Nick Saban's '5 conferences' trial balloon would be the Hindenburg for smaller schools (Scarbinsky)

Kevin Scarbinsky | kscarbinsky@al.com By Kevin Scarbinsky | kscarbinsky@al.co

That wasn’t a trial balloon Nick Saban floated into the atmosphere Thursday night in Fort Payne at his latest stop on the Crimson Caravan.

It was college football’s version of the Hindenburg.

The idea behind it would blow up the sport as we know it.

When the most powerful coach in the nation suggests that the most powerful programs take their ball and keep it to themselves, it should send shock waves from UAB to Boise State and beyond.

"I'm for five conferences," Saban said. He didn’t elaborate, but presumably he meant the SEC, Pac-12, Big 12, Big Ten and ACC. That would leave C-USA, the Sun Belt, the Big East, the Mountain West, the MAC and the WAC on the outside looking in.

The Alabama coach didn’t stop there. He said he wants to see “everybody playing everybody in those five conferences.” Again, he didn’t dive into details, but do the math.

His suggestion implies going beyond the Big Ten’s discussion of a ban on playing teams from the Football Championship Subdivision to shutting out the lesser half of the Football Bowl Subdivision, too.

That would mean, say, Louisville instead of Western Kentucky on SEC non-conference schedules. Miami rather than Florida Atlantic or Florida International. North Texas? No. TCU, Texas Tech or Texas? Yes.

Saban’s not the first person to hint at a handful of superconferences breaking away from their mortal conference brothers in some way, shape or form. His is one of the most prominent voices to chime in on the subject.

Combine Saban’s five-conference suggestion with Mike Slive's recent thinly veiled threat about what could happen if the SEC and other major conferences don’t get their way in their desire to provide a full cost-of-attendance stipend for their student-athletes.

How soon before these heavyweights turn their saber rattling into civil war?

Saban’s scheduling proposal would force the members of these superconferences to radically alter their non-conference schedules. The prevailing attitude at the moment is to challenge yourself by playing one prominent team from another major league and then reward yourself by lining up three dogs with different fleas.

Alabama has played 24 regular-season non-conference games since Saban arrived in 2007. Here’s the breakdown of those opponents by conference or division:

Sun Belt: 8.
Football Championship Subdivision: 5.
ACC: 4.
Big Ten: 3.
Conference USA: 2.
WAC: 1.
MAC: 1.

As much as Alabama gets and deserves credit for going nose-to-nose with such traditional powers as Michigan, 17 of Saban’s 24 non-conference games to date would be off-limits to the Crimson Tide in the future if his notion came to pass.

If the big boys played only the big boys - stretching the definition of “big boys” to its breaking point to include the likes of Kansas and Indiana - it would send dominoes falling in every direction.

The budgets of FCS schools such as Samford and less-affluent FBS programs such as UAB and Troy would take a major hit if those guarantee games they like to play against SEC teams dried up and blew away.

Counterargument: When did it become the SEC’s job to pump money into C-USA and the Sun Belt?

At the upper level of the game, everyone from players to coaches to fans to media members would have to adjust their attitudes about what constitutes a successful season.

“The Giants won the Super Bowl, and what did they lose?” Saban said. “Six or seven games a couple years ago? It’s called competition.”

Easy for him to say. He’s turned the BCS Championship Game into his own private island.

The reality is, the NCAA has more have-nots than haves, and they would almost certainly vote down any proposal to allow five superconferences to exist in their own bubble. For that reason alone, there’s really only one way this radical reconstruction can happen.

The big boys would have to turn their backs on the rest of college football and not look back.

If the Power 5 conferences stop playing the Gang of 5 & FCS teams then lower tier teams like Indiana, Purdue, Wash St., Texas Tech, Ky, MS, WF, Duke and many others can forget about being bowl eligible for a long time since if the top 65 only play each other alot of those 7-5 or 6-6 teams are going to have losing records with this change.

(05-12-2013 06:28 PM)bootinbob Wrote:  The big boys would have to turn their backs on the rest of college football and not look back.

And if they do that the rest need to do the same in return in all other sports....and in governance.

(05-12-2013 10:09 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  

(05-12-2013 06:28 PM)bootinbob Wrote:  The big boys would have to turn their backs on the rest of college football and not look back.

And if they do that the rest need to do the same in return in all other sports....and in governance.

Yep if they want to cut ties that means hoops, hockey, baseball, wrestling; all sports. Any Power 5 conference team that leaves the NCAA should no longer be eligible for bids to NCAA tourney events in any sport

I believe it's going to happen. It's only a matter of time.

Would casual fans or fans of non-super conference teams continue watching the Big 5 teams if they were in different leagues? I don't know if as an NIU fan, I'd have any interest in watching a super conference game if NIU isn't included. The fact we might play those teams, or we'll play the same opponents means I'm more interested.

(05-13-2013 10:46 AM)HuskieFan84 Wrote:  Would casual fans or fans of non-super conference teams continue watching the Big 5 teams if they were in different leagues? I don't know if as an NIU fan, I'd have any interest in watching a super conference game if NIU isn't included. The fact we might play those teams, or we'll play the same opponents means I'm more interested.

+1

The only reason I watch other games is when it could make an impact on NIU.

The down side is there are so few of us that it really wont matter to their bottom line.

(05-13-2013 11:21 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(05-13-2013 10:46 AM)HuskieFan84 Wrote:  Would casual fans or fans of non-super conference teams continue watching the Big 5 teams if they were in different leagues? I don't know if as an NIU fan, I'd have any interest in watching a super conference game if NIU isn't included. The fact we might play those teams, or we'll play the same opponents means I'm more interested.

+1

The only reason I watch other games is when it could make an impact on NIU.

The down side is there are so few of us that it really wont matter to their bottom line.

Is that true though? You're also going to have teams like Indiana, UofI, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, Duke, etc.. putting 2 or 3 more losses a year on their schedule. Can't imagine those team's fanbases will really benefit from this either. It'd only be the best of the best conferences, that gain much from this.

(05-13-2013 08:08 AM)DiehardHuskie Wrote:  I believe it's going to happen. It's only a matter of time.

Agreed. Too much money involved, and they all want to keep it in house and not share it. Saban also said something that sounded a lot like an NFL style playoff system where you could lose two or three games and still be in the picture. I think there would need to be a break from the NCAA for that to happen, but that has been trial ballooned as well. We'll see what happens when this first playoff contract is getting ready to end where it all ends up.

Round Robin tourney. All SEC teams. Best record becomes National Champs. ha

As much as the greed and selfishness behind this concept pisses me off, it certainly could backfire on them. I would also care even less than I do now about B10 crap if it ceased to effect NIU.

If that happened I would not watch any of their games. For one thing, I would be less interested in watching a semi-pro league. And also, just based on principle.