How to Stop the CFB Super League: Three Lessons from Defeating the European Super League
We’re at a point where every realignment decision is being analyzed through the lens of money and greed. Where does this end logically? The CFB Super League.
Texas and Oklahoma are leaving the Big 12 because they feel they can make more money playing bigger teams and not having to share with the smaller teams in their conference. Eventually, the top teams in the SEC will realize they can make more money by playing USC, Oregon, OSU, and UofM and not sharing with Vanderbilt, Mizzou, South Carolina, Ole Miss, etc. The same math will apply to Clemson, FSU, and Miami. Thus, the biggest money-making programs will band together, ditching the smaller programs, and the Super League will be born. The ultimate consolidation of college football will be at-hand.
With media rights and everything else, it won’t necessarily happen next year or even in the next five years; but it will happen. And when it does, college football as we know it will be dead.
So where do we go from here? How do we stop it?
I think there are lessons to be learned from how the Super League was dealt with earlier this year in European soccer. I’m far from an expert on how the entire situation unfolded, so if anyone else has additional perspective, please feel free to weigh in.
From my perspective, the three necessary components for defeating the European Super League were: 1) Selflessness, 2) Public Pressure, and 3) A United Front.
1. Selflessness
Selflessness was the first big key. The largest uproar against the European Super League was from the supporters of the clubs who were joining it. They staged protests. They disrupted matches. They were loud and defiant. There is no question that the Super League would have been the best for their teams and their teams would have made more money, signed better players, etc.; but they recognized that it would kill soccer as they knew it. Similarly, I think we as fans of large programs have to take the same stance. We recognize that Michigan could make a ton of money in a Super League, but it would kill the sport. In that way, we need to be selfless. We need to look beyond what would be in our best interest and put the interests of college football first.
2. Public Pressure
The second most important point from the European Super League was the efficacy of public pressure. The fans were not just angry; they were in the streets. They drew media attention, they got politicians involved, and they made the entire ordeal a media firestorm. With all of this combined, one by one, the teams realized they had an untenable position and they were forced to pull out (or at least, most of them did). In the same way, we have to make the CFB Super League untenable.
3. A United Front
Finally, the European Super League could not have been defeated without the supporters forming a united front. There weren’t just Arsenal fans in the streets; there were fans of every single team. They were each demanding the same thing: no Super League. They wanted to keep their respective leagues exactly as they were. In CFB, we need to take the same strategy. It can’t be this “every program for itself” free for all that we’re seeing happen during realignment.
All three points can effectively be summed-up in one word: money. We need the CFB Super League to be a money-losing venture. Do college football fans have the selflessness to do that? Would fans of big programs be willing to give up watching their team for the sake of the sport as a whole? We can only hope.
I think a super league will happen, but not that way. It's either the B1G or SEC cherry picking from the other conferences until only 1 remains and becomes the de facto superleague.
If the SEC reached out to us, OSU, ND, and USC, can you say no? That would be an unstoppable superconference. It would be the SEC and everyone else.
Barring that, IMO the BIG and the PAC will have to merge and whatever's left of the B12 will have to merge with the ACC. There will have to be big changes because even though the BIG is somewhat on par with the SEC in TV money now, they won't be when Texas and OU join, and plus keep in mind all of the recruiting talent is in that part of the country, so TV money + recruits means the SEC will just break further ahead unless the other conferences do something big like merge.
YES - Michigan can and should say no.
So it would be an "unstoppable super conference...the SEC and everyone else" - so what? To what end?
Does anyone really want Michigan to be an afterthought? Do Michigan fans prefer their team to play half their games down south? Do they prefer games with Mississippi and Arkansas to MSU and Purdue? Or even Alabama instead of Wisconsin? Lots of people think Michigan isn't as powerful in the B1G as they'd like - we'd be completely subordinate in a super-SEC.
Apart from FOMO and a short-term money grab, what is the point?
I'd much, much rather Michigan and the B1G take one of three paths:
1. Best Option, Super B1G - Join forces with the Pac 12, and make a long-term commitment. IMO, a 20 team conference would work best, but even if all current members joined together the logistics could be worked out (East, Central, West divisions, for example).
2. 2nd Best Option, Anti-SEC CFB Division - Start working with similar-minded institutions to form a counterbalance to minor professional SEC. Find/recruit schools willing to actually have rules and abide by them, including academics, somewhat stricter transfer/time commitments, salary caps for coaches and staff. A large college division including the B1G, Pac, select ACC, Big 12, even some SEC and independents. I'm talking about maybe 48-50 schools, enough to have national presence and following:
- B1G: Hopefully everyone (14)
- Pac 12: Hopefully everyone (12)
- ACC: GA Tech, UVA, NC, Va Tech, Wake, Duke, BC, Pitt, Syracuse, perhaps NC State (10)
- Big 12: ISU, Kansas, perhaps TCU. Texas might well be convinced to align (2-4)
- SEC: Vandy, maybe MO, possibly even GA, FL or A&M (2-4)
- Independents: ND, Army, Navy, maybe Cinci, Rice (4)
Let the SEC form a true minor pro league basically separate from the schools themselves. Kids who don't want to "play school" can go there. Kids who want to be students and have a real college experience will have a real alternative.
Some schools (OSU, maybe AZ St, maybe some others) might opt out and jump ship to SEC. So be it.
CFB would basically be split 3 ways. Professional (SEC+), College (see above), and Others (MAC, MWC and other small schools. Most likely they would end up more like Div II/III.
3. Third Best Option, Stubborn Persistence - Make long-term legal and financial commitment among B1G members to stick together. Take long-term position that B1G is an entity worth maintaining, and work together to stay relevant. Institute conference leadership/oversight with real power to make up for toothless NCAA.
Doesn't preclude additions, but prevents poaching and ensures stability.
Summary: I'd prefer any of the three paths above to joining a minor professional super SEC.
An opportunity for the B1G to be bold here and take in a large swath of middle western and eastern, as well as good mid-south schools--continuing to insist that academics is part of the mix, and playing up the way that the sport and school have been cheapened by SEC moves. Such moves could compel ND to come aboard as well.
The game of chicken that awaits--with some conferences seeking to pre-empt the moves of others--may make for some real chaos; they make impending scenarios hard to game-plan for.
I think there's a very good chance that conservative B1G presidents, with academics uppermost, play it safe and add one or two more schools. Whereupon the B1G becomes the lesser conference, the SEC paramount. The piranha might come back to swallow us little fish later.
But--as the OP smartly opines--if college football becomes a bastardized constantly interrupted, commercial-filled game, there may come a point when more people realize that there's not much of value or appeal left in it. I am certainly halfway there.
Similarly, I think we as fans of large programs have to take the same stance. We recognize that Michigan could make a ton of money in a Super League, but it would kill the sport. In that way, we need to be selfless. We need to look beyond what would be in our best interest and put the interests of college football first.
I already don't watch live games, don't attend games in person, nor pay for cable any longer. What else can I do? I want my 90s back, split conference titles, split NCs, a division-less B1G, etc. but that shit ain't happening. The culture and economics of the USA is capitalistic. It's who we are. No one who's paychecks are involved in the decision are giving up money in their pocket for fan nostalgia.
"There is no question that the Super League would have been the best for their teams..."
This right here is why American fans are unlikely to follow the European path - you immediately frame this as "what's good for the team", meaning, "what makes the owner the most money" (you may quibble about "owner" but note that the University acts in more or less the same way as a for-profit enterprise in this case).
European fans on the other hand thought the Super League would be shit for their teams because it would be shit for football. Money is/was a secondary consideration.
I guarantee you if Texas and OU fans, boosters, and donors freaked out like the EU soccer fans did, this story would die. This is all about money and it it were made crystal clear they'd lose a lot of that, along with some rep, they'd stay in the Big 12
College Hockey always has its own alignments. I don't see any thing evil that college football and basketball have their own.
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