The Future of College Football

Howdy all! After quiting the dumpster fire that is Utefans a few months back, I am happy to find a new home here during football season.

I have been thinking about college football’s future ever since the move to the PAC 12. I think there will be some pretty dramatic changes and that these changes will come in steps.

1. BIG 12 will announce in the next few days that they are expanding by four teams: Houston, Cincy, Colorado State and BYU. This is purely a money grab by Texas and Oklahoma. They will reap most of the benefit of these new additions. The four new schools will be given so little money that it will make Utah’s build up to full revenue look generous by comparison.
2. By 2024, the Big 12 (as we know it) will cease to exist. Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, West Virginia, and Iowa State (as hard as it is to imagine) will be divided up between the PAC, SEC and B1G. Notre Dame and UConn will be invited to join the ACC.
3. Believe it or not, the PAC 12 will have advantages over the other conferences (in terms of selecting the best candidates for expansion) because of the PAC 12 Network. In seven years, cord cutters will dominate the market; the PAC 12 Network will be able to provide access to games ala cart ($4 a game) or users can subscribe to the channel(s) for $15 a month (and how many of you wouldn’t do that?). Because the conference has retained full rights to the network, its tier three (and eventually all tiers) will be worth a whole lot of money.
4. Those who are familiar with Nebraska and Missouri know that while neither is unhappy with their moves in conferences, neither is particularly happy either. Missouri is an AAU institution and its academics really wanted the B1G the first time (and still do). Nebraska feels like a fish out of water and misses its association with Oklahoma.
5. In ten years the conferences will look something like this:
   1. PAC 12 will remain largely the same, but will add Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
   2. B1G will add Kansas, Missouri (restoring a heated rivalry) and Iowa State (AAU status).
   3. ACC will add Notre Dame and UCONN.
   4. SEC will add West Virginia, Oklahoma State (T-Boone) and Kansas State.
6. With its four new additions the PAC 12 Network will, in a dramatic switch, be one of the most valuable sport networks around.
7. Eventually, all PAC 16 football games will be seen exclusively on the network.