+1

Going to cause more headaches than it solves problems.

Do AD's really care about crowning a "true conference champion"?

Everything is driven by dollars, I dont know that anyone is going to go backwards now that theyve added 39 teams to the BIG"10". SEC is huge. ACC wants to do away with the conference title, but the conference championship games drive more tv dollars. Ultimately, I think that wins out.

Like basketball, the conference winner isn't always going to get hot at the right time. How many tournament titles vs reg season do we have? One reg season vs like 4-5 tournament titles since 2000? Conference Champ doesn't always crown the National Champ, and I don't think there really is anything wrong with that.

Yep, this isn't that hard.

If there's any sense that conferences are struggling to identify an irrefutable conference champion, the outcome won't be shrinking the conferences -- it'll be more playoff spots for that conference.

One school not mentioned in that article is UConn. After UMass joins the league, UConn will be the last remaining Independent outside of Notre Dame. As it stands right now, UConn football has no hope of ever making a college football playoff without being in a conference. Their schedule next season is already a mixed bag of MAC, CUSA and AAC.

Presumably, here's where it stands for them:

Big 12: There were talks between the two parties when the Big 12 originally expanded, to as late as October of 2024. One would assume the reason they didn't sign is because the Big 12 wants them for all sports, and UConn isn't ready to leave the Big East yet, especially in basketball.

PAC: There were talks, but it was ultimately never going to work.

AAC: There was a bad breakup here when UConn decided to go back to the Big East in 2020, and the AAC was not interested in having them as a football only member. I highly doubt that either party would consider reuniting.

ACC: I think this is a pipe dream for the Huskies for now. Unless a major shift happens and contracts are broken, the ACC is probably not going to expand further until their current TV deal expires in 2036. It's been long rumored that Florida State, Miami, North Carolina and Virginia are hot commodities that other conferences (SEC and Big Ten) really want, but until that actually comes to fruition, UConn is going to be in a wait and see mode. Who knows how long that could last.

MAC & CUSA: I would think both of these conferences have UConn on their radar. They're never going to get them out of the Big East for all sports, but why not strike up a deal that gets you the football team plus a schedule chalk full of some out of conference games for UConn men's and women's basketball? This is probably the longest shot of all, but the MAC may have a slight upper hand with the stability of the league plus UMass and Buffalo close by.

All this or remain Independent, I guess, which is probably what ends up happening.

Looking at dollars can't just be a short term analysis. You have consider what will make your conference thrive and your fans happy and engaged for decades. A giant nonsensical conference of random programs with little to nothing tying them together might work for the Big Ten and SEC. I maintain it is stupid at the mid-major level. Our long term success and interest is in regional rivalries and local buzz. We just don't have a national audience week to week. If we hobble together some 18 team conference for a TV package with CBS Sports in 2026 that nets everyone a few thousand dollars more, I think it is a dumb move. Fans like me will have less interest and more frustration in the long run.

For comparison sakes, just look at what the Sun Belt did compared to C-USA when realignment first started. The Sun Belt did what you outlined above. They stayed within their general footprint and also upgraded the league when they added Marshall, ODU, JMU and Southern Miss. CUSA essentially just grabbed whomever they could for the sake of surviving. I don't think the MAC is going to reach those crisis levels that CUSA did (fingers crossed), but it could take a page from the Sun Belt's book and maintain the regionality without looking desperate.

What I read of the ACC is they want an ACCplayoff, top4 teams play it out to a CFP birth. That’s stupid. But ok. And 18 team conferences are stupid. And don’t think missing the conference title game didn’t help the Buckeyes this year. From a physical standpoint and mental.

Delaware doing big things:

https://www.inquirer.com/education/university-of-delaware...