great article on this
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...ns-bowl-changes-college-footballs-big-picture
When the SEC and Big 12 announced their new bowl agreement Friday, they changed the paradigm of college football perhaps at the most critical time in the game's history. ACC and the Big East? Done in terms of being meaningful major college football conferences in the marketplace. One has barely made a blip in the BCS era. The other just pushed out its commissioner and is hanging on for dear life.
Meanwhile, interim Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas just hit a walk-off at the end of a career that has spanned four decades. Asked what he would do if he were ACC or Big East commissioner today, Neinas, laughing, said: “Better get a good bowl.”
The Big East, ACC and whoever else is still playing in FBS don't have war chests. They have become content farms for leftovers.
The Champions Bowl (working title) became a traveling road show that will be played at the site of the highest bidder. The Big 12 and SEC champions will play each year unless one or both champs are in the playoff. If that's the case, a second choice from the conference(s) is picked.
It's what the deal represents: If you haven't noticed, the top level of college football is now narrowed to the Big Four -- Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC. Those 48 schools control most of the influence, power, money and, most important, product in the Football Bowl Subdivision. That shouldn't be a surprise, but the announcement of the Champions Bowl put a face on college athletics' latest study in Darwinism.
“Nothing's changed,” one industry source said. “The Big East is diminished and the ACC is not the same as those other top leagues.”
Still, 48 schools and two major, big-time bowls. More power in the hands of the powerful. Let your mind wander. Secede from the NCAA? They certainly have the leverage if those 46 want to install their own recruiting rules and play with 150-man rosters? And at one point does a 16-team playoff sponsored by Anheuser-Busch become a reality?
It's all on the table now.
If you're not in the Big Four, you're not big time. That means you, Miami and Florida State, who suddenly have a huge decision to make. Remain outside the Big Four with the ACC making $17 million per year in a league that can't compete for a national championship, or take your valuable brands and petition for entry into the Big 12.
Based on Friday's announcement -- the two biggest football names in the ACC could soon be making $25 million a year in the Big 12.
And if that happens, the ACC becomes a whole lot less desirable to a Notre Dame that has to be thinking seriously about joining a conference. Put it this way: ND isn't going to get better access when the four-team playoff debuts in 2014.......
