According to a report in The New York Times, “at least 12” of Europe’s most prestigious soccer clubs have agreed to form a breakaway league that would “upend the structures, economics and relationships that have bound global soccer for nearly a century.”
Essentially the teams — from England, Spain and Italy, so far — would create their own competition and sell TV rights for billions of dollars that would be spread among that small group of teams rather than entire leagues throughout the continent.
These machinations probably don’t resonate with American sports fans who don’t follow European soccer, but there’s reason to watch what happens next very closely: It could serve as a sort of blueprint for how college football evolves next.
We already have a situation where the “Power 5” conferences have all the, well, power … and therefore the money. We saw, last season, that even in a weird year disrupted by Covid there was no appetite to let football Cinderellas crash the playoff.
Now, with states across the country passing bills that would allow college athletes to own the rights to their name, image and likeness, the economics of college sports is set to change. As some of the money currently being swallowed whole by schools begins to trickle to players, the athletic departments that have long prioritized revenue growth will be pushed to get creative.
Clearly the best way to maximize revenue will be to further constrict the pool of teams sharing in it while making the television product even more exciting and therefore lucrative. So, SUPER CONFERENCES!
Connor O’Gara had an interesting proposal for how this would work a few years back, but it’s all pretty simple: Take the biggest brands in college football and bring them together in a way that ensures more games each year are attractive to a broad audience. Imagine having Alabama play a mostly SEC schedule but instead of playing Mercer or Southern Miss non-conference games they’re getting Notre Dame and Michigan. Plus they no longer have to share revenue with Vanderbilt.
College football powers have largely cut the NCAA out of decision-making already — in much the way the European clubs are trying to circumvent UEFA — and sure seem to be on a path toward consolidation where the brands most focused on operating like professional franchises work together to “upend the structures, economics and relationships that have bound” college football for the past few decades.
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