It's seems on a daily basis there is a new development in conference expansion. First it was Nebraska to the Big 10. Now it's Colorado to the Pac 10 and Boise St. to the Mountain West. Is this the dawn of the super conference? I'm already a bit of a traditionalist. I liked the conferences the way they were. I even like the bowl system, though the BCS needs little work determining the national championship.
The problem with the BCS is it created a system of the haves and have nots. You have the BCS major conference schools and the non-BCS schools. As of yet a non-BCS school has never played for the national title, but finally non-BCS schools like Utah and Boise St, have made it to those major bowls. There was starting to be a chance the non-BCS school could play for the national title.
Now if we get those 4 16 team super conferences, it will be those 64 teams and that's it. You think the BCS was exclusive, try the super conferences on for size. They will schedule each other and they will form their own TV contracts. Heck they may even run rogue of the NCAA, and just form their own competitive rules. Isn't the BCS independent of the NCAA already?
For that matter why even bother with the NCAA basketball tournament? Just play your super conference 64 team tournament. Maybe that's far fetched by I wouldn't say it's an impossibility. What incentive would the super conferences have to share anything, for the good of college athletics? It already appears many of these schools are really just concerned with how much money they can make.
I know it's a naive point of view and that Florida's athletic budget dwarfs say Western Michigan's. There's already significant separation in college athletics, but at the moment we at least have the illusion of a balanced competitive field. With the super conference's you won't even get that. The gap between these 64 select schools and the rest of the country will be bigger than ever. I don't like where expansion is heading at all.
