The world just changed...again...

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...ig-picture

Quote:The implications of Friday's SEC/Big 12 bowl agreement should have been obvious on Jan. 10.
Sugar Bowl executive director Paul Hoolahan stood off to the side of the day-after Alabama championship press conference talking to any media outlet with a notebook or microphone.
His bowl, Hoolahan crowed, had a $40 million “war chest” as a buy-in for a possible playoff. This was the World Series of Poker with real honest-to-goodness power brokers at the table, not hygienically-challenged card counters.
Turns out Hoolahan was prescient.
When the SEC and Big 12 announced their new bowl agreement Friday, they changed the paradigm of college football perhaps at the most critical time in the game's history. ACC and the Big East? Done in terms of being meaningful major college football conferences in the marketplace. One has barely made a blip in the BCS era. The other just pushed out its commissioner and is hanging on for dear life.
Meanwhile, interim Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas just hit a walk-off at the end of a career that has spanned four decades. Asked what he would if he were ACC or Big East commissioner today, Neinas, laughing, said: “Better get a good bowl.”

Quote:The Champions Bowl (working title) became a traveling road show that will be played at the site of the highest bidder. The Big 12 and SEC champions will play each year unless one or both champs are in the playoff. If that's the case, a second choice from the conference(s) is picked.

It's what the deal represents: If you haven't noticed, the top level of college football is now narrowed to the Big Four – Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC. Those 48 schools control most of the influence, power, money and, most importantly, product in the Football Bowl Subdivision. That shouldn't be a surprise but the announcement of the Champions Bowl put a face on college athletics' latest study in Darwinism.
“Nothing's changed,” one industry source said. “The Big East is diminished and the ACC is not the same as those other top leagues.”

Quote:Still, 48 schools and two major, big-time bowls. More power in the hands of the powerful. Let your mind wander. Secede from the NCAA? They certainly have the leverage if those 46 want to install their own recruiting rules and play with 150-man rosters? And at one point does a 16-team playoff sponsored by Anheuser-Busch become a reality?
It's all on the table now.
If you're not in the Big Four, you're not big time. That means you, Miami and Florida State, who suddenly have a huge decision to make. Remain outside the Big Four with the ACC making $17 million per year in a league that can't compete for a national championship, or take your valuable brands and petition for entry into the Big 12.
Based on Friday's announcement – the two biggest football names in the ACC could soon be making $25 million a year in the Big 12.
And if that happens, the ACC becomes a whole lot less desirable to a Notre Dame that has to be thinking seriously about joining a conference. Put it this way: ND's isn't going to getbetteraccess when the four-team playoff debuts in 2014.

Just Wow

In one day the playing field has been leveled as there is no advantage to even hoping for the BE or ACC some day.

I don't think this is THAT big of a deal from the Belt's perspective. The second place team in the SEC was going to play a top team from one of the other top conferences anyway. This hurts the ACC who doesn't have a dance partner.

The ACC is still light years ahead of the BE. But WVU definately got the better deal by being passed over by the ACC.

BTW, who does Notre Dame get paired with? Much less BYU?

Ah...you have to love a group that doesn't know when it's pushing too far. This will end up being discussed in Congress.

(05-18-2012 04:34 PM)BlueRaiderFan. Wrote:  Ah...you have to love a group that doesn't know when it's pushing too far. This will end up being discussed in Congress.

Where nothing will happen because congress wants to stay in office not get voted out by the fans of the Big 4.

The fewer seats at the table....the more unhappy voters standing around watching them eat.

Welcome to the crumb gatherers ACC and and Big East, glad to have you.

(05-18-2012 04:54 PM)ValleyBoy Wrote:  Where nothing will happen because congress wants to stay in office not get voted out by the fans of the Big 4.

What about the fans of those that aren't in the Big 4? Do you think they get a vote? Um...yeah, they do and there will be more have nots than haves. It's one thing to limit how many move up, but to remove those that are already in the game from the system to this extent will cause issues.