The 12-team playoff is driving all of this, and if half the current group of colleges who have skin in the game are excluded, ratings will suffer. I never watch XFL or USFL or the Canadian Football League or whatever isn't the NFL. It's an inferior product. When Virginia Tech has no place in major college football, I won't watch anymore. I stopped watching the College playoffs once the third iteration of Bama vs Clemson happened. It is so boring now. And that will be the case for millions. And the threat of playoff ratings suffering because people in Virginia or Colorado or Utah or Arizona or Kansas etc... decide they have no investment in the teams playing, then it's just another minor league to the NFL that nobody wants to watch. If there is any intelligence at all behind this, some semblance of inclusion and parity will take place. The ACC stays mostly intact, the Big XII stays mostly intact. The AAC has a shot at a playoff berth. Payment of players is regulated. Collective bargaining agreements take place. Money from the playoff will funnel towards all conferences and help fund payment of players. Get this.... The 12 team playoff is said to be worth $2B per year. What if that money was distributed among 120 teams (10 conferences, averaging 12 teams each) equally solely for the purpose of paying players at those schools? That is $16.66M for every school, every year. For 85 players per team, that equates to $196,000 per player. On all 120 teams. That's a lot of coin. That's so much money, that you could even split it evenly between schools and players and the players still come away with almost six figures and each school earns close to $10M in added revenue per year. Then regulate it so only money bargained through the playoff contract is used to pay players and penalize cheaters through loss of revenue and future ability to pay players. Can you imagine if a team like Coastal Carolina or Washington State had the same payroll as a team like Alabama? It'd be fun to watch. That's what makes the NCAA Basketball tournament great. There is a chance a 16 seed might beat a 1 seed. But in our SEC/B1G playoff, we will have Bama or UGA and Ohio State or Michigan crushing everybody most years until they meet in the title game....again.... I'm just hoping somebody gets smart and fixes this. And it's not Kevin "I'm the NFL" Warren. Unless he wants the B1G to go to 32 teams. ** Edited by hokieZ71 at 8/19/2022, 9:24:39 PM ** Edited by hokieZ71 at 8/19/2022, 9:25:04 PM