Lansing State Journal
Robert Bondy
April 25, 2024 3:33 pm ET
Could the European soccer model be coming to college football in America? There apparently are rumblings of a group pushing for this.
A few weeks ago, The Athletic reported that a group known as the College Sports Tomorrow (CST) has formulated a proposal to scrap conferences in college football and form a new “Super League” of 80 teams. The league would consist of eight 10-team divisions with seven of those divisions made up of permanent “Super League” teams and the final division being influx via relegation. All of the details are still up in the air, but the assumption is the old “Power Five” would make up the seven permanent 10-team divisions and the “Group of Five” teams would play for the opportunity each year to be included in the eighth division through relegation — similar to European soccer.
The proposal from CST would also include a 16-team playoff with spots given out based on division standings — similar to professional sports. It appears there would no longer be a committee to select who makes the playoff.
Click here to read the complete story from The Athletic and to get all of the details about this new potential future of college football.
While this potential plan may never actually happen and has a long way to go before we see it put into place, it does sound quite intriguing for fans to imagine what it could look like. It at least peaked my interest… So, in an attempt to figure out how the college football “Super League” could be configured, here is my best projection on how the seven permanent divisions could look along with the relegation eighth division:
Atlantic
Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports
Teams:
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Miami (FL)
NC State
North Carolina
South Carolina
UCF
Wake Forest
Reasoning: The Atlantic Division is essentially half of the current ACC with a few new teams mixed in, such as South Carolina and UCF. The addition of the Gameco*cks makes their annual rivalry matchup with Clemson a division matchup and adding UCF to this division creates potentially new in-state rivalries with Florida State and Miami (FL).
Northeast
Credit: Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports
Teams:
Boston College
Louisville
Maryland
Penn State
Pitt
Rutgers
Syracuse
Virginia
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Reasoning: On paper, you may think this is one of the weakest divisions out there, but geographically, this makes the most sense. Additionally, while this division may lack elite teams at the top (besides Penn State), it’s built with a ton of typically solid teams, which would make for plenty of exciting games each week. Just think of this division as similar to the new Big 12 in the current college football landscape.
Southeast
Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
Teams:
Alabama
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Mississippi State
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Reasoning: The Southeast Division is another easy one as it’s built up of current SEC schools. This division will retain a lot of the historic rivalries the current SEC has and will also continue to be one of the best sources for college football in the country.
Southwest
Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Teams:
Arkansas
Baylor
Houston
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
SMU
TCU
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Reasoning: This was honestly a no-brainer for me — recreate the old Southwest Conference and Big 12. Keep all seven of the major Texas schools together and add in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State for a perfect division that makes sense in both location and rivalries.
Pacific
Credit: Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports
Teams:
Arizona
Arizona State
Cal
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington State
Reasoning: Adopting the “Super League” model would most certainly result in the construction of the old Pac-10. This is a perfect geographic and rivalry pairing of teams for the Pacific Division. Not much more to say about this one.
Plains
Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports
Teams:
BYU
Colorado
Iowa
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Utah
Reasoning: This is where things start to get interesting with the Plains Division being a mix of multiple current conferences. This division may lose some of the historic matchups these programs have been in part of over the years but does include at least one known notable rivalry game for each team (minus Missouri… sorry Tigers).
Midwest
Credit: Nick King/Lansing State Journal
Teams:
Cincinnati
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan
Michigan State
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Purdue
Wisconsin
Reasoning: The division we’ve all been waiting to see — the Midwest Division. This geographically makes a ton of sense while also keeping some of the game’s best rivalries in place. The potential outlier here is Cincinnati — which I did consider swapping out with Penn State in the Northeast Division.
American (relegation)
Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Teams:
Appalachian State
Boise State
Fresno State
James Madison
Liberty
Memphis
San Diego State
Toldeo
Tulane
UTSA
Reasoning: The American Division would essentially be the relegation division that will continuously change from year to year based on the results on the field. This division would be made up of the current Group of Five teams and would provide exciting matchups year-round since relegation to a sub-level is in play.
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