Power 5 No longer exists

[TW]

There is no longer a Power 5 in football. There are only four conferences that can claim being part of the power structure. The abdications from the Pac-12 has ended it as being part of the group. Only Washington State, and Oregon State are all that's left. There are actually only about 3 to 5 independents that could even be considered Power 5 level contenders, and that's a stretch. Only Notre Dame stands out among them.

As of now, here's how the conferences lay out:

Big 10 - 18 teams
Big-12 - 16
SEC - 16
ACC - 17
PAC-12 - 2

If you add Notre Dame to the list, that would be a total of 70 teams, and that's the elite of football. Eventually they will be their own division, completely separate from the rest in every respects, and probably even outside the jurisdiction of the NCAA as a whole.

The problem for them is, as lucrative as it is from football, totally forgotten is other sports, like basketball, baseball, and all of women's sports. These programs will more than likely go through some major spins, and might even end up with different conferences themselves, not unlike Women's Hockey, where the Wisconsin women play in the WCHA, and until not too long ago, men's hockey did as well. The question there will remain if they and the NCAA will be on the same page, or will all those sports break as well.

The more you dig into it, the more you see pitfalls, and in some cases, a lot of colleges that had been competitive in narrower markets are going to find it difficult competing on the field and for talent within the new sports structure. The thing guiding this most will more than likely be the media, which essentially is going to dictate what moves they all need to make to insure money is there to support their programs.

In a decade, this whole thing is going to be a total cluster.

 

[GBP4EVER]

Reading article yesterday how expanding the CFP from 12 teams is dead right now because the B1G and SEC are demanding the majority of the spots be given to those two conferences. Though I still think it's just a matter of time until those two pretty much expand again take what they what from the other conferences and form a super league of their own while everyone else is playing pretty much 2nd level sports.

 

[HowardK4]

There is no longer a Power 5 in football. There are only four conferences that can claim being part of the power structure. The abdications from the Pac-12 has ended it as being part of the group. Only Washington State, and Oregon State are all that's left. There are actually only about 3 to 5 independents that could even be considered Power 5 level contenders, and that's a stretch. Only Notre Dame stands out among them.

As of now, here's how the conferences lay out:

Big 10 - 18 teams
Big-12 - 16
SEC - 16
ACC - 17
PAC-12 - 2

If you add Notre Dame to the list, that would be a total of 70 teams, and that's the elite of football. Eventually they will be their own division, completely separate from the rest in every respects, and probably even outside the jurisdiction of the NCAA as a whole.

The problem for them is, as lucrative as it is from football, totally forgotten is other sports, like basketball, baseball, and all of women's sports. These programs will more than likely go through some major spins, and might even end up with different conferences themselves, not unlike Women's Hockey, where the Wisconsin women play in the WCHA, and until not too long ago, men's hockey did as well. The question there will remain if they and the NCAA will be on the same page, or will all those sports break as well.

The more you dig into it, the more you see pitfalls, and in some cases, a lot of colleges that had been competitive in narrower markets are going to find it difficult competing on the field and for talent within the new sports structure. The thing guiding this most will more than likely be the media, which essentially is going to dictate what moves they all need to make to insure money is there to support their programs.

In a decade, this whole thing is going to be a total cluster.

it's pretty much a cluster already.

 

[TW]

Reading article yesterday how expanding the CFP from 12 teams is dead right now because the B1G and SEC are demanding the majority of the spots be given to those two conferences. Though I still think it's just a matter of time until those two pretty much expand again take what they what from the other conferences and form a super league of their own while everyone else is playing pretty much 2nd level sports.

Difficulty might come because of other sports, which I alluded to above. They could possibly pull this off in football, but when it came to other sports, it wouldn't work out too well for most of them. There are so many teams outside these two conferences that have a lot of talent in their respective sports, and they'd be doing what they could to harpoon the two conferences. It goes so far beyond football, but everyone sees football and runs with that.

I think, in the end, the 4 majors will end up each getting two bids every year, and the last 4 will come from other schools, outside of that group. One of the snags right now has to be that all 4 conferences probably figure they should be eligible to get additional bids when they have solid teams that probably belong there.

This is why I advocate for the 16 team playoff. You could allow up to 3 schools from each of the Power 4, and still have room for 4 more teams, and I'd still only guarantee two spots for each of the Power 4. Beyond those two, there could be no more than one from each of two of their conferences, and they would only get in, if chosen through the selection process used to judge who should make the playoffs. This would guarantee 6 spots outside the Power 4, and as many as 8, depending on the judging criteria.

Just an idea there.

 

[Keg Man]

The Football playoff should be 16 teams. (Possibly expanding to 32.)

It's extremely doubtful that a visiting 16 - 13 (or 32 - 27) will beat their 1 -4 (or 1 - 6), but it could happen and they should get the shot. Any given Saturday. (Personally, I think a high ranked Wisconsin would be one of the first major upsets since we traditionally regardless of who is in charge and in almost all sports tend to overlook and play down to opponents.)

16 teams - week 1
8 teams - week 2
4 teams - week 3
Championship - week 4

32 teams only adds a week. It would be awesome.

It can be done. D2 already has 28 teams

 

[TW]

The Football playoff should be 16 teams. (Possibly expanding to 32.)

It's extremely doubtful that a visiting 16 - 13 (or 32 - 27) will beat their 1 -4 (or 1 - 6), but it could happen and they should get the shot. Any given Saturday. (Personally, I think a high ranked Wisconsin would be one of the first major upsets since we traditionally regardless of who is in charge and in almost all sports tend to overlook and play down to opponents.)

16 teams - week 1
8 teams - week 2
4 teams - week 3
Championship - week 4

32 teams only adds a week. It would be awesome.

I agree. At 12, they have the same number of weeks as 16, and if you go to 32, it's only an added week. You'd think the schools, the media, and NCAA would be chomping at the bit to get all that additional money from the added games.

There's no need for the top 4 to get a bye week, as if they were something special. As far as how you handle that extra week, there's already one built in with the conference championship weeks, so not even that would change.

I have no idea why they can't just do something affirmative instead of dancing around like they have a 3rd grade education and are trying to solve a trig problem. It's proof that in a lot of cases the dumber you are, the higher you go in the chain of command, because nobody considers you smart enough to be a threat.