(07-09-2017 10:06 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  To become P5 is about luck, timing and connections. It's old money versus new money. If the plate tectonics were shifting in 1985, maybe BYU is in the Big 12 or Pac-X because of how well they were doing.

Bottom line is, attendance and winning guarantee nothing. There's only so many rooms at the inn and the early bird gets the worm. I mean, Rutgers and Wake Forest are in the club for goodness sake.

It's about the longest established schools clamoring to survive the huge cutbacks coming because of a 20 Trillion dollar debt that we have no way of paying or covering except through radical cuts in all forms, and inclusive of higher education. It has not been about pride, even though message board posters have made it seem that way. It is in short about survival. And since most members of each state's house are graduates of that states larger and older universities they have more representation when those cuts finally come.

Realignment has taken place as large schools struggle to secure new revenue streams as old independent donors die out and corporations take their place (prompting schools to hire teams of attorneys to make sure that when their gifts are given that intellectual property rights aren't forfeited with the receipt of their gifts and grants). TV revenue from sports is an easy mark without said strings. So you see C2 they aren't consolidating out of greed and arrogance. They are consolidating more like the first class passengers did on the Titanic, out of fear.

There is a world of hurt coming down eventually and college football realignment will just be a minor detail in a footnote of a much greater change when it does finally happen.