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For now, it appears that college football has seen off any attempts to create a super league that would operate without the NCAA.
But a newly released image that was allegedly supposed to remain confidential shows what would happen if those planning the league got their wish.
NEW: An 11-slide "confidential" @TurnkeyZRG pitch deck from February offers new details for the proposed college football "Super League," including how the 70 permanent members would be divvied up among 7 conferences.
More from me and @novy_williams: https://t.co/V5WeZ5fOPA pic.twitter.com/fDWYzAQAgI
— Daniel Libit (@DanielLibit) April 16, 2024
Daniel Libit and Novy Williams of Sportico report that the league, which would consist of 70 permanent numbers, was set to consist of seven divisions containing 10 teams.
Those divisions would be broken up geographically as:
West
Southwest
Plains
Midwest
Northeast
Southeast
South
There is then an eighth division called “Under League.”
How would Under League work. Here’s how Sportico explains it.
“The eighth division comprises 10 schools from what the deck calls the ‘Under League,’ the rest of the teams in college football’s top tier. That division rotates every year—eight of the 10 are relegated each season and replaced by the eight teams that play in the Under League’s playoff. The rest of the Under League is organized in eight different divisions of seven teams, which are not detailed in the deck.”
Proposed Super League Conference Are Wildly Unbalanced
But the biggest headline here, by far, is the teams in each division.
The West looks similar to the old Pac-10. While the Southwest resembles the Big 12. But the Plains division is where things start to get weird.
The proposed Plains division features half of the Big Ten West and several teams from the old Big 12 North. Oh, and Utah. Because why not.
The Midwest is strange as well. Ohio State and Michigan anchor what resembles the Big Ten. But they’re joined by programs such as Missouri, Louisville, and Cincinnati.
Penn State makes out better than perhaps any program. It lands in the Northeast, joined by Notre Dame and several members of the original Big East Conference. James Franklin probably couldn’t sign up for that quickly enough.
The Southeast Conference looks a lot like the current ACC, though it adds Florida and South Carolina. While the South is just the current SEC minus a few teams plus Georgia Tech. Sorry, Yellow Jackets.
No Super League is coming anytime soon. Both major power conferences appear to be strong against it.
But if it does happen (or when it does happen), it’ll shake up college athletics in an immense way.