College Football as we know it is quickly transforming, and if your school isn’t willing to make moves they’ll be left to pick up the scraps leftover from the SEC.
As you likely know by now, Texas and Oklahoma will be joining the SEC in 2025 and could be pulling up to the conference even sooner than that.
The SEC was already the best football conference in the nation, and now they will add two of the most iconic brands in the whole sport to only add to the competition and revenue created by the conference.
The move has prompted commissioners of other conferences to move swiftly to collaborate to keep up with the plays of SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and the rest of the schools.
It was reported a couple of days ago that the Pac-12, Big Ten, and ACC met to discuss a potential partnership or alliance. According to ESPN, the alliance would be more centered around scheduling, but it could be possible that the alliance would spread into other areas.
Many believe that this partnership could help bridge the gap between these conferences and the SEC without having to fully dismantle each one. They could schedule premiere non-conference matchups between the conferences that could be appealing to TV networks.
With the SEC having Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Florida LSU, Texas, and Oklahoma, the media rights deal for the conference would be in the billions, yes with a B.
Even if the conferences can come together, they wouldn’t be able to put together as many matchups that would grab the attention of the nation the way the SEC could. Just think about it, there are only a handful of schools that people would want to see.
Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Stanford, Clemson, Miami, Florida State, and maybe Wisconsin could be a potential set of schools that could compete with the SEC. Yet, Miami hasn’t been a powerhouse in 20 years, Michigan has been a serious title contender either, and Clemson and Florida State have been rumored to want to join the SEC anyway.
Notre Dame might want to join the party if something this significant were to go down, but you always have to wonder what it will take for that school to give up its football independence and exclusive TV deal with NBC.
Even with an alliance, the Big Ten, Pac-12, and ACC won’t be able to keep up with the SEC. It already has the best teams (Alabama, Georgia) with the best talent, and they will be going at it every single week. A non-conference matchup between Ohio State and USC would be nice, but it won’t hold the same weight as Texas and Alabama potentially competing in the SEC title game.
It just won’t.
These non-SEC schools might as well form their own conference at this point. They should strip down what they’ve already done and start over. It may be the only way to keep up. Forget geography, it needs to be power on power.
This likely will never happen because no one likes splitting money and power but it may be the only way to stop the SEC from taking over and monopolizing college football.