[Pete Thamel] Per sources, the amount Fox is expected to get back for the cancellation of the Big Ten title game, which it owns the television rights to, is estimated in the $50 million range annually.

[u/Thomallister1291]

https://x.com/PeteThamel/status/2111241297298387030

[u/SPCsooprlolz]

This whole thing is so dumb

[u/mrebrightside → u/SPCsooprlolz]

We should organize a boycott of the sport over this.

But, we won't. And, that's on us.

[u/PontificatingBret → u/mrebrightside]

RE: everything in life since 2020

[u/wise_comment → u/PontificatingBret]

*2015 or so

[u/SirMellencamp → u/PontificatingBret]

The only boycott I’ve seen work was Bud Light and it was for a stupid reason

[u/ScotsBeowulf → u/SirMellencamp]

I've been boycotting Bud Light for over 20 years, and it's been great for me.

[u/SirMellencamp → u/ScotsBeowulf]

It would take a lot to get me to switch from Miller Lite

[u/PossiblyAChipmunk → u/SirMellencamp]

Didn't the boycott push people to drink Modelo, a Budweiser brand beer?

[u/sbballc11 → u/PossiblyAChipmunk]

Not in the US, but elsewhere

[u/JinFuu → u/SirMellencamp]

Bud Light boycott worked because Bud Light is easily replaceable for the people who drink it.

College football is not easily replaceable.

[u/AKAD11 → u/mrebrightside]

I promise you that it’s possible. I used to structure my Saturday around college football and since we got relegated I basically just watch Wazzu.

[u/HotdawgSizzle → u/mrebrightside]

They are going to make so much money off of this and everyone will still watch.

Sadly probably me included

[u/StrawberryWaste9040 → u/SPCsooprlolz]

To us who are not benefiting from it for sure. NCAA has monetized college sports with media and various industries such as gambling. There's lots of money to be made, even more if you have $$ to invest...

At least athletes got something this time.

[u/punchuinface55 → u/StrawberryWaste9040]

Yes, let's keep mentioning the NCAA, which has nothing to do with any of these decisions, and is literally just a body created by the schools. It's the garsh darn NCAA at it again!!1!1

[u/LessThanCleverName → u/punchuinface55]

Seriously, the NCAA can’t hardly do shit anymore. Blame the conferences and the schools.

Edit - now that I think about it, OP is probably using NCAA as a catch-all for college sports, but still, it’s not them doing this. Their responsibility lies entirely in their stubborn inability to adapt to a super obviously changing landscape in college sports and getting caught with no clothes.

[u/StrawberryWaste9040 → u/LessThanCleverName]

Well NCAA is still association of all schools (or conferences), but in reality SEC and Big 10 schools have more influence than other conferences. And rest have to accept the scraps given to them.

[u/LessThanCleverName → u/StrawberryWaste9040]

Yeah, I realized after you were just using the NCAA as a collective term. But it’s pretty much just those two calling the shots at this point.

[u/Effective-LineP00 → u/StrawberryWaste9040]

I mean sort of, It's kind of Ironic they are getting the playoffs expanded and the students are getting their salary capped at the same time.

[u/Pinewood74 → u/StrawberryWaste9040]

There's lots of money to be made,

Is there though?

Just accounting for the CCGs, we're already down to only $155M net.

Haven't heard anyone talk about the loss of bowl games, but the likes of the Citrus Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl, and the Pop-Tarts Bowl pull good numbers and are worth a pretty penny.

And then the games down the stretch in the regular season are gonna lose some luster. Have to imagine an OSU/Michigan with no stakes outside the rivalry won't draw the national attention it would in years past.

[u/SquirrelWarSurvivor → u/Pinewood74]

> Have to imagine an OSU/Michigan with no stakes outside the rivalry won’t draw the national attention it would in years past.

Early October is a great time for the biggest rivalry game of the season. And it still seems to draw large enough ratings to be the first or second game selected in the annual TV draw.

[u/Jonny_Qball → u/SquirrelWarSurvivor]

Nah fuck that. The Game is on the last weekend of the regular season. I’m tired of fucking with tradition.

It’s been the most viewed regular season game of 6 of the last 10 years for a reason - part of what makes it the best rivalry in football is that every season the stakes feel so damn high. You lose a bit of that by moving it to early October.

[u/muttonchops215 → u/StrawberryWaste9040]

Blaming the NCAA is pushing over a quadriplegic in a wheelchair and declaring yourself tough. They've been handcuffed for a long time. Despite their shortcomings, they can't do anything. This has been evident for quite some time. See: the cheaters that cheated and fought the NCAA for minimal punishment, to those that abided by the rules and got hammered for their honesty (The NCAA lacks subpoena / investigative power, with rules that don't punish members that resist investigations).

[u/one-hour-photo → u/StrawberryWaste9040]

it's the money to be made by the people who hold the reins. they are actively trying to pull the money from the other entities.

It would be like if Elon musk set up a 64 team basketball playoff that paid the players directly, more than anyone else could.

[u/abidail → u/SPCsooprlolz]

I've been OOL the last week. What happened?

[u/decoy777 → u/abidail]

ESPN is making it a 24 team playoff now. And conference championship games are gone because of it and I think regular bowl games dead too

[u/livefreeordont → u/decoy777]

Damn. I’ll miss the tax slayer mower cheez it gator bowl

[u/Teach_Piece → u/livefreeordont]

Unironically I loved that stuff yeah

[u/livefreeordont → u/Teach_Piece]

I always thought it was too corporate. The decrease in power of the bowl admins is a good thing imo, not that ESPN having sole control of the CFP is a good thing

[u/jchall3]

They blew up conference championships for less than one Jimbo

[u/pessimism_yay → u/jchall3]

Less than one Jimbo annually.

[u/keefkola → u/pessimism_yay]

Best we can do is one Jimbo and 3 Scott Frosts.

[u/MssrSqueezy → u/pessimism_yay]

0.66 Jimbos, to be exact

[u/Squantoon → u/jchall3]

This is crazy

[u/WillowHaunting429]

Why have a conference?

[u/mel34760 → u/WillowHaunting429]

That’s where this is headed…

[u/YodaForceGhost → u/mel34760]

Back to the old days where almost every big team was independent or their conference was so small that they played a bunch of other big teams

[u/Hulkodium → u/YodaForceGhost]

Might as well at this point.

[u/binzoma → u/Hulkodium]

honestly at this point just go to a regional tiered system like the english soccer ladder. promotion/relegation.

NE top, championship, league

SE top, championship, league

etc

itd make more sense than whatever the fuck is going on now

edit: if they did that, they'd get to have 3 full playoffs/champions..... think of the money ncaa think of the money. and with no pesky conferences in the way it'd all be yours......

say you do the round of 16 in the regions, you could have top 4 go straight to the 'main' playoffs, next 4 do a 'qualification game, with the 2 winners getting to go on. 6 per region/tier, thats a 24 team playoff for each, 72 playoff teams in total in the nationals, plus another 24 who played a playoff game in the 'regional/tier' playin.

[u/Designer_B → u/binzoma]

Until somebody like Auburn gets relegated for Toledo.

[u/Flobking → u/Designer_B]

Until somebody like Auburn gets relegated for Toledo.

The way the sec and big ten act they could be the two main conferences and every other team be in one giant league.

[u/Bill3ffinMurray → u/Designer_B]

That’d be great!

[u/IamGleemonex → u/binzoma]

> honestly, at this point just go to a regional tiered system

Minus the promotion/relegation part, that was what we used to have:

West coast - PAC 8/10
Southern middle - Big 8
Texas/Arkansas - SWC
Midwest - Big 10
Southeast - SEC
Northeast - Big East
East coast - ACC

Then all the realignments started and messed up all of this.

[u/fuchsia_fascia → u/mel34760]

Penn State football was at it's best as an independent...

[u/melorous → u/fuchsia_fascia]

Well, they are currently embracing their past...

[u/cooterdick → u/WillowHaunting429]

To negotiate tv deals. That’s really their main purpose now and has been since the 80s.

[u/Stoneador → u/WillowHaunting429]

Now you’re talking

[u/DillyDillySzn → u/Stoneador]

Notre Dame always wins in the end

[u/Katwill666 → u/DillyDillySzn]

"You couldn't live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me."

[u/FuegoFerdinand → u/DillyDillySzn]

Everything's coming up Notre Dame.

[u/GhostOfAbydos → u/Stoneador]

They’re starting to see the light

[u/emaugustBRDLC → u/Stoneador]

Notre Dame join a conference posters down bad.

[u/Ass_of_Badness → u/emaugustBRDLC]

Also Notre Dame should have played a meaningless bowl game posters. Always setting the trends.

[u/shortbusmafia → u/WillowHaunting429]

So that schools play against other schools that are geographically closer togeth…

Wait, nevermind. Who would have such a dumb idea?

[u/WillowHaunting429 → u/shortbusmafia]

Yeah - that's out the window right now

I think there is more to come on this.

[u/NewAgeLand → u/WillowHaunting429]

PAC-12’s revenge. If we can’t have a real conference, no one can have a conference

[u/americansherlock201 → u/WillowHaunting429]

That’s the next step. Conferences will mean nothing for football so teams will leave their conferences, align with a tv contract and that will be that.

Division 1 college football is dead

[u/mp0295 → u/americansherlock201]

You know Miami didnt join a conference until 1990 right? Was D1 football dead when UM won most of its natties in the '80s?

[u/randomthrowaway9796 → u/WillowHaunting429]

I honestly think we should get rid of conferences if theyre going to be mega conferences. Just have 3-6 rivals that you play annually, and have a centralized agency handle scheduling for every other game. The issue is there is no centralized agency that can handle something like this.

[u/EngineerDave → u/WillowHaunting429]

Right now Conferences are the only thing left that really has any kind of rules that can be enforced. We saw that with LSU and Texas Tech. If you want a 100% free for all getting rid of conferences is going to be horrible.

[u/Lazerdude → u/WillowHaunting429]

Honestly this. Just make them all independent programs at this point. What's even the point of conferences? It's all just one big round Robin tournament the way this sets up.

[u/luchajefe]

You didn't need conference championship games when the conferences were small enough to have all play all. Now that you do, you're getting rid of them anyway. For... the heck of it, I guess.

[u/goldflame33 → u/luchajefe]

So that 7-5 Auburn with a quality Iron Bowl win can get that sweet sweet #22 playoff spot

[u/dartharchibald → u/goldflame33]

Auburn finally making the playoffs is my biggest gripe with expansion.

[u/IDontTortureChickens → u/dartharchibald]

This is the kind of petty that will sustain CFB through this stupid-ass new era

[u/Agile_Land_9951 → u/goldflame33]

It all depends on the committee. If the star QB for Auburn is out, I guess they won’t invite them to the cfp. But what happens if their starting QB is healthy but their star right tackle, star cornerback and star place kicker are out?

[u/nemisys1st → u/Agile_Land_9951]

Obviously an automatic bid for Alabama regardless of record

[u/DrHToothrot → u/goldflame33]

While they'll then turn around and tell you that one of an 11-1 Boise St or JMU doesn't "deserve" to make the field.

[u/SlamDunkly → u/luchajefe]

Do conference championship games even do an accurate job of showing who wins their conference anymore though?

[u/aure__entuluva → u/SlamDunkly]

I've been half joking that the conference is so big now that we need a 4 team playoff for the conference championship. I know there's not another week to fit a game in, but the fact that you could have who goes be determined by some nonsense tie breakers when the two teams in question haven't played each other is criminal. Getting rid of the conference championship game altogether?

More criminal as far as I'm concerned.

[u/HistoricalTaste22k → u/SlamDunkly]

Before you came along, it was really just how much was the east going to score on an overhyped B1G west team.

[u/Alt4816 → u/luchajefe]

You didn't need conference championship games when the conferences were small enough to have all play all.

Tell that to the 10 team Big 12 in 2014 when it was unwilling to name a single conference champion and that helped keep both Baylor and TCU out of the 4 team playoff.

Personally I think conference championship games only worked well when conferences had two separate divisions but now the conferences have grown too big to even have divisions. With divisions teams earned their spot in the championship game through playing every other team in their division. If a tie breaker was needed to determine who played in the game usually it was settled simply through who won the head to head matchup.

Now without divisions we keep seeing non-head to head tie breakers need to be used to determine who gets to play in the conference championship. Last year the ACC had a 5 way tie for second. then for certain conferences it's questionable if it's even good for teams to be in that game instead of teams getting to keep their resume as is.

I'm fine with getting rid of these games and going back to naming teams co-conference champions if they have the same in conference record. If teams want to be sole conference champions then they should go undefeated in conference.

[u/megamanxzero35 → u/Alt4816]

IMO, that was on the Big 12. They tried to have their cake and eat it to that year by declaring them co-champions to try and get 2 teams in when they did play head to head so their was an easy tie breaker for who the winner should be.

[u/B1GFanOSU]

So, we all expanded to get a playoff game that’s now going away? That was totally worth killing off the real Pac-12 and Big XII.

[u/HuntmasterReinholt → u/B1GFanOSU]

Yeah! And now those fools are stuck traveling to Piscataway for all their sports, and all you guys are stuck traveling to Ewwwwgene!

Muwahahahaha!!!! 😈

[u/699Dominoes]

Just do the FAS super league already. If we're to the point of cancelling conference championship games and having almost every big player opt out of bowl games then the greatness in CFB is gone.

Let the B1G and SEC filter out, grab their top ACC/B12 buddies, get their 48 team league, and then the rest of the P4 and G6 can play a less money-hungry version of the sport. I'd rather that than the whole thing be zombified garbage because a few big brands and commisioners can't stop thinking about cash.

[u/a5ehren → u/699Dominoes]

Yeah but the super league wants the pretense of the middle-class P4 teams being on the same level so that they have more inventory to sell to ESPN but still get to win 10 games

[u/Penetratorofflanks → u/699Dominoes]

You are absolutely correct. Then the majority can pretend they dont exist just like FCS. Then we can go back to a 12 team playoff.

Which is still 7% more teams getting into the playoffs than with 24 births.

[u/Chessh2036]

Man I hate this so much.

[u/GreatBarrierQueefDD → u/Chessh2036]

Universal opinion. Everyone hates it. This is just so sad man. Everything good gets ruined.

[u/Clipgang1629 → u/GreatBarrierQueefDD]

I don’t really care about the 24 team playoff.

The death of conference championships fucking sucks though. Hate that.

[u/GreatBarrierQueefDD → u/Clipgang1629]

I hate both tbh

[u/smitherenesar → u/Clipgang1629]

Conference championship games sucked anyways. I want my 10 team conferences where they all play each other. Sometimes you get a split championship, but it was rare

[u/Pinewood74 → u/smitherenesar]

Sometimes you get a split championship, but it was rare

40% of the time in the Pac-10 round robin era. Not sure that's rare.

[u/itsnotnews92 → u/Pinewood74]

I was gonna say, 8 of the 20 seasons of Big East football (also 40%) featured split championships.

Google is telling me it happened 45 times in the Big Ten from 1896 to 2011, which is also just under 40% of the time.

So, not rare at all.

[u/jstacks4 → u/smitherenesar]

Yeah conference championship games themselves are part of the college football money grab. A precursor to the playoffs in some ways. 

[u/jk137jk → u/GreatBarrierQueefDD]

Only way to send a message is to stop watching the games. This is gonna ruin the regular season value. Rivalries will disappear and schedules will get weaker and weaker.

[u/Responsible-War-917 → u/GreatBarrierQueefDD]

I don't mind the 24 game playoff in a vacuum, personally. I would change the selection and who gets what and stuff but by itself I like it.

But you're still right. And it's because we have 3 generations now of business/econ people who sure as fuck know how to make money. But they lost their soul and we're losing ours in pursuit of it.

[u/Fraegtgaortd → u/GreatBarrierQueefDD]

Everyone who isn't making millions off of it hates it. The networks and execs that run them are thrilled.

This move pushes college football into Full Enshittification. It sucks for everyone except for those in charge

[u/Mojo141 → u/GreatBarrierQueefDD]

1994 when Penn State went undefeated and won the Rose Bowl but Nebraska was named natty that sucked. Not having the best teams face each other is bullshit. 24 teams definitely does NOT need to happen though. That's insane and means no regular season like with college basketball

[u/NorthwestPurple → u/Mojo141]

The entire thing could be solved by playing ONE additional game after all the traditional bowls.

[u/PSU02 → u/Mojo141]

4 or 8 team is ideal. Gets the best teams who earned it in

[u/muttonchops215 → u/PSU02]

Twelve was perfect. The proof is literally the two of three (third pending) results.

[u/nyr201]

I don’t care one iota about these networks and their money. This is all their doing

[u/Entire-Project5871]

So the Pac12 imploding meant nothing

[u/smitherenesar → u/Entire-Project5871]

Now you get to play Rutgers...

[u/United_Energy_7503 → u/Entire-Project5871]

Yes but at least Stanford got to play a conference game in Winston Salem, NC and get absolutely dismantled!

[u/Fraegtgaortd → u/Entire-Project5871]

It means your team gets to travel 3x as much every year

[u/Agile_Land_9951 → u/Entire-Project5871]

You did help Kevin Warren land an NFL job. That’s something.

[u/Dry-Membership3867]

Fuck the CFP

[u/monstimal]

That's 200 more seasons of The Floor

[u/eckoman_pdx]

So they broke up the Pac-12 and destroyed regional conferences and rivalries for nothing. Got it...

[u/Mobile_Inevitable466 → u/eckoman_pdx]

Realignment ruined the sport

[u/ufdan15 → u/Mobile_Inevitable466]

The 4 team playoff ruined the sport.

It should've been play the bowl games and select 2 teams to play each other a week later. The playoff was always going to be expanded. It's also when ESPN got its death grip on the sport

[u/Darth-Taytor]

For how many years, though?

[u/Jaosborn44 → u/Darth-Taytor]

The current media rights deal lasts through the 2029-30 school year. If the 24 team playoff starts next year and the B1G conference championship is canceled, then that would be 3 years.

Edit: Currently Fox owns the broadcasts right to the game in 2027 and 2029, while CBS owns the 2028 game. It's possible the B1G could owe Fox for only 2 years, but they'll probably also owe CBS for that 1 year a similar amount.

[u/Swimming-Dealer293]

If we had a 24 team playoff in 2017, Auburn could have played Georgia for a 3rd time and probably a 2nd loss.

That is enough reason for me to be against the 24 team playoff!

[u/IsLlamaBad → u/Swimming-Dealer293]

The good ol college football rubber game. It's what everyone has been asking for

[u/RontoWraps]

I’m just going to watch the NFL. This is not worth it anymore. College sports cannibalized itself due to greed.

[u/JaggedUmbrella → u/RontoWraps]

Join me. It's nice. The game times make sense and they end in a timely fashion. And because of contracts I know roughly what my roster is going to look like in the future.

[u/MichelNey2 → u/JaggedUmbrella]

I’ve been the biggest “CFB > NFL” homer in my friend group. 

The passion, the electricity in the stadiums, the suspense of every game being do-or-die, true rivalries that just meant more. You just couldn’t get that level of intensity in NFL.

All of it has slowly been whittled away. If not outright killed, then at least diminished.

[u/Upset-Dingo-6879 → u/MichelNey2]

Yeah, now you get great regional in-conference rivalries like Rutgers - UCLA.

[u/TimeLordDoctor105 → u/MichelNey2]

There are definitely true rivalries in the NFL (see either North division, they hate their division rivals). But you are right, CFB rivalries always felt better (I'm definitely not sad that we have lost our 3 biggest rivalry games over the last 15 years /s).

[u/Weak-Bid2774 → u/RontoWraps]

Right now college football just turned itself into a worse version of the NFL

[u/RiverFrogs → u/RontoWraps]

Yeah I’ll still probably watch the bigger Louisville games but there’s no way I’m watching half the season and all of the playoff games. Probably save my money for basketball and baseball. Please god don’t expand March madness any further

[u/TJeffersonsBlackKid → u/RontoWraps]

Since college football is officially a professional sport, I would be thrilled if the NFL decided to pulverize it and start playing games on Saturdays every week.

[u/Intelligent_Dress347 → u/TJeffersonsBlackKid]

But we wouldn’t get the weekly hype tweets on ratings from the ESPN PR account anymore 🤣 

[u/RontoWraps → u/TJeffersonsBlackKid]

Against federal law actually lol

[u/Individual_Holiday_9 → u/RontoWraps]

Honestly the nfl is a much better product at this point

[u/HankChinaski- → u/Individual_Holiday_9]

It always has been. (Unless you are going to games in person, which college wins by a mile)

[u/IDontTortureChickens → u/RontoWraps]

I'm watching my teams, but I don't know why I'd ever watch a college football game before November otherwise. I barely do even now. That's as much because of having kids and whatnot as anything, but I will be missing nothing by ignoring the regular season going forward.

[u/SantosCalzonesBatman → u/RontoWraps]

This sub was cheering and clapping for playoffs and NIL

Well, contrats

Leopards ate your face

[u/Dangerous_Ad5039]

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SUCKS

[u/Own_Pop_9711]

I don't even understand, the playoffs aren't worth that much more money

[u/BrettSchirley22 → u/Own_Pop_9711]

Devaluing big regular season matchups too. Ohio State vs Michigan when they’re both top 10 teams and competing for a playoff spot feeds families. Duke vs UNC to get into the 24 spot doesn’t feed families

[u/Sorge74 → u/BrettSchirley22]

With 24 teams the only game I will care about is Michigan....shit we could go 8-4 and still make a 24 team playoff....

[u/wetcornbread → u/BrettSchirley22]

It will but only once basketball season comes around and the losing team in their March madness matchup will just say they knocked the winning team out in football so it doesn’t matter to them that their team lost when it clearly does.

[u/Pale_Land_5107]

This is honestly bs what point is there for confrences if you’re not competing for a title 

[u/Intelligent_Type6336]

I never followed college football as much as I do now although I’m slowly returning to my apathy, but the system with the computers and the polls really does start to sound like the better version.

[u/Mobile_Inevitable466 → u/Intelligent_Type6336]

People are acting like this is what is going to kill the old college football when that died a while ago. Realignment, the portal, 7th year seniors, and the current 12 team playoff already killed that. If you aren’t in the big 10 or sec the current system sucks

[u/YoungXanto → u/Intelligent_Type6336]

It was. Like 1 team every few years had a legitimate gripe about not being in the national championship game. The biggest problem was 2011 when there was a fucking rematch between a team that won its conference and one that finished third.

Otherwise, NY6 bowls were fun to be in. It wasnt a national championship or bust mentality. Now? You can lose to your biggest rival and not really give a fuck because you still won the national championship.

[u/Ok_Flow3504]

Only a matter of time until big games are all PPV

[u/EmuMan10 → u/Ok_Flow3504]

That’s actually how you kill a sport. Look at boxing

[u/Silly_Selection3221 → u/Ok_Flow3504]

Seems unlikely considering PPV is dying off for every other traditional PPV sport

[u/Dry-Membership3867 → u/Ok_Flow3504]

More likely they go all to OTA like the NFL on Sunday. PPV doesn’t really exist much anymore and is a dying business model due to cord cutters.

[u/RukiMotomiya → u/Dry-Membership3867]

OTA would be great.

[u/cooterdick → u/Ok_Flow3504]

Even when we had ppv games, it was never the big ones.

[u/PavWrestlinGifs → u/Ok_Flow3504]

I mean isn’t streaming these days basically PPV

[u/autobotCA → u/PavWrestlinGifs]

For the casual fan, following a single team, it’s pretty close to PPV. I’ve skipped games because it’d be $20 to watch a single game on a new service I don’t subscribe to.

[u/bunglesnacks]

Conference Championships should have been cancelled the second the selection committee said the results don't matter.

[u/tejanoazul]

Guys I’m not having fun anymore

[u/Strakedev]

Bro this sucks. This is the best solution to college football? What a fucking joke.

[u/NicholastheSpirit]

This is so dumb. Rivalries and Traditions are what make College Football what it is. Having the regular season not matter is such a slap in face to us and tells teams they can lose probably three games and still get into the playoffs.

[u/StFuzzySlippers → u/NicholastheSpirit]

Well, It's not like CCGs are that deep of a tradition really. The first CCG was itself a product of conference expansion after the SEC added Arkansas and SCAR.

[u/SlamDunkly → u/StFuzzySlippers]

Personally I don’t give a shit about CCGs and am glad to see them gone. They’ve always felt tacked on, and I hate rematches in CFB. Not to mention, I don’t really feel like CCGs even do a good job of crowning a champion in the super conference era.

I know a lot of SEC fans feel differently though, which makes sense because they’ve been around for longer. Oregon has only even been eligible for CCGs for like, 15 years?

[u/-Jack-The-Stripper → u/SlamDunkly]

CCGs aren’t needed at all if the conferences are small enough to do a round robin.

Once you get slightly larger (~12-14 teams) it makes sense to break into two divisions and have a CCG. Those are actually sensible and align with a valuable regular season.

16-18 teams with no divisions though? CCGs are just stupid in that scenario. There’s far too much schedule luck that feeds into who goes to the CCG. If you want to do a conference championship with bloated, divisionless conferences then you need to have a four-team bracket at least. Otherwise just do away with them.

[u/Carolina296864 → u/NicholastheSpirit]

“Damn heres your purdue and Washington conference matchup late on a friday night, take it damn”

[u/smitherenesar → u/Carolina296864]

We traded the civil war and apple cup for Oregon vs Maryland

[u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

Can I just get one fucking sport that I want to watch?  Is that too much to ask?  They've ruined the NFL.  NHL games that are remotely interesting are buried behind paywalls, if even available.  Now college football is going to be the same watered down commercialized bullshit that they've done with the NFL.

Goddammit, I just want one fucking sport I can reliably watch every week with some kind of soul to it.

[u/awmaleg → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

MLB Baseball has been really good since the Pace of Play changes that Manfraud stumbled bass ackwards into

[u/AtiumCollector → u/awmaleg]

Great just in time for there to be no MLB season next year

[u/Intelligent_Dress347 → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

I love the NFL, personally. 

[u/originalusername4567 → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

College Volleyball is in a great spot right now.

[u/msimon82 → u/originalusername4567]

Hey that’s where my school wins! 😂

[u/AdamOnFirst → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

“They” have “ruined the NFL”

[u/sourcreamonionhummus → u/AdamOnFirst]

seriously what is this person talking about

[u/tehjarvis → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

IPTV. I've been using it for years. EXTREMELY cheap and you get literally everything. I don't mean every game. I mean everything. Well, except Chinese and Japanese TV for some reason.

I can watch any game I want and if all the games suck, watch Dexter's Lab in Russian. Russian dubs are the funniest. Or watch ANY regional network channel. It's amazing.

[u/KnotAlreadyTaken → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

I feel you, man. I’ve had to pony up for YouTube tv so I can see all the NHL games I want. For me and college football, this season is my most disinterested ever.

Several weeks back, I was up late working and watched Clemson play an ACC conference game… in California. We’ve blown was past peak absurdity in cfb now

[u/jpetrie18 → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

Honestly? If you have a good small-college team nearby, get season tickets and go. I happen to live about 4 miles from the top-ranked NAIA team in the nation, and their games are so much fun. The level of play isn’t as high as your flair (in my case, they’re equivalent to a top 10-20 D2
team per SP+), but there’s still a sense of community and some level of pageantry (even if it leans a little camp) that makes it all worthwhile.

Also, I can take the wife and 2 kids and tailgate all season for a little over $200.

[u/muttonchops215 → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

For professional sports, MLS isn't too bad. Just sucks they decided to go to a fall schedule and kill attendance and viewership for clubs affected by football. See: Columbus.

[u/a5ehren → u/muttonchops215]

Syncing the calendar with global soccer and having the stretch run/playoffs in Spring is a net positive, imo

[u/spicyhospice → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

The ocho.

[u/e3super → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

I don't know if people who have been watching it for many years feel the same way, but AFL football in Australia has been fantastic every time I've watched. There's the obvious time zone issue, but if you can handle watching replays or staying up, it's a really fun sport.

[u/Calithrand → u/I_Enjoy_Beer]

I enjoy starting my weekend mornings with Premier League games on Peacock. There's a certain charm to European football league scandals that just doesn't exist over here :)

[u/a5ehren → u/Calithrand]

Ah yes, the league where half the teams are owned by murderous oil barons or Russian oligarchs

[u/EasyDragonfruit7867]

Too much snow fell on the Metrodome roof, and now college sports are dead.

What's the final number the B1G will end up paying back to Fox since that charlatan Kevin Warren announced the deal? ~$115 million?

[u/Atlgal42]

I hate it here

[u/tehjarvis]

There's nothing quite like being pumped for the season, endlessly thinking about and discussing the spring game, going over the roster time after time, the anticipation of football starting being nearly unbearable and then the devastation of losing in week 2 and your national championship hopes being shattered before your eyes when the season has hardly begun. It's like backing out of your driveway to go on a vacation and getting creamed by a semi. And I'm not joking. The stakes being so fucking high every single game is what made college football so great.

When it comes to other sports I'm a small playoff guy. I'm a "if you didn't win your division you shouldn't be able to play for the championship" guy and think Wild Card games are the worst idea to ever happen in sports.

This is only being done to guarantee that teams like Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Notre Dame etc. make the playoff every single fucking year. Seriously. If this were the format since 1995 (going back to years) the Buckeyes would have missed the playoff only 4, maybe 5 times. That's an 83.3% rate of playing in the post-season. If NIL and the transfer portal existed for all of those years, they probably only miss ONCE. That means the regular season essentially becomes preseason.

[u/agentb719]

I might be done watching FBS football

[u/Ok-Soil-5133]

ESPN reportedly got $140M back from the ACC, B12, SEC, I'd think most of that was the SEC

SEC championship is the only one that felt big to be quite honest, Big Ten had too many years where Ohio State or Michigan beat up on the Big Ten West

[u/keefkola → u/Ok-Soil-5133]

Only the B1G west can save us.

[u/Poverty_Shoes → u/keefkola]

Northwestern to the rescue!

[u/montague68 → u/Ok-Soil-5133]

Yeah people want to see high-ranked matchups. OSU Indiana last year was 1-2 and got the highest CG ratings. SEC has definitely been better for that historically.

[u/Hike_bike523]

Hey fox why not get all the g6 conference commissioners together and form their own playoff that you get exclusive rights too. Maybe it won’t generate as much $ but people would still watch it. I say 12-16 teams max. Play all but the semi finals and final at higher seeds stadium.

[u/OkieDokieHokiePokie → u/Hike_bike523]

The NIT of CFB

[u/suboptimaltraffic → u/Hike_bike523]

Then the g6 becomes the new fcs

[u/exit322 → u/suboptimaltraffic]

Like it isn't already?

[u/Wafflehouseofpain]

At this point the regular season just isn’t that important, and the regular season was the entire point of CFB.

[u/BigBlueNY]

This is the beginning of the end of conferences.

[u/pot8odragon → u/BigBlueNY]

Of college football

[u/Saul_T_Bauls]

I feel like $50Million seems a bit low

[u/Dry-University797]

Pat McAfee is such a dipshit

[u/ErnestoDeEspana]

Can someone help me out here:

20 years ago everyone was calling for a playoff system like the FCS, and now that we are getting closer to that everyone hates it - why is that? Whats been done wrong. I'm just a casual

[u/AlabamaCharlotte → u/ErnestoDeEspana]

Honestly, I am just surprised they skipped the 6, 8, 10, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22-team formats. I am not sure how they went from 4 to 12 and 12 to 24 without trying any of the numbers in between. But I suppose this is one way to silence people so no one can complain about being left out of the playoff, I guess. As long as your season wasn't abysmal, you are going to be in the playoffs now, lol.

[u/DJ-Fein → u/ErnestoDeEspana]

Because NIL makes it so Easy for the top schools to just buy the best players from universities that developed them, because ESPN is in bed with the SEC and they also basically run the selection committee for who gets to play. Not to mention realignment has muddied the path on how to earn a spot with giant Super conferences where most teams don’t even play each other.

15 years ago, this would have been amazing, but now it just reeks of corruption and predictability

[u/OG_Felwinter → u/ErnestoDeEspana]

The thing people liked about the FCS system is it guarantees access for every conference champion, basically removing the possibility of any team being snubbed. The FCS playoff only has 6 more at-larges than our 12 team playoff. This new format would have 12 more at larges than our 12 team playoff. That’s literally double the difference. It’s just simply not necessary if it’s not being used as a way to include all conferences. We had blowouts in the 4 team format, and expanding the playoff only creates more blowout matchups. The only reason to increase the size, from a fan perspective, is to make the access more objective.

[u/amopeyzoolion → u/OG_Felwinter]

You’re asking for more blowouts though by wanting more non-P4 teams in.

[u/ProfessorBeer → u/ErnestoDeEspana]

Because this isn’t like FCS. FCS guarantees a spot for all conference winners. I would be happy enough with 24 teams if that were the case. This is just on its face designed to be a massive fuck you to non-power conferences.

[u/Artistic_Industry_96 → u/ProfessorBeer]

SEC and B1G gonna have 18 spots 😂

[u/Franklins11burner → u/ProfessorBeer]

Massive fuck you to the ACC and B12 too tbh. Sure they get their champs in, but this is going to be a tournament field that is 80% B1G and SEC every year.

[u/mr_nice_cack → u/ErnestoDeEspana]

We peaked at the 4 team CFP. The issue of “they were robbed at #3” was solved.

Then, as usual, human greed took over and it has ruined college football. No more relevant bowl games or conference title games. The soul is gone and replaced with NIL and a 24 team playoff.

[u/Turbulent_End_6887 → u/mr_nice_cack]

Now, "we were robbed at 25". After years of complaining, it will expand to 32. Then "we were robbed at 33". and so on.

[u/the_zac_is_back → u/ErnestoDeEspana]

There’s many reasons that it could be that people hate it. I can list a few:
G6 not having more spots guaranteed
Cancelation of conference championship games..
Doesn’t fix the original issue fully, it’s just about money.
More opportunities for wear and tear on players.
Players don’t have to give all they got if they play at a big school, as big schools are guaranteed to make the CFP basically.

[u/rocket_beer → u/ErnestoDeEspana]

We don’t like that the G6 is only getting 1 spot

And no, none of those at-large will be to a G6. Ever.

[u/cartierboy25 → u/ErnestoDeEspana]

20 years is a long time to get new information and possibly change your opinion. And it definitely wasn’t “everyone” calling for an FCS playoff. I think back in those days most wanted like 8-12 teams at the most. Also the FCS wasn’t 24 teams until recently so calling for an FCS system didn’t mean calling for what we are getting now.

[u/Fraegtgaortd]

I'll enjoy the regular season watching my team and others. On the off chance my team ever makes the playoff I'll watch, and I'll continue to watch the "lesser" bowls because watching two 7-5 teams with no defense in the Sun Bowl is a fun watch but the CFB playoffs can suck meat though. I'll spend those Saturdays snowboarding

[u/wesman212]

But now Fox will miss out on the one season when Rutgers is good!

[u/kevrbunk86]

Big schools are gonna threaten to leave their conferences over this whole mess. Someone will torpedo or sabotage it.

[u/VirtualChaos613 → u/kevrbunk86]

No they won’t.

[u/ThatGuju → u/kevrbunk86]

We already ruined the PE deal…