In the wake of mega TV deals and expansion, college football, as a whole, needs a fighter to keep the less populated parts of America in the game.
Football is as healthy as it has ever been, but a collegiate cancer in the form of exclusivity, monopoly and self-preservation, is threatening to break up what has been a pretty good, albeit very imperfect, union.
In the spirit of capitalism, the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference’s evolution into their respective television kingdoms is justified by the spirit of the American way — make as much money as you can, as fast as you can. This wave of financial isolationism is a threat to the future of the game.
On the heels of seducing USC and UCLA away from the Pac-12, the Big Ten is basking in its record-setting $8 billion media deal scattered over seven years with Fox, CBS and NBC. The SEC, which recently swiped Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12, boasts of a similar deal.
Good for them. As a business, they are emboldening their books, even if it’s at the expense of everybody else. Again, it’s the American way.
But about the rest of America? Is it just tough luck that a lifelong Kansas fan happens to live in a less-populated state next door to Missouri and as a result, his or her Jayhawks are relegated to a lesser life, while the Tigers get to march on toward unlimited glory?
What about the tens of thousands of student-athletes and the millions of fans and boosters who are not part of the Big Ten and SEC but want to compete for a national championship?
BYU, Utah State and the non-P5 conferences have been crying about this for years and now, with three of the five Power Five leagues, including Utah, also getting a second-rate taste of vulnerability, there is anxiety everywhere.
This is typically where politicians get involved, just as they did in 2003 when a Senate hearing looked into the possible monopoly of the Bowl Championship Series.
Led by former BYU head coach LaVell Edwards, and with bipartisan threats of government intervention from then Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, the kings of college football scrapped the BCS for the College Football Playoff, which remains intact today.
While protecting the power conferences, the CFP allowed a space for outsiders, like Cincinnati in 2021, to have access to football’s version of the Final Four.
Sports and politics are bedfellows in a variety of ways — success is contingent on support, both financially and on game days (or election days) with just about everything culminating in the “thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.”
So far, in this summer of stunners, both with expansion, additional and exhaustive expansion talk, and the expansion of television revenue, no one has stepped forward to fight for the little guy. Where is a Patrick Henry when you need one?
Henry made headlines prior to the Revolutionary War with his “Give me liberty or give me death” declaration. His words stirred a number of souls at the Second Virginia Convention at St. John’s Church in Richmond on March 23, 1775.
Even as an enthusiastic Founding Father, Henry feared the United States Constitution would make the federal government too big and too powerful. He lost the debate among his peers but did inspire the ensuing Bill of Rights, which set limits on federal controls and offered guarantees for personal freedoms.
The fight over fair representation continued in July 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. In almost a preamble to today’s college football dilemma, James Madison and the larger states argued that because they were bigger and contributed more to the nation’s coffers, they should get more representation in Congress than the smaller states.
This didn’t sit well with the less crowded and the debate went back and forth until the “Great Compromise” was reached — where each state would have equal votes in the Senate and the House would have proportional representation.
New York could grow as large as it wanted, but a state like Utah still had a say in the laws of the land.
If you take that vital political discourse all those years ago and replace it with today’s college football scene, it screams in relevance — minus the voices like Henry fighting for the less fortunate. The Big Ten and SEC have long considered themselves the crown jewels of the game — the biggest and the best. As a result, they want more than everybody else.
Supporting their argument is the population. The new Big Ten, with USC and UCLA joining in 2024, will lay claim to 13 states and 200 million residents — more than half of the nation, according to the U.S. Census. The new SEC, with the 2025 additions of Oklahoma and Texas, will claim a 100 million residents.
Those numbers have the networks salivating. Sports is the only thing left on television that doesn’t come with a pre-written script. We watch in droves because we don’t know how it’s going to end. The value spikes as viewership increases.
The Big 12, ACC and Pac-12 can compete with them on the field, but not in population and as a result, the television revenues for the lower three won’t come close to the Big Ten and SEC and, using the same words that Edwards told Congress 19 years ago when he blasted the BCS, that exclusive division is an unfair business practice for the college game.
The question is, who is going to be the person to stand up and fight for the smaller states, or in this case, the smaller conferences, and spar against the emerging kings before they become even larger and possibly separate themselves all together to form their own league accompanied with their own rules?
Patrick Henry didn’t have the votes to change the Constitution, but he did manage to inspire a Bill of Rights that kept everybody “in the game.” College football as a whole can’t stop the Big Ten and SEC from growing larger, but it sure could use some muscle to keep everybody else “in the game” before it’s too late.
Perhaps it’s time for politicians to get involved. Anybody know a Patrick Henry?
Dave McCann is a contributor to the Deseret News and is the studio host of “After Further Review,” “Countdown to Kickoff,” “The PostGame Show,” and play-by-play announcer for BYUtv. He is also co-host of “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com.
