SEC, Big Ten, and TV execs could've approved college football Super League but College Football Playoff killed it
The SEC, Big Ten, and television executives from Disney, FOX Corporation, NBC Universal, and ViacomCBS could've okayed the proposed college football Super League but as Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger relays, they chose to ratify an agreement for an expanded College Football Playoff instead.
"Guys, the three entities most necessary for the long-talked about Super League are the Big Ten, SEC and TV networks," Dellenger prefaced before saying, "If they were interested, they would not have signed the CFP deal. The proposal died, at least for now, when the CFP was executed."
All Cardinal's Kevin Borba pointed out that it would've taken cooperation between the SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12 to come to an agreement for an 80-team league with relegation and the desolvation of every conference's TV contracts; something that would've been extremely difficult to pull off.
"The only obstacle, which it's a big one, is to get everyone to agree on this," Borba prefaced before saying, "Something that will prove to be difficult considering the SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12 haven't met with the group. Whether this happens or not, clearly college football is due for some more changes."
Super League would have taken existing power from SEC and Big Ten
The SEC and Big Ten are moving toward super conference status as is, but the 80-team proposal from The Athletic's Stewart Mandel would've split them up and given them as much power as Group of Five conference schools that'd be promoted to the final division of the eight-division league.
"The current CST outline would create a system that would have the top 70 programs — all members of the five former major conferences, plus Notre Dame and new ACC member SMU — as permanent members and encompass all 130-plus FBS universities," Mandel wrote. "The perpetual members would be in seven 10-team divisions, joined by an eighth division of teams that would be promoted from the second tier.
"The 50-plus second-division teams would have the opportunity to compete their way into the upper division, creating a promotion system similar to the structure in European football leagues. The 70 permanent teams would never be in danger of moving down, while the second division would have the incentive of promotion and relegation."
Good luck getting Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti to agree to giving up their positions of power for the sake of a less fractured sport.