The College Football Super League has been at the center of plenty of conversation ever since “College Sports Tomorrow” tried to make its own proposal. In that proposal, there are 80 teams at the top with eight divisions of 10. Only members of the one division could be relegated, leaving 70 programs immune. According to them, all 18 programs are worthy of the top tier of college football.
At best, the proposal is weak and asinine. At worst, it destroys what the Super League is meant to be.
Last Word on Sports proposed its own Super League and it’s quite a bit better. To start, programs are ranked by win percentage against FBS foes. Then, no program is immune to relegation. If Georgia finishes 2-12 at the bottom of their division, they get sent down.
In their proposal, the FBS and so forth split up into 40 school tiers.
SEC Programs Make the Top Tier of College Football Super League Proposal
West | North | South | East |
Arizona State | Bowling Green | Air Force | Clemson |
BYU | Miami (OH) | Alabama | Florida |
Colorado | Michigan | Arkansas | Florida State |
Fresno State | Michigan State | Auburn | Georgia |
Washington | Minnesota | Houston | Georgia Tech |
Oregon | Notre Dame | LSU | Miami (FL) |
Stanford | Ohio State | Nebraska | North Carolina |
UCLA | Penn State | Oklahoma | Tennessee |
USC | Toledo | Texas | Virginia Tech |
Utah | Wisconsin | Texas A&M | West Virginia |
Unsurprisingly, the conference’s top programs made the cut. All of Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee made the cut.
Missouri, Ole Miss, and South Carolina made Tier 2 while Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State round out Tier 3.
Worthy Inclusions
The 10 programs that made it to the top 40 represent the elites in terms of the FBS winning percentage:
3. Oklahoma (0.7135)
4. Alabama (0.7135)
7. Texas (0.6888)
13. Georgia (0.6441)
14. LSU (0.6341)
15. Tennessee (0.6316)
19. Auburn (0.5905)
20. Florida (0.5885)
27. Texas A&M (0.5628)
37. Arkansas (0.5353)
Any real surprises? Oklahoma, Alabama, and Texas have generations worth of greatness. Georgia, LSU, and Tennessee have had long stretches of dominance. And so forth.
Considering that since the beginning of the BCS, 17 national champions now reside in the SEC. Compared to the nine titles from the now Big Ten and ACC, the SEC has had a significant lead over its peers.
Southeastern Dominance
The SEC has been the most dominant conference in college football for decades at this point. Even the most staunch anti-SEC homers have to admit that the Nick Saban era at Alabama was insane and they deserved the praise they got.
All in all, a College Football Super League is absolutely a great idea. Is there truly a better way to make sure the cream always rises to the top than to make sure each and every program’s feet are held to fire? No longer can the Vanderbilts of the world rest on their laurels that they are included in the SEC.
Given, at this point, conferences would die in favor of an NFL-like divisional system. However, would you trade conferences, which are becoming increasingly a formality with how national it’s all getting, for a system that guarantees the best of the best battle it out each and every weekend?
And, if the gripe is that a few Group of 5 teams got through, it’ll be sorted in time. If those Power 4 programs are worth their salt, they’ll win and keep winning, thus sending those MAC or Mountain West programs down. This was based on historical greatness and didn’t take into consideration recent success. So, while Ole Miss and Mizzou are expected to contend for a College Football Playoff spot, they don’t have the historical backing to be considered Tier 1.
College football has become unrecognizable from the game that most fans fell in love with as kids. We are already headed for a Power 2 system with the Big Ten and SEC with the ACC about to implode. Might as well steer into it.