How do we get to 64? (or The Fate of College Football as We Know It!!!)

[auburn123 0]

OK, so right now it seems certain that current members of the Big 10+2, the PAC-12, and the SEC are part of the eventual super conferences.  That means 36 of the 64 teams are set. 

Add in Texas A&M to the SEC; Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State to the PAC-12; and Notre Dame to the Big 10+2.  That brings us to 42.

The ACC in some form or fashion seems destined to survive.  If we assume those 12 schools will be included in the final 64, that gets us to 54. 

That leaves 10 schools to pick from the Big East and the remnants of the Big 12-2.  Those schools are Baylor, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Louisville, South Florida, and TCU. 

Because the Big 10+2's location, my guess is that they will have the pick of the litter from these schools.  I've already ceded ND to them, so that means they need 3 more.  They were looking at Missouri, Rutgers, and Pittsburgh pretty hard last year.  All of the schools are members of the Association of American Colleges, which they really think is a big deal in the Big 10+2.  Rutgers is the closest school to NYC, even though Rutgers has done precious little in any sport.  Pittsburgh has a pretty good football history and has been decent to pretty good in basketball on and off for the past 25 years.  But I think Pittsburgh is a lot like Georgia Tech . . . not a ton of fan support despite their successes.  The Big 10+2 could also look at Kansas and Iowa State, which are also members of that Association.  But those schools don't bring any significant markets with them. 

Rumor mill for the ACC says that they are very interested in Syracuse and Connecticut.  They wanted Syracuse during the last expansion, but had to take Virginia Tech due to political pressures.  But who else?  Cincinnati?  South Florida?  The ACC academia would have a hard time accepting those schools I do believe. 

For the SEC, if they don't raid the ACC for the last 3 teams, it could be ugly for the SEC as well.  Does the SEC battle for Missouri with the Big 10+2?  West Virginia, Louisville, and TCU?

Of the 14 teams listed above, I think Kansas State and Baylor are almost assuredly out of the 64.  Kansas and Iowa State can only hope that the Big 10+2 turns away from their desire for the Northeast TV markets.  Or that the SEC or ACC decide to leave their footprint to add more schools. 

Conference-wise, the PAC-12 looks to be the big winners if they add OU, OSU, Tex, and TTU.  The Big 10+2 will probably do pretty well with Notre Dame and the other 3 choices.  If the SEC is going to come out of this in a stronger position, they will almost assuredly have to raid the ACC for at least 2 of the next 3 schools.  The ACC is going to have a hard time find 16 schools that they could be comfortable with.  There are just not 10 good choices among the 14 current BCS teams (once we take 1/2 of the Big 12-2 and Notre Dame out of the equation). 

Conference expansion is already ugly, and it is going to get a lot uglier I do believe. 

[Weegle777 78]

Can you imagine the basketball if the ACC gets The 'Cuse and UConn? Basketball superconference!

[mustache eagle 2,416]

should set things up like the european soccer leagues.  4 primary 16 team super conferences, 4 - 16ish team sub conferences.  bottom 2-4 teams in primary conferences at end of season are "relagated" down to the sub conference and the top 2-4 teams from sub conferences move up.  This gives everyone a "chance" to play in the big dance, which is a 4 team playoff (or 8 if you would like).

that way the regular season really, really has some meat, cause no one wants to move down and the sub conference teams will work hard to move up.  The always evolving "odd" number of DIV 1 teams can easily be mixed up among the sub conferences.

i saw someone mention this type of thing before, thought i would repeat.  also might take a tiny bit of the sting off the teams left out of the super conferences.  could also be some interesting TV rights discussion as well

[looney 794]

I definitely back the promotion/relegation idea (and, yes, I'm ONE person who'd mentioned it before... but you may have heard it from someone else).  I had always thought about it in the context of an 8-conference system (with 16 teams each) but the idea of Major and Minor tiers each with four 16-team conferences is VERY intriguing and might actually work better.

[auinmadison 0]

If we went to the Super 64, would the SEC still keep Vanderbilt??  Academic image I get, but just wondering.