Cliff’s Notes of the Andrew Marchand interview:
This proposal involves only 1 PE group that is working with key individuals such as the NFL’s #2 executive and University Presidents from Syracuse and West Virginia. But there are a number of other PE firms working on their own proposal for how to fix CFB. This just happens to be the first to talk publicly about it.
The proposed Super League is actually for all of FBS’s 130+ teams. 80 in the upper tier with 70 of the current power schools made permanent and the final 10 coming from the best current G5. The remaining 50 G5 schools would be incentivized to work towards getting promoted into that final 10 group which allows for promotion/relegation.
The major issue that needs to get solved by one of these proposed Super Leagues is overcoming anti-trust lawsuits. Currently, the system is broken with lawsuits already in the system putting millions and potentially billions of dollars at risk. At the heart of everything is a need for creating a collective bargaining agreement for the players. Without a CBA, players can sue both the schools and boosters/companies paying NIL and likely win on both fronts.
Although Staple and Marchand see this as a very realistic proposal, both don’t think this one will likely win out for reasons we’ve already been discussing here…namely, 1) SEC/B1G aren’t speaking to this group and wouldn’t want to give up the money or power they’ve already secured. 2) ESPN/Fox likely wouldn’t want this either for the same reasons. They both basically own the B1G/SEC and the majority of the best brands in CFB.
Moving to a Super League model will likely increase $’s/eyeball. Because, like the NFL model, you would be removing competition from multiple conferences and instead pooling resources. Competition is what drives revenue downward. It likely wouldn’t dramatically increase revenue and ratings but there should be an increase seen on both fronts from eliminating conferences/competition. At the end of the day, the reason why it’s good to take a look at this proposal is because elements of it will ultimately get approved in whatever model wins the day. It still makes the most sense for the top brands of CFB to break away and form their own Super League. And if/when this finally happens, a smaller Super League of the best brands will maximize the amount of money per school and likely increase ratings as well due to better matchups.
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