My alma mater is playing in a New Year’s Six bowl game. This is quite an accomplishment given that the head coach, Eli Drinkwitz, probably entered the season on the hot seat. He has been a good to great recruiter, but has been a questionable gameday coach, although he did make the smart decision this year to remove himself as the play caller and brought in an offensive coordinator to run the show. That seems to have made some of the difference in the operation, although there are still some questionable game management calls. (Looking at the end of the Kansas State and Florida games specifically, even though those were both wins. The kicker shouldn’t have had to bail your ass out both times, Eliah.)
The opponent is Ohio State University, one of the Tiffany programs of the sport. An S-tier helmet program. The starting quarterback for the season has moved on to Syracuse. The Heisman trophy finalist wide receiver, projected to be a top ten draft pick, is with the team but is probably not going to play if he is smart. I know he hasn’t declared for the draft yet, but there’s nothing left to prove in scarlet and gray. But the Ohio State defense has been excellent all season. The Missouri offense is probably the best unit, so it should be strength on strength in this game.
Next year, both teams would have been in a 12-team playoff. Instead, they face off in a glorified exhibition.
But it’s not next year I wonder about. Or even the year after that.
It’s the longer-term future of the sport. Because the horizon is coming quicker than I think folks anticipate, and it is not going to look pretty.
This year’s playoff features teams from the SEC and the Big Ten.
I know, I know; Texas and Washington both made the field. But Texas is going to the SEC next year. Washington is going to be in the Big Ten next year. So while they are representing the Big 12 and the carcass of the Pac-12 this season, for all intents and purposes, I am considering them members of their new neighborhoods right now.
That SEC/Big Ten duopoly wound up locking undefeated Florida State and the ACC out of the playoffs, triggering them to finally decide to pull the trigger on seeking an exit on the grant of rights for the league. They want out of the conference.
On the surface, it looks like a petulant fit. Which is one read of the situation. It is a facile read, I think. Because let’s be clear: the tap dancing and excuses made by the playoff committee chair were nonsensical. It was the grossest kind of mental gymnastics and excuse making I have ever seen to justify a decision that one wanted to make.
However, what this lawsuit does is probably accelerate the desire to form the Super League: the Final Boss of college football.
Let’s be clear about something. The money grabbing and selfishness, the naked late-stage capitalism that have taken hold of intercollegiate athletics at the FBS level at the point is leading towards this. Realignment and these literal coast-to-coast sprawling conferences are leading towards this. This center cannot hold. This current model is not going to be sustainable for long for anybody except the upper echelon. There is not enough money there except for the elite. For those with deep pockets and the “want to”.
There are only a handful of programs, those Tiffany brands, those S-tier helmet level programs, that can command the money from alumni, boosters, and television executives to sustain this shitshow.
So, if you’re a program that is not one of those top tier programs, like, say, a Missouri…I think you should be very concerned about the upcoming years. I do not think that there is enough time to position yourself for the next wave of realignment.
I think those schools that are going to pull away are already making those moves behind the scenes. The murder of the Pac-12 was really stage one in all of this; getting the four West Coast schools under the Big Ten aegis helps when it is time to shuffle the deck chairs again in about a decade.
I’ll be rooting for my school on Friday night in the Cotton Bowl. Hopefully they can win to cap off what was a great season. But, much like a typical Mizzou fan, I am trepidatious about the future, waiting for the shoe to inevitably drop.
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