Quote Originally Posted by Coursesuper View Post
When the conference consolidation began there was a big push to leave the NCAA from schools that were a part of the College Football Association, the CFA was put together by the larger schools I believe there were 63 or 64 teams involved. This group was put together to negotiate TV contracts. There was a big push to leave the NCAA due to the the belief among this group at the time the DII and DII teams were holding the bigger schools back and the bigger schools couldn't maximize revenue. The idea of using the CFA as the governing body and setting up their own association with its own rules and revenue sharing was proposed. ND and the Big ten schools balked in order to explore setting up their own TV deals and the CFA fell apart in 1997.
There's a huge difference betwee ln all the P5 programs breaking off together and 20-30 programs self-selecting who breaks off from the rest of P5 (thru only the least shady means as programs jockey for those final slots I'm sure). All the P5 programs moving to their own division together works because rivalries are maintained, provides diversity of the fan base, conferences continuity, etc. moving to a 20-30 team conference of "elites" pretty much turns CFB into a niche regional sport that basically covers the southeast, southern plains states (Texas, Oklahoma), and the traditional big 10 country (not Maryland and New Jersey). That's leaving a lot of fans jaded and spurned all over the country that aren't gonna return to watch the "elite" programs 1000 miles away play.