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All teams are still involved in the game and even bottom feeders have strong motivations all season to avoid going down or to go back up. It also makes no sense for Rutgers to be in a super conference and Oregon to be left out in the cold.

Just a wild idea, but there must.be a way to keep all teams playing and all fans interested. If we lose 70% of the teams we lose 70% of the fans and the $ dry up for everyone. Moreover, if college football dies where do NFL teams get their players?

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This is just another stratification - D1 Super. Question will be: does D1super allow the middling (e.g., MAC) schools in, or do they limit your the traditional Big10 + SEC schools + bolt-ons. The eventual product is improved if you get rid of the mediocre schools but you potentially isolate their fan bases. So a bit of a pickle there.

I personally think you need a way to rope in some weaker schools for a variety of reasons, but maybe it is the champions of each of the D1 lesser conferences get 4 spots in the 16 team playoffs, and each of the D1 super conference schools have 3-4 free games to schedule. Basically the ISU model.

It wasn't unusual for P5s to have a $1 billion in debt. Four years later, it's gotten a lot worse. Nostalgia means nothing when you have to pay debt service. Unis are fighting for their financial lives...

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Texas and USC value $ more than tradition.

I have no desire to be like everyone else. Our tradition is not for sale.

Stay strong, Notre Dame.

ND has actual and quasi rivalries with a number of schools as well as universal appeal and hatred. That had value, has value and will have value going forward, at least until CFB gets watered down and team identity is based on something other than their rival.

That said, imagine if ND could stay independent and play schools from each division. Or if they went to the SEC but retained rights to play Big10 schools.

ND’s identity has been “we play anyone anywhere and take all comers”. Incorporating that into the new works order will continue to make ND unique and an attractive brand.

Of course, that’s a football perspective. The rest of the sports - less an issue for us.

My guess is that Oregon, Washington and maybe Stanford end up in the big 10. Same with Clemson, FSU and Miami to SEC. At that point, the two conferences will have so many solid teams lots of schools won't see the need to schedule ND.

Even if ND can still put together a solid schedule, which for the relatively near future seems likely, the politics will definitely encourage the 2 super conferences to focus on all the playoff spots going to their teams. With the current 4 teams playoff we will get frozen out a lot. At 6 or 8 teams, also likely. At 12 to 16 teams we would actually have an advantage as the super-conferences beat up on one another enough that a 1 or 2 loss ND would probably be pretty safe. Also, with super-conferences, recruiting will eventually suffer as kids want to play in the big leagues.

Mid to lower tier teams in the super conferences will become virtually irrelevant except for picking up nice checks from TV contracts. Mid to lower tier non conference teams will be even more irrelevant unless the win the last round of musical chairs to get a spot in a super-conference. Maybe the left outs create their own mega conference filled with teams like Boise State, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington State, Baylor, Kansas State. etc. That might be enough to get them a seat in the playoff if it expands to 16.

Be interesting to see if the super conferences go the pro soccer road with relegation.

The SEC schools aren’t a good fit.

The next 10 years in CFB will be interesting. I wonder if ND will be able to reconcile the pure profit motive in how it manages FB.

running for it's life.

Nothing comes close.

What a thrill January 1st used to be. Family, friends, great food and an all day bowl extravaganza. Who could forget the thrill of smashing Texas in the 1978 Cotton Bowl led by Joe Montana? And then you had the agonizing wait to see if ND would jump from #5 to #1 in the polls. And then you get the news-- YES! They did it. National champions--#1!

How about watching ND play Bama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl on New Years Eve and coming away with a National Championship on the basis of a 24-23 thriller? It sure made the New Year's Eve party more fun that night.

How awesome was it to see Colorado beat the Skunkbears in the Big House on the last second TD pass? Or the App State upset in the same venue?

How about hearing Keith Jackson describing a big rain storm as " a granddaddy gulley washer?" A real Southern fried football announcer, to be sure.

So, maybe we're about to watch the slow-motion suicide of college football, and how sad that will be, but nobody can take away our treasured memories.

for the sake of bowl games. The Rose, Sugar …. !

It’s college football not the NFL. I cheer for my school and enjoy the rivalries. All the different and even silly collegiate trophies passed back and forth in those rivalries. These annual or bi-annual events that captured the spirit of a collegial happening. The bright colors on an autumn afternoon, the sound of the school band playing, the school cheers, students with their parents having a fun day at the university.