Big Ten and SEC Future Plans

The two major conferences will take their ball and go play apart from everybody else eventually

College athletics and the realignment that came with it has rocked the landscape of intercollegiate athletics. There are some fans, media, and even school officials that are still having a hard reckoning with the fact that things are just different in college sports.

It is obvious to anybody that is paying attention to this upcoming 12 team CFB Playoff that it’s going to bring in a ton of money, provide a little more parity with who is in it, and gives us a little better view of who is truly the College Football National Champion.

However, we also have to keep in mind that one of the prevailing thoughts with all of this realignment is that Big Ten and SEC Conferences have always had alternative thoughts. Those thoughts include leaving everybody else behind and having a national champion decided by those two conferences. Meaning the Big 12, ACC, AAC, and Pac-12 are left to do what exactly?

A separate national champion from those conferences?

I understand that these two leagues believe that they are now the sole leaders of college sports, but to dismiss the rest of the country and deem them unworthy of competing against the Big Ten or SEC is just flat arrogance.

Here’s how far this arrogance has got.

Both of these conferences got together back in October to discuss an “alliance”. This supposed alliance would potentially mean a big increase in their media rights allotment. By getting this substantial increase in money for each of the schools in each of these conferences would help further separate themselves from everyone else in college football.

What this would mean is that teams from the Big Ten and SEC would play anywhere from 12-16 games against each other. That would add to the media rights deal and add greater value to that potential deal.

With the loss revenue due to the House legal case settlement this would be an answer for these two super conferences to recoup some of that lost money. The settlement deals with about $2 billion to former players, and future revenue sharing that’ll range from about $20-23 million annually. That revenue sharing could start as early as next season.

I thought that college sports were about the “student-athlete”? That phrase is laughable in today’s environment of college athletics.

The power brokers in college athletics say that the only way to make up for that lost revenue is to have as many high value non-conference games as humanly possible over a certain time period. Those non-conference games would have to be negotiated or written up contractually.

College sports, especially the big money makers like football and basketball, operate on a different level from all other athletic programs around the country. We’ve know that for a long time, but what the Big Ten and SEC are trying to do really puts the money to the forefront.

These two conferences played three non-conference games this past season, but that doesn’t move the needle with the money. Advertisers look for stand alone games or events. That typically brings in the most money, eye balls to televisions around the country, and that is what brings broadcast partners like ABC/ESPN, CBS, NBC, and Fox to the table.

There is a ton that still needs to be figured out such as schedules, revenue sharing, and how these schools are matched up. However, the powers that be in each of these conferences believe this is the answer to the every changing monetary landscape of college sports.

When you start thinking about how much a deal like this could be worth you have to start in the billions. It’s hard to gauge a specific number, but as of now, the Big Ten media rights deal is worth $8 billion (the largest in college sports) and the SEC media deal is worth $3 billion.

The other question you have to ask is how many conference games will these teams play? The Big Ten plays nine and the SEC plays eight. The SEC, in my opinion would have to raise themselves up to the nine conference game threshold. No more playing a FCS school in late October or early November like they usually do.

Big questions like how will the money be shared still have to answered. Plus, will the two conferences eventually want to pool their money together to get one big super television deal instead of cutting separate deals like they do currently?

This is an interesting time in college athletics to say the least, but if these two conferences do something like what has already been talked about between them what do the other conferences have to do to simply survive?

It’s a fight between the “haves” and the “have nots” in college sports and I’m not so sure the rest of the country will be ready for something like what is coming down the track.