Quote:
Originally Posted by KUJustin
Isn't the most relevant factor how many cable subscriptions you're likely to bring in? Or is that not the thought anymore?
Well, the 64-team thing's a fun hypothetical, but it's not ever going to actually happen anyway. It's too strictly regimented for a bunch of independent-minded conference commissioners to actually follow and it would force a bunch of viable FBS programs out for no reason. If I were to guess what the FBS looks like in 10 to 15 years once the dust has cleared and things have settled down a little, I'd guess it would be something like this:
Pac-16
Big-14 (previously Big Ten)
SEC (14 teams after adding Florida State and Texas A&M, but no one else)
ACC (12 teams)
Big East (12 teams after absorbing a lot of upper-level mid-majors to keep a conference championship game and AQ status)
MWC (12 teams after picking up the leftovers from what was the Big XII and maybe a couple teams from C-USA)
Conference ? (Some sort of mish-mash league for the leftovers from the WAC, C-USA, MAC, and Sun Belt that manage to maintain their FBS status)
And yes, I'd guess there would be a few independents left. A playoff simply consisting of the Top 4 teams in the BCS standings regardless of conference affiliation will be much simpler to push through than some gigantic reorganization of the FBS that cuts its size in half and will likely be the first step. Then it will eventually morph to an 8-teamer with a couple at-larges to go with the AQs which are automatically filled by any independent in the Top 8 of the final standings. Notre Dame and Navy will stay independent, and honestly, I think there's a great chance Texas will be in this category as well. In the day and age where a school can have it's own television network, I think there's too much money to be made as an independent for an elite level school to want to pass that up unless they're already in a major conference where they have traditional rivals. I can't imagine why Texas would want to give that up to risk ending up 2nd banana to USC in the Pac-16 once the Big XII falls apart.
Last edited by iggymcfly; 08-25-2011 at 09:17 PM.