Happy college football realignment day, plus the Supreme Court case that started it all

Here’s how we welcome the new members, Texas, and Oklahoma to the SEC! So we are glad to be playing in the ACC, SMU, Stanford and Cal this season welcome to our team! This round of realignment has been nearly forty years in the making, but more on the subject in a moment. First, let’s recap.

New-Look Conferences

SEC, ACC moves take effect

Texas, and Oklahoma, have said they are transferring from the Big 12 Conference to the Southeastern Conference and ; finally, the process was actualized today, after three years. It is among the first teams of the 15 total FBS schools that will be starting the transition this summer.

Here’s a look at the other moves to watch, with an updated team count per conference for the 2024 football season: Here’s a look at the other moves to watch, with an updated team count per conference for the 2024 football season:

Big Ten (18 teams): Also including the PAC12, the universities of Southern California, Washington, Los Angeles, Oregon and Washington state.

Big 12 (16 teams): Switching from the Big 12 to join the SEC without Texas and Oklahoma: Jubilation for the conference grabbing four teams, namely, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah from PAC-12.

ACC (17 teams): Collecting SMU from AAC and Cal and Stanford from the Pac-12.

Pac-12 (two teams): Losing all four of the California teams, Oregon, and Washington to the Big Ten, then Arizona, ASU, Colorado, and Utah to the Big 12 and Cal and Stanford to the ACC. Thus, Oregon State and Washington State persist as the “Pac- 2”.

AAC (14 teams): The loss of SMU to the ACC; the gaining of Army from independency as football only.

Conference USA (10 teams): New additions to FCS Big South team are Kennesaw State.

Out of three MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences, only these three escaped this round of realignment unharmed. Here is more on those moves from today’s Chris Vannini on realignments that took place this summer.

Looking at how the NCAA was being run, one would wonder how it lost control.

There they shifted it all as a result of the Supreme Court case that captured its change.

Think about coming to the first day of your class in college and the professor stand in front of the class saying, “I am the man responsible for messing college football. ”

Best. Lecture. Ever.

And that’s the reality of poor Andy Coats who teaches antitrust law at Oklahoma. Around 1981 Coats was among the major legal brains that drafted Oklamahoma and Georgia’s petition against what the NCAA was doing in relation to Television rights (at that time the NCAA dominated television programming of college sports, the NCAA was controlling which programs were on television and also how the revenues generated from television rights would be shared amongst the member institutions equally). The final decision in the schools’ favour negated the NCAA’s power that directly managed conference TV rights, hence, effectively stripping it of the management of college football.

Today, the pursuit of television revenues has become a component of virtually every regard to college sports. Today, Seth Emerson relates all the peculiarities, and he agreed to answer a few questions about the investigation.

As you mentioned in the story where this case was heard and determined, the NCAA was losing this case meant they relinquished control of college football. What makes it that way, or why was the NCAA so difficult to oppose prior to this?

It was so much bigger and held so much more power. One-school, one-vote policy tended to frustrate the attempts of the major football brands because they were always outvoted on matters of most concern to them. And Walter Byers had been in charge of the NCAA since 1952 and possessed the whip hand. I remember times when NCAA name literally depicted something more than what it does now. This case was one of the first networks where the idea was tested.

What characteristic of the stories that different journalists have been reporting on stood out to you most?

If I had to choose one solitary fact — and there were many — it is that so few games were televised that many of the stadiums did not have lights. (Because they would play all their games in the afternoon for better attendance. )

At the climax of your story, TV exec Kevin O’Malley claims that college football would have evolved to become a valuable asset for TV irrespective of this court case because of cable TV. Do you agree? What was the largest point of contention that would have changed if the NCAA had triumphed?

Persuasive though O’Malley is, one is inclined to agree with him. And it just shows that it is just if the NCAA had compromised, or had let the CFA go out and do its own deal with NBC, it could have seeded everybody happy, the NCAA had the control of college football and most of this realignment probably would not have occurred.

Big ups go to Bowling Green for sharing with us its College Football 25 roster for EA Sports on the social networks. Also, can we just say while these look like they were created by a seasoned artist, they are actually by Posh Spice herself?

And in case you did not catch, EA released it is the updated power rankings for the top 25 on Friday. Here are the top five, followed by my quick review of the rankings: Here are the top five, followed by my quick review of the rankings:

Georgia

Ohio State

Oregon

Alabama

Texas

Biggest snub: Where is Missour? It shocks me to the extend of disbelief that EA has left out Tigers in its power rankings. A couple of starters Brady Cook, wide recipients Luther Burden III and Theo Wease striking back to assist with supporting the prior team’s improved crew that came from being dismissed during the earlier season. Stewart Mandel from Clusters, positioned Missouri at 12th position before the commencement of the season.

Most overrated: Colorado at No. 16 is another example in a bottle, although it remains an understandable ranking for the Buffs; we discussed the ratios of the offense and defense last week. Rather, it will be far more productive to turn to Clemson here, for EA has ranked it sixth overall. Tigers have talent and their QB Cade Klubnik has to elevate his game for the team Nonetheless, a top-ten evaluation seems quite exaggerated.

You can read the comprehensive analysis on The Athletic here.

This morning Utah declared that defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley will be the next head coach as soon as current head coach Kyle Whittingham steps down, the moment this 64 year old deems appropriate. Scalley was previously identified as the head coach in waiting, however, this position was revoked in 2020 after the Indiana University external investigation that suggested that he used a racial slur through a text message.

Now, that the number of teams in the Big Ten is 18, which are players are considered to be the X-factor players for their teams? To hear the discussion about it, one can listen to the podcast Until Saturday or read it here.

June saw new commitments from nine players to Penn State. Audrey Snyder of Nittany Lions gives a brief overview of the spirited recruiting month that was experienced by James Franklin and his team.

Nationally, more than 480 players agreed to play for the 70 power 4 schools in June this year. Kalen DeBoer issues an update on Texas’ surge and other news collector Manny Navarro is back with more on the recruiting trail.