There is indeed a movement toward super-conferences, but the exisiting foundations shall remain. Colleges/Universities are not the NFL whereby a franchise determines league placements and the inclusions of startups and divisional placements are under centralized, professional management with distinct criteria. Even the NFL does not toss out teams from leagues that comply, and do not shift movements based predominantly on perceptional value and bias.
College sports are more fluid and certainly more numerous and subject to change with time. Programs improve, others diminish, and college programs are certainly impacted by funding, population shifts, governance, enrollments, coaching, etc., and such can happen in short order. And, the NFL is dealing with one sport, not the multitude which colleges provide which prefers a greater interactive dimension. Posted scripts that have suggestions such as cutting out Ole Miss, Miss. State, Vandy, Iowa, ISU, Northwestern, WVU, etc., and leaving the Dukes' and BCs', are in the domain of opinionated bias and the system does not operate that way, nor will it. The intent is not to be exclusionary from within, but to be a distinction from schools with "generally" obvious lesser means, scope, and marketing value for advertising, TV exposure, and bowl deals. Politics, traditions, alumni and booster power, legal issues, and an appreciable sense of fairness and access, cannot be dismissed. The means shall not be "cut and add" when geography, just causes, availabilities, and existing limitations remain at work.

There will not be a 64-team college league of 4 neat conferences of 16 each that becomes exclusionary and not interactive with the rest. However, there will be elite conferences that control most of the revenue. They do that now, and plan to enhance it.

I agree completely.

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1897-1898 | 1900-06 | 1926-27 | 1929-30 | 1939 | 1942

Jury's still out on the NCAA

http://insider.espn.go.com/college-foot ... gnment-ncf

"When I wrote the superconferences story in The Mag last year, multiple interviewees kept taking me back to the same concept: a world where the small handful of newly reinforced conferences took what the BCS became to the next level -- an NCAA-free world where the conferences control everything, eventually swallowing up the last big slices of pie they don't already own, namely rules enforcement and basketball postseason TV money.

Are we now seeing the final push before those dominos begin to fall?

Stay tuned."

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Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

USAToday article discussing "possibilities" of a future "superleague" split from NCAA at http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc ... it/2097115

Article out of Colorado discussing recent comments by SEC Commish regarding "possible" college FB school split and possible fallout to schools like CSU at http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20130 ... ge-sports-

I wouldn't mind seeing a split even the right schools/conferences were selected. I think Saban's idea of 50-70 might be low-balling it, but maybe not. I could see the PAC (12), XII (10), SEC (14), B1G (soon to be 14), ACC (soon to be 14 + ND). That's 65. I believe the Mountain West (12) and the Big East basketball conference (currently 10) should also be invited (87, 77 for football). I could see Connecticut, BYU, Cincinnati, and MAYBE USF, Temple, and Houston (I would say SMU and Tulsa but most likely not). finding spots for football and basketball, and basketball-only schools like Gonzaga, St. Mary's, St. Joseph's, Saint Louis, VCU, and maybe a few others joining the football conferences as non-football members. That would be roughly 80 football programs and 100 basketball programs, give or take a couple.

Article out of Macon with comments from Georgia President and others regarding possibility of some type of future NCAA split at http://www.macon.com/2013/05/07/2469867 ... tics.html#

Tony Barnhart piece suggesting that NCAA D1 FB division should be split between those that offer "full"scholarships and those that do not at http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... e-athletes

CBSSports article with comments from various Big Ten officials regarding possibility of some type of D-1 FB split at http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... f-a-change

CBSSports blog article with comments from Big 12 Commish regarding possibility of some type of structural split between the haves and have nots at http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... ark-emmert

CHE blog article discussing creation of Super Division within NCAA for the D-1 "revenue generators" at http://chronicle.com/article/Lets-Give- ... and/139833

Dennis Dodd blog article discussing comments from Big 12 commish and others regarding possible BCS members morphing into 4th NCAA Division at http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... -athletics

I think all of these articles are right. At some point in the near future I think we are going to see the elite of college athletics split off and form their own organization with their own sets of rules. I just hope that part of that includes a standardization of scheduling policies for the leagues involved so that every team has an equally difficult path to the playoff and national title. I'd also like to see the conference commissioners have less power and transfer that decision making ability to the governing body of the new organization. The five leagues should all be working in tandem with each other rather than against each other.

I also think this should serve as a wake up call to the NCAA. Some of their organizational policies are incredibly outdated and no longer suitable for the current collegiate athletic climate. For instance, I think they need to instate a policy that would allow conferences to move as a whole from FCS to FBS and from DII to DI (not sure if any DII conferences actually have that desire but it would be nice if they had that option). For instance, if Montana and other members of the Big Sky had enough members who were able to FBS they should be allowed to go as a group rather than be broken up piecemeal over a decade whenever invitations from existing FBS conferences happen to arrive. Or another example--if Delaware, James Madison, Old Dominion, Liberty, Appalachian St, Charlotte, Georgia St, and Georgia Southern were all interested in going to FBS at the same time why not let them form a new FBS conference hat would be geographically suitable for their travel needs? Instead that geographically cohesive group is split among the far flung C-USA and SBC while others are still back in FCS without options.

USAToday article with comments from ACC Commish regarding "possibility" of significant NCAA restructuring as early as next January.Link at http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc ... on/2574369

So how do you split? Would this be a new subdivision inside Division I for only football (or football and basketball. If basketball as well, does the Big East come along for the ride?)? You can't do a straight split for several sports. Hockey is the first one that comes to mind. I only count nine BCS (sorry, Power Five) schools with men's hockey. Only ten schools have men's lacrosse.