We kicked around the idea of what a super conference with unlimited booster support would look like two years ago, courtesy of Sinn Fein.
The schools most frequently mentioned form a list that looks pretty much like an average year's Top 25 to me.
Pretty much. Because college football as it stands right now has nothing to do with competative balance. There are 120 teams in the Div 1 eligible pool of teams that can play for the national championship. Except that, right off the bat, the national championship is limited to the power conferences, and maybe if one outlier team can be good for an extended period of time and get hot at the right time they may be able to be in the discussion long enough to be allowed to think about it. But if the team isn't in the power conferences, they pretty much have no chance.
Now, let's look at MLB - a sport that many on this board incorrectly repeatedly state has no parity when it is just as equal across the board as the NFL, and is clearly more "fair" than the might college football. All 30 teams can play and get into the world series. There is no setup that says that only teams from the AL East, AL West, NL Central and NL West are allowed to play for the World Series. But that is exactly what the NCAA does with division 1 (or whatver they call it these days).
Back to football. So you limit the teams that allowed to play for the title to begin with. Then the teams can pick their own schedules - something that you really can't change but it does further the point. So hypothetical powerhouse team playing for the national title will schedule one or two high school teams on their schedule. But it's ok because the high school team, even though they have no chance to win, will make some money.
Sidebar - why is them making money important? Isn't education more important? That's what the NCAA says. I disgress.
Back to baseball. The Yankees have to play the Royals. Every year. They also have to play the Red Sox. They do not get to say, nah, no Red Sox this year. Call the Baton Rouge Catfish Hunters in A ball and tell them we want to play them this year. It's ok, they will make some money with tickets. Nope. Can't do that.
Now granted, with 120 teams, they aren't going to all play each other, but still. There is no competative balance.
So, the NCAA has no competative balance at all. Yet, by allowing players to actually get paid to autograph something, we will be hurting the............. competative balance of the sport.
It's truly remarkable that some guys on this board support the NCAA. This same board that eviscerates politicians and the games they play just blindly swallows the NCAA's story like Jenna Jamison in front of a camera.