The BCS is not causing conference realignment

The landscape of college football is continuing to morph right before our eyes. Right before this season we learned of Texas A&M's desire for SEC football and West Virginia and TCU have recently joined the Big 12. Just today we learn of the Big East trying to stay intact by inviting 6 teams to play football in their conference. Typically, the media blames the BCS for this because they need someone to blame and many already dislike the BCS. However, the BCS has not caused conference realignment. Conferences have always been trying to expand, long before the BCS existed, and the primary reason is television money.

A quick look back at college football history easily discredits the claim that the BCS is causing all of this conference shifting. Take the Pac-12 for an example. They started with four teams as the Pacific Coast Conference, grew to as many as ten teams by 1928, and reformed as the Athletic Association of Western Universities in 1959 after some scandals. Those five teams blossomed into the Pac-8, then the Pac-10 and now they are the Pac-12. They have been a very active conference, and most of the activity happened long before the BCS. Next, look at Big Ten history. They originally formed with seven teams under a different name in 1896, expanded to nine teams in 1899, and settled on 10 teams in 1917. Much later, in 1990, it grew to 11 teams and then to 12 teams starting this year. They have only expanded once in the BCS era, with most of their activity happening before the BCS was even a thought in anyone's mind. Most other conferences have similar histories. To say that the BCS is causing this conference shifting simply ignores the long and wonderful history of the sport.

Conferences add and subtract members to gain strength and stability. Once TV money became negotiable to conferences, they began competing to maximize revenue from contracts with TV networks. Conference negotiations were permitted by the Supreme Court decision in 1984 that forbade the NCAA from controlling the TV rights for the games. This decision initially resulted in most teams and conferences actually receiving less money for games, but the figures have dramatically grown with conferences now signing TV deals for billions of dollars. The leagues also covet 12 members simply because then the NCAA allows them a conference championship game, which adds even more revenue to the bottom line. None of this has anything to do with the BCS. It has to do with building a solid brand so that ESPN and other networks will pay top dollar to televise the football games.

Finally, analyze the actions of the Pac-12 and the Big Ten last year. They decided to expand to 12 teams in order to hold a conference championship game and bring in more TV revenue. These two leagues have a lot of power within the BCS so they know that they are not going to be excluded from the system, yet they decided to expand anyway. The Pac-12 wanted the Utah and Colorado TV markets just as the Big Ten wanted the Nebraska TV eyeballs for their negotiations with TV networks. The waves of realignment and expansion are mainly about television money, and have nothing to do with the BCS.