This Chris Vannini piece about the price we fans are paying for conference realignment ($$) strikes a chord in my soul like nothing else I’ve read about how the suits are determined to eradicate college football as we’ve known it.
We need to stop calling it conference “realignment” or “expansion.” The more accurate word would be “consolidation” — at least for the people who actually control what we currently know as college sports.
It’s coming. Maybe in a few years. Maybe in a decade or two. But there’s no stopping it now. With USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten, one year after Texas and Oklahoma accepted invitations to the SEC, the college Super League(s) is on its way. College football as we knew it is on its last legs. It will eventually be replaced by an NFL Jr.-type sport, and the TV executives who have long dreamed about this will finally get their wish for a simpler product to package. The people at the right schools will make a lot of money, and the fans at the wrong schools will be left behind.
College administrators spent a year-plus telling the public that they worried name, image and likeness would ruin the purity of college football and turn off fans. Many did so while chasing any extra dollar they could find, even when that meant ending century-old rivalries and conference affiliations. Concern about the uncertainty in college athletics? Who do you think caused all that? Look in the mirror. Don’t let it be lost that this is coming from “non-profit” organizations, either.
It was never going to be NIL and a handful of million-dollar deals for players that turned off fans. It was, rather, slowly taking away everything that gave this sport its charm and moving toward a national corporate model, changes fueled primarily by money, especially television dollars. It’s like any other business now.
That last sentence is it. This sport has had a charming uniqueness to it that has steadily eroded, and not by accident, either.
… What are the long-term effects? Some generations grew up with the Southwest Conference. My generation grew up with Big East football. Neither exists anymore. Change in college football has been constant. So it’s not hard now to imagine younger generations growing up with just two major conferences.
This move is not only about this generation of fans, even though the immediate television money will be enormous. It’s also about the next generation. How do you explain this move to Washington State fans? Or Oregon State fans? Or Iowa State fans? Or Kansas State fans? You can’t. You hope they still watch and wait for the next generation to grow up.
When college football reaches the inevitable end of this road with 30 to 40 teams left at the highest level, the powers that be won’t want you to hand down your Washington State fandom to your children. They’ll want your kids to latch on to USC or Texas or Alabama, much like the Golden State Warriors or the Kansas City Chiefs have fans all over the world. It’s about brands now, because brands can be sold to anyone.
Brands. Ugh. I hate every single one of the motherfuckers behind this. And there’s nothing I can do about it except stop loving the sport I’ve loved for decades.
Get The Picture 
Spot on.
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It’s going to end up like HBO and boxing. HBO prints Moby, the fighters get rich, and now 99% of the country has no idea who the heavyweight champ is. Streaming is basically subscription PPV, and makes it easier for the suirs at Disney or Fox to reach sucker, errrrr, consumers. ESPN used to fight with cable companies to package their stuff, but the cost turned off a lot of non sports fans. Streaming is efficient, the sucker will pay, the ad rates go up because ideal target demographics, everyone gets rich.
Sure, we lose the AU game, maybe the Florida game, probably the SECC, probably the Rose/Orange/Sugar; games on Thursday, or Wednesday, or Friday? 11am kickoffs? Sure thing, boss. Take everything we love about CFB and junk it, so you can give us the new and improved recipe. I can hardly wait for the rotation if a 22 team or 24 team conference. FTMF.
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Money, not Moby. 😡😡😡💰🤬🤬🤬
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My dad and I watched a ton of boxing on cable when I was young. Tyson, Bruno, Spinks, Hearns, Leonard, Mugabi, Hagler, Mancini, to name a few off the top of my head. I can’t name one current boxer, and I loved the sport.
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My dad, god rest his soul, never missed a chance to watch a boxing match. Remember watching all those fights above with him. But he would also watch any random boxing match on ESPN too. Good times.
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Ah yes, the hidden hand of the free market.
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I am trying to stay positive and look for a silver lining but he sums it up much more accurately than anything else I’ve read.
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Marty and McGee are covering well this morning.
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Mickey’s wet dream is coming to fruition…. 😦
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and it will have about as much joy as the Magical Kingdom in a tropical storm
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Pageantry will be the only unique thing about CFB until Mickey decides he needs that airtime for Geico commercials or ADs decide they need the band’s budget to put in better camera lighting.
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Agree about the television greed message, but when was the last time a network showed a band performing at halftime? Television has already eliminated all at the stadium pageantry from the broadcast, except students mugging for the camera.
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NIL = NFL sponsorships
Transfer portal = NFL free agency
Conference re-alignment = Moving towards two NFL “like” divisions
For me, the reason I love CFB so much is because it isn’t the NFL which I hate and never watch. Those lines between the two are being blurred every day and it’s getting worse.
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I don’t hate the NFL. I watch the Falcons occasionally. OTOH, I never miss a Georgia game, and haven’t for years.
But right now, a number of factors–NIL, transfer portal, overemphasis on recruiting, overemphasis on winning Natties vs just winning football games, conference realignment, spending fortunes on facilities without any real improvement in the average spectator experience–are making me want to dial back my GA fandom to the level of my Falcon fandom.
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Glad we won one before this turns completely into a shit show.
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There it is Russ. I’m damn happy to be a Georgia Bulldog, ain’t worried about the Dawg’s prospects and don’t give a shit what happens to any other program. As long as the Dawgs are winning I’ll stay happy.
Yeah, I’m a selfish, simple sumbitch.
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Mr. RangerRuss,
I agree with ever word you wrote, but GA can’t play themselves every weekend. So I do worry a little (very little) about the state of college football as a whole.
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Vannini and his guys at The Athletic including Seth Emerson have been clamoring for an expanded playoff which clearly plays into this. Garner as many power programs as possible to gobble up the playoff spots and the money.
These idiots in college administration and especially TV networks don’t realize the idiosyncrasies of the sport are what make people love it. Who cares about the Chiefs/Raiders “rivalry”? Some of those players may be on your team next year. Everyone in the state of Alabama cares about the Iron Bowl. The nation tunes in to see those two go at it. The state of Alabama has one day a year where it’s truly relevant. That will be gone in the not-so-distant future if it doesn’t have playoff ramifications. The SEC/Big 10 bowl match-ups in Orlando and Tampa and eventually the BCS title game led to the “SEC!” chant and the “It Just Means More” motto.
I can’t imagine South Carolina graduates and fans becoming Clemson or Georgia fans because their brand doesn’t warrant being part of a “Super League.”
In the meantime, the fan/alumni with the most passion … the one who puts his/her money where the passion lies, the season ticket holder … is going to be asked to pay higher contributions for tickets, contribute to an NIL collective (not in my lifetime), make commitments to never-ending capital campaigns, and deal with a fan experience more geared to the well-heeled booster with attitude that the school wins regardless. You stay home and watch on TV while I sell your long-held seats to someone else.
Good luck, college football, in bringing those loyal fans back that you are getting ready to piss down their back and tell them it’s raining with the actions that are coming. NASCAR tried this at this behest of the networks. New York and California never came. They aren’t going to come to college football either.
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Absolutely correct ee!
Rarely am I glad to be an old guy this is one of those times. I’m so dam happy to have been able to enjoy the Kirby victory ride from South Bend to Pasadena with finally a National Championship climax. The death of college football that I so dearly love is coming down the tracks at an ever increasing speed. Listening to shit from people like Gene Smith lying as usual like there is nothing to see here is disgusting.
Fuck every one of those greedy assholes destroying what is special about CFB. Most special of all fuck you’s is to those running the universities who could stop the greed expansion and destruction of the sport as we know it. I blame them far more than those paying for broadcasting rights. Broadcasters are there to make money for shareholders it’s their job. They can’t hurt the sport unless allowed too. Next on my fuck you list is every talking head, writer or basement dwelling blogger screaming for playoff expansion. All of them want the attention and money it brings themselves. Rarely are there more than four teams worthy of being NC.
It seems every new week now causes me to add to the list of people that can just kiss my old ass.
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scuba, tell us what you really think!
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Truly a sad inevitability. You could say we are fortunate that Georgia is one of the relevant brands, but eventually that likely won’t matter because it won’t be the same. I’m was never a big NASCAR fan, but I can see a lot of similarities. In the end it will be a watered down product without any character.
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He had us at “maybe 2 decades from now”. Here come more self proclaimed Mr. Superhero Vannini, fighter for the underdog schools, shamer of greedy education orgs, and challenger to market factors! Our kids are doomed, justvdoomed he says. His pen tries to speaks the truth but with zero f’ing reasonable. Take this beaut- “…30 to 40 teams left at the highest level…” shit, we only have about 5 or 6 elite programs right now, I’ll take that in a new York minute. What a putz.
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Huh?
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Forget it, he’s rolling.
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Reminds of that guy who used to come on here and ramble incoherently on a daily basis. What was his handle?
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Will Trane. He was a free-form poet. I loved his stuff. Still trying to figure out some of it.
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Will Trane is indeed missed. (For reals… haha)
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Now I remember! Damn, wonder what happened to him. So many greats have come and gone from this forum. I still miss ChiliDawg’s angst.
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Mr. dudemankind,
If I miss more than 2 days in a row, you will know I am dead.
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This article is spot on. Sadly. It’s a good thing we won it all before it gets meaningless. My two favorite sports are college football and MLB and both are being ruined by greed.
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MLB lost me other than as a casual observer when they canceled a World Series because they couldn’t figure out how to split a pot of money in 1994.
College football seems to be going down that same path.
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I was 4 in 94 so I don’t have strong thoughts about the Strike. If you want me to get on my soapbox, talk to me about the Lockout
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Damn straight EE.
I use to be a MLB fan until 1994.
Never been back and could care less.
Someone said the Braves won the World Series.
I couldn’t name the first Braves player and couldn’t give a shit.
Same for the NFL.
College football beware!!
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Yup. I was still a young-in in ’94 being only in high-school but I also gave up on MLB during this time. Even being young and dumb at this age, I knew better that it was a greedy shit show when players and owners making millions of dollars a year couldn’t agree on salaries.
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Kansas St went from nothing, to a 40-year run of relevance, and now back to nothing.
Rutgers went from first ever CFB game participant, to 150 years of nothing, and now back to relevance.
Someone should chart all the brand journeys over time. The only thing that feels different this time is they are about to get legally locked in place and the musical chairs will largely stop.
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Well I’ve enjoyed 55 years of college football. I have another 5 – 6 years to watch college football which will be about the time college football goes completely to shit. Pretty good timing.
p
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It would take an act of congress restricting travel miles per student athlete per year to fix this. Limited exceptions for schools like Hawaii, etc. That’s all that’s left. The schools, conferences, boards of regents, etc have soundly proven they are utterly incapable of doing anything but dancing for the short term TV revenue puppet master, all other considerations be damned.
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“The love of money is the root of much evil”
I’m surprised it took them this long to realize they could milk this cow a lot harder and a lot longer than they have been.
TV is a greedy and destructive force.
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“Television, the drug of the nation, breeds ignorance, and spreads radiation.”
Heard a Christian rap duo spit that in the mud-90s…. I’ve never forgotten it. Ha. Weird how some things stick in your head.
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TV is slowly dying and the execs are doing their part.
Social Media is the new TV
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The worst thing may be the strong possibility that turning the big programs into national brands fails to generate the interest they’re looking for. They’ll have ruined the sport for nothing.
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This is exactly what is going to happen because they are violating most of the principles behind branding. Our G logo stands out…even, apparently in Montana…but what does it represent? Most will say “them Dawgs!” and infer the football team, but that’s not right. The University and it’s sports programs (two different entities I might point out) have much more “product” than UGA football. I could do a dissertation but won’t. They are screwing this up led by TV execs who have an entirely different agenda than protecting college football or any one school’s brand.
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💥💥💥
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And yet ya’ll take every opportunity to demean and diminish everything non-SEC. The big 10 sucks, the ACC sun, everybody but the almighty SEC sucks. Well, happy now?
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We should be grateful to Kirby who has truly elevated the UGA brand to one of national recognition and fully integrated it into the so-called “Atlanta sports market.” UGA football is as well poised as any other college program to enter this new era.
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To me, the long term solution is to stop the professional sports teams from depreciating/amortizing the players salaries & the purchase costs of a team. Just accounting.. it will burst the bubble in a second. It will flow downhill.
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I feel bad for some of you younger guys – when you’re in your 70s this all sounds terrible, but I’ll probably never live to see it. Y’all will, but in the meantime it’s all the more reason to love what we have now.
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We can’t pretend NIL and its supporters didn’t have a part in the speedy decline
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Whatever helps you get through the night, man.
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Mainly JW Black
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My Dawg!
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I hated the playoff. I thought it would kill the bowls, make going to the sugar or rose bowl meaningless. I was right and wrong. Uga had a pretty epic trip to the rose bowl. And the existence of the playoff bailed Uga out this year. But playing Baylor and Texas in the sugar bowl didn’t really do much for me.
So they’ll be elements of these changes I suspect I’ll hate, but probably a lot I like. When Ohio state goes to play at usc and bama goes to play Texas I’m going to tune in and like it. Embrace the change, enjoy what it brings and don’t dwell too much on what we lose. Not a thing we can’t do about it anyway.
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When Georgia loses the DSOR as an annual game, I’m sure you’ll be glad to watch Ohio State and USC or Bama and Texas.
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I will hate that. Hate it. But I’ll like seeing Uga play at Oklahoma. Losing Au annually will be bad. Playing Texas and lsu etc, more often will be good. They’ll be some good and bad. All I’m saying.
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meh….
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No, it absolutely won’t be good. Those games have never been played consistently, and everything has been more than fine.
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The only hope is that the SEC can get as many of the good teams in it’s foot print and keep us (SEC) as regional as we have been. If they can get Clemson, FSU, Miami, NC State, UNC hell even Duke we can maintain our SEC foot print. The basketball will get better too, as if I gave a damn. If the SEC does a B1G and gets strung out geographically, then it is truly over. It would make me LOL if ND still held it’s grudge against the B1G for the years of refusing them entry and chose the SEC. Hell just cheery pick the ACC southern teams and let the northern ones go to hell.
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If CFB is truly doomed then why is the money growing so strong? Do we think NIL dollars are going to turn kids into pro-athletes? Can’t happen since they won’t be on a school patyroll, but could see more “walkons” allowed where kids taking the 8 mill NIL deal don’t have to accept tuition books, housing which could expand the scholly offer pool to all the other sports, this making men’s & women’s sports grow, thus driving up the network packages.
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A light bulb is brightest just before…..
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…. a Polish gentleman realizes he does not know how to screw it in ?
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Guess I’m a contrarian. If these moves can make so we’re not stuck with Vandy, KY, SCe, and Mizzou every year, I’m for it. With that, UTK and Tech down, and a couple pay games, we’re left with 4 decent regular season games at best – and that assumes Auburn doesn’t fully implode and we get a decent draw from the West. Our regular season is lacking, partly because of prior “consolidation,” but that doesn’t mean we our regular season schedules are in a good place.
Now stay at 16, go with the 3-6 model plus Tech and at least one good OOC game and we’ll have the best schedules we have ever had. Add VT, NCSU, UVA, and UNC and the schedules will be terrible again though.
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I have no problem with getting rid of divisions. There appear to be a lot of schools that are opposed to the 9-game schedule, so that’s not a foregone conclusion. Without the 9-game schedule, the Auburn game is gone. Are Texas, Oklahoma, and others worth that? To me, absolutely not.
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Losing the Auburn game to allow Oklahoma and Texas in is a real easy no thank you. It’ll always be 10-9 in Texas and we won the Rose bowl in OT to Oklahoma, That’s all nice and I’m sure if I lived long enough my feelings for both would change. Neither of them is worth losing my annual opportunity I’ve invested over 50 years in of watching them get beat by Georgia.
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Legit question: Would we still be headed down this dark road at top speed if Mike Slive hadn’t added TAMU and Mizzou to the conference in 2012 for no good goddamn reason other than he saw the B1G’s broadcast deal and soiled himself in panic?
I fully expect that the answer is “Yes, because greed,” but I’m willing to hear opposing takes.
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I think the 2012 addition is the egg layed by the NCAA vs. OU and UGa
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Chicken, laid by the chicken
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We added SC and Ark in the early 90s but that was wholly different from Mo and TxA&M. Many SEC teams played Arky and SC anyhow and they were natural, regional expansions. Mo and TxA&M’s SEC moves served as harbingers of the erosion of the regional rivalries. Maybe not a cause of today’s sickness but an early symptom.
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I still love it. I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts
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Steel on target!
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If this ultimately fails in growing new fans and revenue, the NFL will benefit by filling the void. If it is successful, the NFL will attack it. Either way, I’m betting on the NFL billionaires club to allow CFB to be destroyed from within or the outside. College administrators are way in over their heads with no common mission, no coordination, no long term vision and no understanding of the game they find themselves playing.
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The skill set one needs to be a college administrator is way different than being a media suit. The college suits are politicians who generally get to the top by schmoozing, and once at the top they get used to having their rings kissed. Media suits are survivors of years of corporate knife fighting to produce real results, especially real profits. They’re good at schmoozing, too, but they’re about 10 steps ahead of the college suits at every turn. Media suits are as sentimental as assassins. College suits are so used to being in charge, they don’t even know what’s happening. They’re lobsters in the media’s pot of water, and the heat is going up. Unfortunately for us, we’re getting cooked, too. Hansel and Gretal were not this oblivious as they walked into the witch’s house to be fattened up.
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Why does the NFL want the college game to fail? The college game has never tried to be a competitor to the NFL. The NFL benefits enormously from the college football system. They don’t have to subsidize a developmental league that prepares the few to make the step up to the NFL.
If the college game failed (or went back to an “amateur” sport), I wouldn’t all of sudden trade in all of my Georgia gear for some random NFL team. I damn sure wouldn’t spend time on a blogger’s site discussing the salary cap moves the Falcons need to make on their offensive line.
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I’m not going to pretend that I love college football because I don’t. I don’t care who wins the Iron Bowl or the Tenn/FL game, or OSU/Much. Hell I’m a retired Marine and I really don’t GAS about the Army/Navy game. I do love Georgia football though and I think these changes may be fun. If his means I get to watch us play more “Bluebloods” and less Vandy, Mizzou, and a few others I’m fine with it.
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I’ve attended two games that UGA wasn’t playing. Got drunk, had fun, didn’t give a shit who won. It’s all about the Dawgs.
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When we get down to the superleague, they’ll realize there’s way too much product to squeeze it all in on Saturday. They’re cannibalizing their own market.
Why wouldn’t you put some games on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday??
Just wait until we get that Tuesday noon kickoff on ESPN8 at Vandy. It’s gonna happen.
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You think all these “power schools” realize they’re finally going to have to actually play each other with some regularity on the back end of all this?
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They just think they are going to be able to schedule like they did. USC believes they’ll be able to schedule Fresno, Washington State, Cal or Stanford as OOC games with no return games. What happens when those schools say “we don’t want your money”?
Everyone is saying that this is going to come down to 2 conferences. The ACC isn’t going anywhere. I guarantee you the people in Greensboro will fight in court for years to defend the media rights agreement that is now in place through 2036. I believe ND even has a clause that requires it to join the ACC first before it can be in another league for football (and they have the same media rights entanglement for their other sports). The Big 12 should be saying to the other 10 schools in the Pac 12 that they will welcome them with open arms in a new “western” conference.
Unless the lawyers can find a loophole in the media rights agreement or negotiate a settlement, the ACC is going to remain viable (although still with a TV revenue problem). The Big 12 can now see a path to viability if they act swiftly. Meanwhile, who ever thought the Pac 12 would be the Power 5 league that would fail?
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The thing that is not spoken about is, the high school kids that early enroll/show up in the fall spend 2 years in the weight room and fitness/diet program before they even sniff the field (in general, some don’t and get there right away). If the end game in a few years is to have a semi pro league that’s fine but dang, the football product being placed on the field right now is highly developed. A 5 star OLine recruit still has to work out and eat for 2 years before playing a game, no minor league franchise will take on that kind of project. What minor league franchise will work out 4 QB’s for two years before announcing a starter? What franchise will employ 3 5 star RB’s to see which one or two will become draft picks?
Bottom line, CFB is where future NFL stars body build, train, mature. Some kind of NFL minor league can’t endure that multi year project for every player. It’s a slow burn in a fast burn media environment. Train wreck imminent.
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The problem is the NFL knows there is no money in minor league football. Everywhere it’s been tried it has failed. The capital outlays, the expense and the risk just aren’t worth it to the NFL owners. They have a free system now supported by their collective bargaining agreement in the college system.
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This is why coaches like CMR can be fired at schools like UGA. Dooley, Bowden, Osborne, etc. would not have survived long enough to build the champions they built in today’s football world. My love for the game died years ago. I still enjoy it, but I don’t love it any more. As it transitioned to a business for the schools rather than sports that represented the schools, I lost some interest. If I am honest, I loved it too much anyway so there is some goodness in moving past the intensity of emotions.
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I love the sport. I detest the flavor of this sausage.
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You don’t have to stop loving CFB. You just have to turn your attention as locally as possible and not get despaired at the national landscape (same advice I give about politics, too.)
You’re still going to find yourself in Sanford Stadium on a crisp October evening listening to the first fourteen notes of the battle hymn ring out from the South upper deck.
You’re still (at least for as long as the city of Jax has anything to say about it) going to be three bourbons deep on the banks of the St. John’s river barking at anything in orange and blue.
You’re still going to tear up when you see highlights of Kelee’s interception (and hopefully many, MANY more similar plays to come.)
This all only loses it’s meaning when you let it lose it’s meaning inside of you. You don’t have to give that up. No realignment can take that from you without you letting them.
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Appreciate the sentiment, but we’re all wired differently.
I’ll cherish the past, but I already know, based on how I lost my love for college basketball, that I’ll feel the same way about college football as this comes to fruition.
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