The Summit Owns the MVFC

[TwinTownBisonFan]

A possible outcome to all of this FCS to FBS will be a spin off of the BCS schools into a separate division and a reshuffle of the remaining programs into conference affiliations appropriate for market and geography.

Time frame: 5 yrs

Yes that is a possibility. It's one that many of us went over last year when the BCS conferences looked to be lining themselves up to have four or five super conferences. It's also part of the reason why I say that a move up to another FBS conference now is gonna seem pretty pointless if you will not be able to get into a BCS conference.

This.

Besides, with travel and television being what they are now - I think we may be looking at something very different in a few years. I think we could be headed away from the conference system altogether - the power programs uniting as "independents" each with their own television network or tv deal... and shutting out the smaller guys who will be left with whatever is left (and perhaps... a playoff for all of the remaining D-I schools who aren't included)

Looking at what Notre Dame, Texas and BYU have done - it's not hard to envision a situation where LSU, Alabama, Ohio St, USC, etc all go indy agree to schedule each other - and agree to keep the "national championship" among their cabal...

[JBB]

Conferences were originally started to guarantee games that schools could travel to. In the old days they were called loops. A team would leave, often by train, play the loop schools and return home several weeks later. Over the years as travel became easier and budgets larger that focus has been lost. UND in the BSC is a good example of that.

In the future, if the BCS does pull away, loops may still form but the guiding principals will be programs with similar attendance and stadium sizes. Whats the point of a big draw like NDSU playing at a small draw like say SIU (may not be the best example but you get the picture).

At the same time conferences with good footprints and similar sized enrollments and attendane like the MVFC and the Summit as well may be well positioned to stay mostly in tact no matter what the BCS schools do.

[collegesportsinfo]

Yes that is a possibility. It's one that many of us went over last year when the BCS conferences looked to be lining themselves up to have four or five super conferences. It's also part of the reason why I say that a move up to another FBS conference now is gonna seem pretty pointless if you will not be able to get into a BCS conference.

This.

Besides, with travel and television being what they are now - I think we may be looking at something very different in a few years. I think we could be headed away from the conference system altogether - the power programs uniting as "independents" each with their own television network or tv deal... and shutting out the smaller guys who will be left with whatever is left (and perhaps... a playoff for all of the remaining D-I schools who aren't included)

Looking at what Notre Dame, Texas and BYU have done - it's not hard to envision a situation where LSU, Alabama, Ohio St, USC, etc all go indy agree to schedule each other - and agree to keep the "national championship" among their cabal...

And what has Texas done? They started their own TV network. Great. BYU did that a decade ago. The Longhorn network gets 1 football game a year and it will always be Texas vs a low FBS or FCS opponent. Why? Because the TV networks have arrangements with the conferences. SEC only has another 14 years on their contract though, so maybe 14 years from now things will change. The problem with that of course being that all the other conferences are getting new TV deals now...so there will never be a clean year for everyone to break.

Note that even adding that paragraph feels like giving scissors to kid ready to run into a crowd.