Sports Time Radio

Well it looks like the landscape of college football is going to be changing; again.

From time to time we’d see some movement from a team going into a new conference, but just a coupe of days ago the story came out that the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas contacted the SEC about joining that conference. Apparently these two schools started talking to the SEC six months ago, but words just came out a few days ago.

A few years ago I remember hearing some of the college football experts talking about how they thought that college football would evolve into having four major conferences and with this move it looks like we might be headed that way.

As of now it appears as though the SEC would be the only conference adding teams, but once the move is officially announced you have to wonder how long it will be before other major conferences start adding teams.

Now the Pac-12 came out yesterday and said that they have no plans to add any teams, but they added that they would listen if a team or teams would be interested in joining their conference.

So if we end up with those four major conferences you would think that the SEC and the Pac-12 would be two of them. Being that I live in the Midwest I’m thinking that the Big Ten would be one of those conferences, but which conference would be the fourth one?

I’ve heard quite a few people mention that they believe the ACC would be that fourth conference. Now if the ACC did become that fourth conference that would mean that two of the power conferences would be on the East coast. That would leave quite a bit of space between the Big Ten and the Pac-12 where no major conference would be. Maybe that could lead to the possibility that we’d see five major conferences instead of four.

Then the next question that would come p would be which teams would go where and which teams would be in those major conferences and which teams would fall by the wayside.

Of course the big fish in all of this is Notre Dame. Would the Fighting Irish finally join one of these power conferences? Or would they stay independent?

Now Notre Dame did play in the ACC last football season, but that was due to the Covid-19 outbreak and as of now there are no plans for them to play in that conference this football season. Now Notre Dame does play in the ACC with their basketball team; so would that give that conference a leg up in landing them for football?

No while there are some conferences that have their own television network and Texas has their own network remember the deal that Notre Dame has to have their games shown on NBC is far and away the best television deal in college football. How would Notre Dame’s television deal affect them joining a conference that has a deal with another network or a conference that has their own television network.

Even though Notre Dame hasn’t won the college football title since technically since 1988, but they where voted national champion in 2012 by one of the voting selectors. Now even with those lack of titles Notre Dame is still one of the biggest names in college football and that’s what will have these conferences fighting over them to join that conference.

As I mentioned the Notre Dame basketball team is in the ACC and so is the Fighting Irish baseball team, but the football team has remained an independent. It allows Notre Dame to have the match ups they want with teams like USC, Michigan and of course Army and Navy. If they where in a conference and had to play a conference schedule would they be able to continue those match ups that fans know so well.

It’s no surprise that the Big Ten has been trying to get Notre Dame to join their conference for many years now. Geographically it would make sense since Notre Dame’s campus is located in South Bend, Indiana which is in the heart of the Big Ten.

Now I’m not the biggest college sports fan, but I have to say that this story about Texas and Oklahoma did peak my interest. I’d like to see which teams are going to end up in which conferences and how that affects the landscape of who gets in the college football playoffs. Will it make me watch more college football? Well that we’re going to have to wait and see on.

I’d like to know what you think about the impending move of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC and how it will affect what other conferences will do. Please leave me your thoughts in the comment section.

Now Schaumburg Stu got off to a good start with his picks for this weekend. He had the Milwaukee Brewers beating the Chicago White Sox last night. For today he likes the Chicago Cubs to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks. Then for tomorrow he has the Cubs and the Diamondbacks combining to score more than 6 1/2 runs in their game. He also has Lance Lynn and Brandon Woodruff combining to pitch over 12 2/3rds inning on Sunday night.

Schaumburg Stu makes his picks live every Friday on the Sports Time Radio podcast, but don’t forget to tune in the other days the podcast is on live on BligTalkradio.com. If you do happen to miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen anytime you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime