unfolds. Just thinking about football is only part of the solution. Throw in all other collegiate athletics and that complicates things a lot. 

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    2 hours ago, Texas fan in Georgia said:

    Minor League Football is upon us it seems. 

    This would be bad for college football as the next step would be to cut three year obligation to only 1 like basketball. That would ruin college football as we know it just like it did college basketball years back. 

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    1 hour ago, Texas fan in Georgia said:

    I’m still mad about the fact we won’t get to see a Texas game in that 3:00 slot for CBS🤦🏼‍♂️

    Obviously I meant ESPN gets the SEC (that’s what I get for posting from the gym) 

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    I hope they sit down with a clean slate. They don't need to cobble something on top the current foundation. The current situation is what has led us to where we are today.

    There is not a perfect solution, but there has to be something that is better than what we have today.

    Questions that need to be asked are: What are the criteria for inclusion in the "new structure"? Are all the SEC and BIG 10 teams automatically included just because they are already in the conference? Should the infrastructure they have for football, stadium, facilities be a consideration?

    It would be fun to be in the room to hear the discussions. The proverbial fly on the wall.

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    What a great conversation among well-informed, reasonable people. I’d subscribe to all your newsletters, but don’t have to, since you’re now all here. 😀

    So many moving parts going forward, but I suspect the main players around the big table are the commissioners of the SEC, B1G (acting as reps of member institutions) and guys like my old boss Eric Shanks at Fox and whomever is in charge at ESPN/ABC (not sure how involved Iger would be, but he’d certainly be kept in the loop by people like Pitaro/Magnus/Durant). The NCAA would be left out of the room, trying to peer thru the frosted glass and listening for any mention of its name. Its relevance as a player at the very highest level of college football is over, with the knowledge it will get crushed in any court case.

    A skinny guy named Ed O’Bannon ultimately proved to be the strongest of them all.

    Again, a lot yet to figure out with conference sizes/membership, championships, other sports… but the big boys have finally steered the vehicle down this particular road, and it’s damned great to know the Longhorns have a primo seat at the front.

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    3 minutes ago, Ray Peters said:

    What a great conversation among well-informed, reasonable people. I’d subscribe to all your newsletters, but don’t have to, since you’re now all here. 😀

    So many moving parts going forward, but I suspect the main players around the big table are the commissioners of the SEC, B1G (acting as reps of member institutions) and guys like my old boss Eric Shanks at Fox and whomever is in charge at ESPN/ABC (not sure how involved Iger would be, but he’d certainly be kept in the loop by people like Pitaro/Magnus/Durant). The NCAA would be left out of the room, trying to peer thru the frosted glass and listening for any mention of its name. Its relevance as a player at the very highest level of college football is over, with the knowledge it will get crushed in any court case.

    A skinny guy named Ed O’Bannon ultimately proved to be the strongest of them all.

    Again, a lot yet to figure out with conference sizes/membership, championships, other sports… but the big boys have finally steered the vehicle down this particular road, and it’s damned great to know the Longhorns have a primo seat at the front.

    Ray - Great points! Ultimately, the players in the room will be key. I hope they keep the best interest of all stakeholders in mind and not just their personal interests. Definitely do not need the NCAA interests included. As the current governing group, they have had their opportunity to change it and have not. Time to jettison them from the decision make process.

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