[Goose]

Anything that adds excitement and has the potential to bring new TV viewers would be welcomed by the media companies.  Obviously contracts would need to be renegotiated, but greed will always win out and I think ESPN and Fox will end up making more money with a more structured college athletic competition system.  I'm not just considering football.  I think there is media money on the table for sports like volleyball, womens' basketball, baseball, softball, tennis, and wrestling.  The media rights for these sports have been historically undervalued, but are rising in popularity.

Whether or not a super conference would in reality "add excitement" or "has the potential to bring new TV viewers" isn't important. It is only important that the "media" believes it will :-) or that living with it is better than fighting it and losing. The real tragedy is that a immense amount of money is programmed based on hypothesis that can't really be tested. You can't compare the results of changing the conference system and maintaining the current system and chose the one that performs the "best". Even the definition of "best" is heavily dependent on where your organization sits in the food chain.

A "very sub-optimal" choice only can be detected after it is implemented. At that point college sports may be effectively "gone" and "going back" would be impossible. Yes,  you can kill the goose that laid the golden egg. The media companies will then move on to what they think "the next big thing" may be. The economics of the situation do not lend themselves to consideration of the sustainability or stability of the "solution" the media prefers. They provide the money, and if they make a short-term decision that has horrible long term consequences it doesn't matter. Those involved will have received the bonuses and been promoted long before that happens.

[Goose]

Anything that adds excitement and has the potential to bring new TV viewers would be welcomed by the media companies.  Obviously contracts would need to be renegotiated, but greed will always win out and I think ESPN and Fox will end up making more money with a more structured college athletic competition system.  I'm not just considering football.  I think there is media money on the table for sports like volleyball, womens' basketball, baseball, softball, tennis, and wrestling.  The media rights for these sports have been historically undervalued, but are rising in popularity.

Whether or not a super conference would in reality "add excitement" or "has the potential to bring new TV viewers" isn't important. It is only important that the "media" believes it will :-) or that living with it is better than fighting it and losing. The real tragedy is that a immense amount of money is programmed based on hypothesis that can't really be tested. You can't compare the results of changing the conference system and maintaining the current system and chose the one that performs the "best". Even the definition of "best" is heavily dependent on where your organization sits in the food chain.

A "very sub-optimal" choice only can be detected after it is implemented. At that point college sports may be effectively "gone" and "going back" would be impossible. Yes,  you can kill the goose that laid the golden egg. The media companies will then move on to what they think "the next big thing" may be. The economics of the situation do not lend themselves to consideration of the sustainability or stability of the "solution" the media prefers. They provide the money, and if they make a short-term decision that has horrible long term consequences it doesn't matter. Those involved will have received the bonuses and been promoted long before that happens.