(07-30-2021 12:13 PM)orangefan Wrote: The new CFP will eliminate Contract Bowls, which have been been one bright line division with G5. ...
Relations with Bowls have not been hammered out, so the CFP may, but then again, if they do, that may postpone the start until 2026.
A system in which there is some form of Affiliate Bowl relationship between the Big Ten, PAC-12 and the Rose Bowl, the SEC and the Sugar Bowl, and the ACC and the Orange Bowl could be extended to a relation between the New Big 12 and the Cotton Bowl ... but for an appreciable step down in money.
On the other hand, this is quibbling over details and doesn't take away from the overall point, because it would turn the "CFP Affiliate Bowl" conferences from looking like a "bright line" ... "you have a contract or you don't" into being a continuum ... "well, these three have great contracts, and this one has a pretty good contract, and at least this one has a contract, even if not for as much money, ..." ... which would still constitute an increase in the fuzziness of the boundaries.
Also note that the PAC-12, Big Ten and ACC may agree to continue to count the Big12 for their P5 mandates provided the eight stay together, which is the only thing I can think of that they can really do to "take collective action", as the PAC-12 has called for, that would encourage the Remaining Eight to stay together without getting involved in tortious interference of their own.
Of course, as they say, history may not repeat, but it often does echo: having a fuzzy boundary between the power conferences and "the rest" was also the case for the last years of the old Big East, which was formally AQ but widely understood to
constitute the borderline.