40 names, games, teams and features making the news in college football. Vanderbilt leads the nation with his 63 points per game.
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Build the Best Power Conference
As fans around the world are keenly aware, the Power 5 will be integrated into the Power 2 Plus Groupies. There are suspicions that the five meetings at the top of the food chain will inevitably become four, but how about reducing that to three? It looks like there are enough broadcast platforms (and broadcast money) available to support a third Power League.
Dash is here to take a shot at building things. But first, let’s drop a few caveats and confirmations.
- The biggest speculation here is that the Atlantic Coast Conference team may somehow be freed from entitlement shackles that will last until the mid-2030s. More than half of his current 14-man football team may need to start a united legal battle. So it could be an immediate deal breaker.
- Not a contender for the Best of the Rest conference, as we speculate that Notre Dame will either remain independent or end up in the Big 10.
- Likewise, it’s entirely possible that some of the BORC frontrunners will wagon the 18-20 team Big Ten or SEC instead of this outfit. But on the flip side, Shark has something to say about him being a good league big dog rather than his 17th invite to the tank (possible less revenue share to join). possible).
- There’s a ton of guesswork here and the geography is silly, but that’s the world we live in.
Oregon is one of the most coveted schools in this scenario.
Stan Szeto/USA TODAY Sports
As such, the BORC draft theoretically starts with the following six schools:
North Carolina (21)Current conference: ACC.
Both the Big Ten and the SEC are believed to want tar heels for multiple reasons. academic prestige; one of the few men’s basketball shows that can move the needle in ratings. Excellence in all sports. Fertile recruiting ground. The downside is a fairly uninterested soccer fan base thanks to historically being nothing more than an above-average soccer product.
Clemson. Current conference: ACC.
If the most important thing is to win football games, the Tigers are your team. They were the most successful non-Alabama program of the college football playoff era. That’s why Texas and USC failed to make it, and they were able to shake whole nations. Still, Clemson has a growing home TV market (Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson ranks him 35th nationally), and in 2021 he’s SEC, Big He Ten, Non-Notre Dame home attendance rate is the highest in any school. The rest of the portfolio is fairly thin.
Florida. Current conference: ACC.
If the goal was to add a program capable of winning a national championship, the Seminoles did it under two different coaches. I need it. The Seminoles’ prowess in all sports is strong, including consistent winners of men’s basketball. But football still continues to dig the five-year crater.
Miami. Current conference: ACC.
The Hurricanes are also capable of winning national soccer championships, having won five titles from 1983 to 2001. Both the local talent and TV markets are strong. Tradition and brand names are there. But going south with The U, fan enthusiasm is conditional.Can Miamians expect to turn on their TVs or fill stadiums during lean hours?
Oregon (22)Current Conference: Pac-12.
The Ducks have leveraged Nike’s backing to their national brand and football identity. Over the past 25-30 years, the fan base has risen to accommodate that profile. Phil Knight can be a powerful ally in any league. The downside is that they are geographically remote, consistent with an unattractive recruiting backyard for other conference members, and are half-hearted scholars.
Washington (23)Current Conference: Pac-12.
The Huskies have become the Pacific Northwest sidekick of the Ducks and have a history of football success of their own (although they are currently in struggle mode). A great fanbase in a big city with a big corporate citizenship. But it’s far from anywhere, and the idea of a conference stretching from Seattle to Miami is even more ridiculous than one stretching from Los Angeles to New Jersey.
Then the BORC candidates start to get anxious.
Baylor, TCU, or Houston (24)Current/Future Conference: The Big Twelve.
A foothold in Texas is a must, right? For football, for college recruits, for population. The Bears recently flew higher in football and won the men’s basketball national title in 2021. The Cougars (another men’s basketball force) exist in a huge market, but by no means command it all. The location and unique potential of the TCU within the DFW metroplex is a factor. BORC can get two of them or he can get three, but he may only need one to meet his needs. None of these three are major state brands.
Stamford (25)Current Conference: Pac-12.
Everything is going well at school, despite the fan frenzy and the recent downturn in football. It’s a dream academic his member, and the proximity and connection of Silicon Valley is appealing. It seems like a great idea for him to have one or more schools in California. Stanford is also an all sports juggernaut. But who cares? The administration may choose to go independent or scale back athletics rather than sign up for regular visits to Waco and Tallahassee.
California (26)Current Conference: Pac-12.
Cal has all the attributes that Stanford has, but a few of them. But if BORC wants his four-school cluster in California and the Pacific Northwest, the Golden He Bears could be a cardinal plus one.
Oklahoma (27)Current conference: Big 12.
This is a big deal. The Cowboys have become one of the most consistently successful football programs of the 21st century, winning 16 straight seasons and winning 19 in the last 20 years. In his lifetime athletics alone he earned over $300 million. However, Oklahoma State University underperforms in terms of audience offering, academic prestige, and national reach.
Virginia (28)Current conference: ACC.
North Carolina and Virginia could become Stanford and California in the Mid-Atlantic. An academically prestigious and geographically desirable tandem that excels in sports not played with a rectangular ball. If the Cavaliers brought more football juice to the party, it would simply be great. However, by population she is the 12th state flagship school.
Utah (29)Current Conference: Pac-12.
The Utes is one of college football’s greatest success stories of the last decade. They maximized their power 5 chances, peaking in Rose’s bowl appearances last season. Utah had the fastest population growth in the country from his 2010 to his 2020. But everything else is unremarkable.
Arizona (30)Current Conference: Pac-12.
A large university (approximately 55,000 on the Tempe campus in the fall of 2021) produces many alums, all of whom could one day become generous donors, season ticket holders and TV viewers. ASU has an edge in college sports in a major television market (Phoenix), and its metropolitan area could be an attractive academic recruiting ground for other of her BORC members. But this has been a middling football program for nearly a decade of his and, in general, other sports aren’t as good.
Cincinnati (31)Current Conference: USA. Conference 2023: Big 12.
Ohio is football country and Cincinnati is football city. (Disadvantages: Ohio State and Bengals football cities, equal or better than Bearcats football cities.) The football momentum is strong. It is a field that can be adopted both in terms of sports and academics. However, the school’s all-sports and academic profiles aren’t great.
UCF (32)Current Conference: USA. Conference 2023: Big 12.
This is another large school that is in a major media market yet produces many alums each year. The football program is in fertile recruiting soil, with him winning nine or more games in nine of the last 15 seasons. But will his three schools in Florida be oversaturated in a conference without a geographic anchor?
West Virginia or Pittsburgh (33)Current conferences: Big 12 and ACC respectively.
How about the mother of all backyard brawls for the last spot on the power board? WVU has a more dedicated fanbase. Pitt has a distinguished academic standing as a member of the Association of American Universities. Western Pennsylvania still produces football talent, and WVU may be in the same state as well. But is anyone really excited to add one of these schools?
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