College Football Super Conferences and the pending non-BCS Apocalypse

With yesterday's news the Pac Ten was set to raid the Big 12 for half their programs, college football as we know it was put on notice. This is the first shot in what could turn out to be a groundbreaking and revolutionary change in the way we look at college athletics. 

Or it's nothing more than more rumormongering that will, over time, prove to be nothing.

But what if it isn't? What if we're watching the beginning stages of a massive overhaul? That could leave Utah, and every other non-BCS team for that matter, on the outside looking in. 

For football fans already on the inside, the thought of super conferences is intriguing. Mostly because it ups the potential for some seriously amazing match ups. Could you imagine USC and Texas playing for the P16 title? That would provide must see television. Especially if it's anything close to the 2005 national championship. 

But where does that leave everyone else?

That's the question most important to us because, after all, we're Ute fans. I really don't care if the Big Ten expands by taking Nebraska and Missouri - unless it impacts Utah. 

This, though, does impact Utah. The landscape of college football would change if super conferences are implemented and unfortunately, it's very possible Utah won't ever be included. 

Now this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone because I think the BCS has been looking to do something like this for years now. They understand the threat of non-BCS teams and I don't believe a Boise State included Mountain West changes that. There will still be programs capable of breaking into the system. And they don't want that. 

So what better way to handicap the non-BCS by eliminating a tiered system within division one football? It sounds absurd at first, but let's remember this is the same sport that brought us a discriminatory system to begin with. 

The leap between what the BCS is today and the Super Conference BCS is not that far, in my opinion.

In fact, I think, if this goes down, we'll start to see that happen. The regional super conferences will dominate the sport to the point where programs like Utah and BYU and Boise State and TCU won't have any chance of contending at the top. Then we'll get a playoff that, unfairly, includes only programs from the Super Three or Four (depending on what the ACC does). 

It's kind of genius in the sense we get the actual playoff everyone has been screaming about without including the pesky so-called lower-levelers like the Utes. 

Over time, the non-BCS aspect of college football will be phased out. All the money will be invested into the Super Conferences and eventually, we'll all be forced to drop down a level. Maybe not to the Football Championship Subdivision, but certainly not at the level of the Super Four. 

I mean, you can't contend with that, right? 

Hopefully I'm overreacting and it's possible I am. But how does the Mountain West contend with the possibility of the formation of super conferences, even if they take Kansas and Kansas State from the defunct Big 12? Sadly, they can't and probably won't.

So if this does happen, Utah might lose more than just their spot in the potentially expanded Pac Whatever.

Yikes.