Does The South Even Care If College Football Becomes A Super League?
Today, Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti are meeting with Ted Cruz. The bigger question may be whether fans in the South even want the system saved?
A friend of mine who is a prominent executive in entertainment said something to me recently that I haven’t been able to get out of my head.
“Honestly, I don’t care as long as Auburn wins at least eight games.”
That was his response when we were discussing the possibility of college football eventually breaking away into some version of a super league.
The ACC, Big 12, Group of Five, regional traditions, and everybody else?
Not his concern.
Just make sure Auburn wins.
The more I think about it, the more I wonder if that isn’t the prevailing attitude across much of the South.
Yesterday, Congress held a hearing on the future of college athletics. The witnesses included Nick Saban, Gordon Gee, Pete Bevacqua and others. The focus was the Protect College Sports Act, the bipartisan legislation sponsored by Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell that is attempting to bring some order to the chaos engulfing college sports. Cruz made it clear that he does not want to see college athletics devolve into a collection of super leagues. He has repeatedly framed the legislation as an attempt to preserve what fans love about college sports.
Today, according to Yahoo Sports reporting, Cruz is scheduled to meet with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. The timing is significant because both conferences have already announced that they do not support the Protect College Sports Act in its current form.
The SEC and Big Ten say the bill leaves critical issues unresolved and doesn’t provide the protections they believe are necessary. They also oppose provisions that would potentially allow broader pooling of media rights revenue.
That’s the political fight.
But I’m interested in something different.
Do the fans care?
Because I don’t want a super league.
I don’t want college football to become an SEC-heavy enterprise with the Big Ten serving as the supporting cast.
I don’t want a future where we simply grab Florida State, Miami, Clemson, North Carolina and a handful of other brands and leave everybody else behind.
I don’t want an ecosystem where Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Kansas State, Oregon State, Washington State and dozens of others are effectively told, “Thanks for playing. The adults are taking over now.”
Maybe that makes me old.
I grew up loving a different version of college football.
I loved when the Pac-10 mattered.
I loved when the Big Eight mattered.
I loved when geography mattered.
I loved when conferences felt different.
I loved when regional identity wasn’t something to be eliminated but something to be celebrated.
In the 1990s, Colorado won a national championship. Georgia Tech won a national championship. Washington won a national championship. Nebraska rose from the Plains. The Pac-10 was thriving. College football felt national because power was spread throughout the country.
Today, power is concentrated in a way we’ve never seen before.
The SEC deserves enormous credit for much of that. The league invested. It innovated. It marketed itself brilliantly. It won championships. It built a machine.
The slogan says it all.
“It Just Means More.”
And for millions of people across the South, it truly does.
College football is not simply entertainment in this region. It is identity. It is culture. It is community. It is often the most visible source of regional pride.
The South dominates college football.
The South knows it.
The South is proud of it.
Which leads me to the uncomfortable question.
If the SEC and Big Ten eventually create a structure that benefits them at the expense of everyone else, will Southern fans care?
Or will they simply say, “As long as my team is winning.”
