How Realignment will affect Texas football and the country
By Tarik LaCour
Last week USC and UCLA made a seismic shift in college football by bolding the inept Pac-12 to head to the greener (and significantly colder) pastures of the Big 10, a similar move that was made by Texas football and Oklahoma last summer when they announced they would move to the SEC.
With teams jockeying for money and a place at the table when College Football Playoff prepares to expand, some teams were going to be left behind and in a bad situation as premier brands began to look out for themselves first and foremost. And the Pac-12 is currently as dry as Lincoln Riley’s brisket.
At the time of this writing, no one knows what college football will look like when this is all over because it is far from over. The Pac-12 and Big 12 may merge, ACC teams may leave or make a more formal alliance with the other two conferences, and the biggest domino is the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who may forfeit their status as an independent to join the Big 10. What is clear is as of right now the SEC and Big 10 are going to shape college football for the foreseeable future, and the other conferences are at their mercy.
The new world of realignment and how the latest moves impact Texas football?
As you can imagine, feeling as mixed about the situation. Some, like Joel Klatt of Fox Sports, are positively thrilled:
It is incredibly hard to see right now, in particular if you're team is outside SEC or Big 10, but the long term outlook for fans is a good one...We will look back on these times as the moves that shaped a better post-season, more quality non-con games, & stronger governance
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) July 5, 2022
Others are more suspicious:
If a fan's team can no longer play for a major title or play rivals/big brands, the fan will stop watching. They won't just adopt a new team, this isn't the NFL. At its core, CFB is a regional sport. That's what makes it great, but also why realignment is bad for the average fan. https://t.co/OrstUI4tE7
— Kelly Gramlich (@kellygramlich) July 5, 2022
Whether Klatt or Gramlich is right remains to be seen. But ironically, Klatt’s point makes Gramlich’s point more likely to be a reality. The key is an expansion of the playoff. Teams like Texas always had a path to the playoff, even with two losses if they played the right opponents and won their conference championship. But if the college football playoff is expanded, it will give more teams who are in smaller markets an opportunity to play for the national title as there will be more spots available.
What makes this tricky is that now the Big 10 and SEC will basically control negotiations. So if there is someone to blame for the smaller market teams not having a path to success, it would be Jim Phillips and George Kliavkoff, who voted against expansion earlier this year.
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College football, like the rest of life, is governed by natural selection acting upon random mutation. You either adapt or you die. Texas in making the move to the SEC has put itself in a position to survive for the long haul. And for that Chris Del Conte and Jay Hartzell need to be congratulated.