Just playing with this unreasonable concept of merging ACC, Big 12, and Pac 12 teams into a competitive 3rd super conference. I made up a name - the Renegade Conference. Or, if you prefer, the Rebel Alliance. Wait, that one has been taken. Oh well. Some of you may remember my “Blue Blood Analysis” posts (College Football Blue Blood Analysis - Through 2021 Season). I went to my spreadsheet and created a 30 team Renegade Conference plus two extension members - Notre Dame and Stanford. Notre Dame because, duh, and Stanford because they like Notre Dame but won’t stoop to joining the likes of us in a conference. All current or future ACC, Big 12, and Pac 12 schools are part of this new conference except Boston College, Georgia Tech, Houston, Wake Forest, and Syracuse. Had to trim some to reach 32. And I wanted to reach 32 to match the 32 combined teams in the future SEC and Big 10 lineups.
Here are the 32 teams for the SEC and Big 10 and how many ranking points they had in my formula since 2000. Then the 32 from the Renegade Conference and how many they had in the same period. Bama, Ohio State, and UT-Norman are obviously True Blue Blood outliers. But look how many “New Blue Bloods” and “Rising Powers” there are in the Renegade Conference (remember the category names are based on the teams points over 4 different eras, not just the 2000’s). Pretty intriguing. We’ve got some serious basketball schools in that list as well.
I’m down for this. Bring it on (don’t wake me up). However, I realize this Renegade idea is only a Grand Illusion.
That’s an angle I hadn’t thought of. If what @OSUPSYCHO is hearing about a current Big 12/Pac 12 merger is true, ESPN could kill the Big 12 and get Goons and Texas to the SEC while also being able to buy the rights for all the schools that matter from the 2 conferences left. There would be 4 super conferences and ESPN would potentially have control of media for 3 of them. Consolidating the conferences is a massive incentive, getting UT-Norman and Texas to the SEC faster is just as important for them.
I recently heard from an insider with a connection to the Shrum administration there is currently a big push for SEC. Big 10 was first target but too much push back on AAU status as of right now.
I am starting to get the feeling that all of this is nothing more than moving the chairs around on the deck of the titanic. I think the whole thing gets reshuffled again in a few years so nothing done now matters much anyway. The new Playoff contract and expected expansion of the playoff is going to probably be the thing that makes some portion of FBS football break away and reorganize some.
