As the globe inevitably reconciles for a Super League to lift the structure of European football, it is not hard to imagine a series of events leading to a similar change in an American sport, similarly, with a tradition of more than one century. With its best teams spread mostly in five regional conferences – all fighting for independent television contracts – university football also lends itself to the idea of a Super League.
The concept is easy to understand: if all the best teams play in the same league, that league would generate more money for those teams than they would earn in their current leagues. And the reception they would receive would be similar to the way things were played across the pond this week: the vast majority of people invested in sports would probably be ugly.
With billions of dollars at stake, however, and a lot of tricks to realign conferences in the past at such a short distance, no one can say with absolute certainty that a college football Superleague will never hatch.
If something similar happened to what is being proposed in Europe, what would it look like? Our reporters weigh, using their own criteria.
Andrea Adelson
Close your eyes and think of the biggest brands in college football. Come now with your list, forgetting about recent conferences or national championships. For this exercise and only for this exercise, the biggest criterion is brand. That’s why Miami is on my list. The Hurricanes have not won a national championship in 20 years, but they have one of the most recognized brands in football. Say U and everyone knows exactly what you mean.
The same goes for Michigan, which, like Miami, did not enter the college football playoffs and has a drought at the national championship even longer than the hurricanes. But say GO BLUE and everyone knows you’re referring to the Ann Arbor team.
With this baseline alone, I came with my 15 teams in about two minutes, without stumbling. Are there other qualified teams? Sure. You could argue that UCF has done more than Miami in the last 5 years and should be included, but this exercise should look beyond a five-year period. You could argue for Oregon as well, but again – Miami and Michigan win on branding 10 times out of 10. I feel pretty confident that more college football fans will agree to watch Miami-Notre Dame, as opposed to of Oregon-Notre Dame. (No offense, ducks)
With my very simple criteria, my teams are: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio, Oklahoma, Penn State, Texas, USC.
Kyle Bonagura
First, some basic rules:
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One of the first steps in building an apparent Super League is to include a mostly irrelevant team affiliated with Stan Kroenke, which is why its alma mater, Missouri, is a founding member.
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To try to align this exercise with reality, we must also identify a conference that will claim moral superiority and refuse to participate in something that will destroy a sport with a history of over a century. USC and Oregon are obvious candidates for inclusion, but in a shocking turn – in the mold of Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, etc. – Pac-12 remains untouched.
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Teams outside the Power 5 conference? No chance. Maybe a few teams can hope to be invited occasionally.
From there, the teams are almost chosen, because the selection criteria essentially mimic the old prestigious ratings of the program from the EA Sports NCAA football series. It is a combination of the teams that have been most successful in the last 15 years or so, with their ability to generate maximum revenue.
Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Missouri, Notre Dame, Ohio, Oklahoma, Penn State, Texas A&M, Texas.
Bill Connelly
The way the Super League of football takes shape, 12 big brands have joined forces and keep the door open for three permanent members. There are two other giant brands there (Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain), but there is a chance that at least one last place will be essentially the most desperate, the biggest bidder.
In this regard, here are 13 initials:
Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, UCLA, USC.
This list includes every national champion from the last 22 years and practically all the primary football brands that receive Jordan brand specials and what not. And USC needs a dance partner in the west, so it has to include the Bruins.
The next question is who is the most desperate who will become number 14 and 15 in a group of teams like Miami, Nebraska, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas A&M and maybe Oregon or Washington? They don’t really have to be good right now – they just have to be marketable and they have to be wonderful at some point. College football has a lot of arsenals to choose from.
My guess: Texas A&M and Penn State. Tennessee and Nebraska could obviously lose a lot of desperate money, and Oregon has Nike money, but the money plus any kind of recent cache makes me think it’s Aggies and the Nittany Lions.
So: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Penn State, Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA, USC.
David Hale
In Kyle’s sense, there will certainly be a league that claims the moral ground raised here and refuses to participate. This league will undoubtedly be the Big Ten. I can imagine Jim Harbaugh’s press conference explaining how virtuous Michigan is and how it refuses to give qualifications or admissions just to get into this league. Sure, it means Wolverines will lag behind on a national scale, but this is the price to pay for having a moral compass. And yes, Big Ten will change his mind and decide that he wants to join two months after the start of the league season.
The politics of this league must also be at the forefront. It’s not about better competition or rewarding the best of the best. It is about big, strong, rich people, in torturous suits, with fancy cars, who make arbitrary decisions that cascade and destroy everything around them. So Texas is in.
It might seem reasonable to include Clemson, as the Tigers made the college football playoffs six years in a row. But Dabo Swinney would give up sooner and join the NFL than admit to this mockery of the collegiate model. Amateurism still matters to some people.
UCF will not be invited, but will organize a parade that will announce its own separate superleague.
Then, of course, there are designated punching bags – programs that will be very good losing game after game in exchange for a place at the cold table for children. Your welcome Nebraska and Tennessee.
The rest is pretty simple: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Oklahoma, Penn State, Texas, Texas A&M, USC. Notre Dame remains independent.
Harry Lyles Jr.
Initially, I was inclined to take two teams from each Power 5 school and from the group of 5 and independents. But just like the college football playoff, we only go with big names, because that seems to be what football people have done.
My selections are strictly teams that have won titles in the last two decades and popular brands. The “brands” I select have fan bases with as many – if not more – sidewalk graduates than real graduates.
And don’t make any mistake about it, it’s not an understanding of the graduates on the sidewalk, it’s a compliment to how much people have to think about a football program to claim it without real connections.
Miami and Oregon are probably the two schools that don’t best fit the criteria above on my list, but they are also objectively colder than any other school you think they could replace. I will not apologize for being honest.
However, my list: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, USC.
Adam Rittenberg
Super League football is about big brands. I’m interested in real performance, especially when it comes to the big college football marks in this process. In the immortal words of former Oregon and Florida coach Willie Taggart (who ironically did very little at these two schools), you have to do #DoSomething to make this league. By the way, Oregon and Florida State have both done enough to make the list of 15.
Criteria? It’s simple for me. Any national champion or runner-up in the last decade is there. No small brand reaches the highest stage of college football. This gives us nine teams: Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, Auburn, Notre Dame, Oregon and Florida State. The next marker is the multiple titles of the Power 5 conference – plus at least one CFP appearance – during the CFP era. Hello, Oklahoma and Washington.
There are four spots left. Here the power factor of the brand is more important. Florida has not made a PCP appearance, but it boasts four division titles and five AP rankings in the top-15 of 2012. Chomp, it is. Penn State won the amazing Big Ten in 2016, launching a 42-11 race over four seasons. which included three top 10 AP finishes.
USC has had a decade of forgetting, full of horrible hiring decisions. But the Trojans have at least one Pac-12 title in 2017 and two other division titles in 2015. That’s more than Michigan or Texas A&M can celebrate. Fight on.
The last place goes reluctantly in Texas, which, like Michigan, has perfected the mega brand, something with minor results lately, but at least made the Big 12 championship game in 2018. Longhorns also makes sure that all power conferences have multiple representatives.
Complete list: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Florida, Florida State, Notre Dame, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, Texas, USC, Washington.