Hook: Maybe a Big Ten-SEC Super League Would Be Best for Everyone

If you’ve been paying even the slightest bit of attention to sports news lately – outside of the current NBA and NHL Finals, that is – you’ve heard that everybody has an opinion on college athletics. The president, Congress, coaches, athletic directors and all sorts of media members have weighed in on the current state of Division I college sports.

And one of the primary topics of all this attention is the suggested possibility that the two premier conferences in college sports, the Big Ten and the SEC, might break away from all the other conferences in Division 1 football and form their own “Super League.”

This is reminiscent of the talk in soccer a few years ago when a proposal to create a league of the 20 best European soccer teams quickly unraveled due to the overwhelming negative reactions from just about everyone who was not one of the 20 club owners. A scenario that was then satirized in season three of the fictional TV show “Ted Lasso.” 

But the reaction to this possibility of a Big Ten and SEC breakaway has not caused quite the same uproar. Although many people have expressed opinions against it, there are a few, like myself, who think it would be a good idea.

And while most of the derision about this possibility has to do with what will happen to all those other schools in Division I football if the Big Ten and SEC take their proverbial ball and go home, there is at least one athletic director from those other schools who has taken the bull by the horns and suggested that the other schools should be the ones breaking away.   

For two decades now, Iowa State University athletics has conducted their Cyclone Tailgate Tour through the state of Iowa. Over five days in May the athletic director and various head coaches make 10 stops at towns such as Dubuque, Waterloo, Clear Lake, Fort Dodge, Okoboji and Council Bluffs. These free, family-friendly events are a great opportunity for Iowa State athletics to engage with loyal Cyclone fans. 

This year’s tour took place from May 18-22, and at one of the stops Director of Athletics Jamie Pollard told reporters about his frustration over the power-conference duo of the SEC and Big Ten: “Let them break away,” he said.

In fact, he continued to the other extreme and stated, “I would turn it around and say we should break away from them. Let them go, but they have to go in all their sports and see how fun it is to play baseball and softball and track when it’s just the 20 of you.”

And he finished with, “That’s probably a little more draconian, but that’s how I feel about it. Let’s quit talking about it, quit threatening, go do it.”

I have to hand it to him. Instead of letting the big dogs dictate the terms of whatever happens to college football in the future, Iowa State’s athletic director was telling all the other schools that would likely be left out when whatever “Super League” gets formed that they should be the ones dictating the terms. Like I said, that’s a gutsy, and probably intelligent, move.

But, he should have stopped there. Because he went on and said they should then make those schools leave in all sports. And he backed up that statement by suggesting those Big Ten and SEC schools wouldn’t have any fun playing all other sports when there are only 20 of them.

Which, as you probably realize, is incorrect.

First and foremost because the Big Ten has 18 schools and the SEC has 16 schools, which means the two conferences combined would have 34 schools to play  baseball and softball and track among each other. A number that every major professional league in this country finds as more than enough teams to play among. The NFL has 32 teams. Major League Baseball has 30 teams. The NBA has 30 teams. The NHL has 32 teams. Major League Soccer has 30 teams. 

And secondly because in most cases, the Big Ten and SEC already have the best teams in many of those other sports, and playing the best possible competition is what you want for your teams. 

To illustrate that, below is a chart listing the current champion in every Division I team sport for which the NCAA holds a national championship, minus the FCS championship – for which the Big Ten and SEC teams are not eligible – and including the FBS championship.

The NCAA holds national championships in 26 Division I sports — 13 in women’s sports and 13 in men’s sports — plus an additional 13 Collegiate Championships open to teams across all divisions, for a total of 39 possible Division 1 national champions. 

And of those 39 current champions, 11 are SEC teams (highlighted in yellow), 10 are Big Ten teams (highlighted in green), and one sport, men’s outdoor track, has a shared SEC and Big Ten champ (highlighted in blue). In addition, the women’s hockey champion – Wisconsin – is a Big Ten school, but women’s hockey doesn’t have a Big Ten conference.

The point is that 23 of the 39 current collegiate national championship teams are either Big Ten or SEC schools. Almost 59%. And that includes the three largest revenue producing sports – FBS football, and men’s and women’s basketball.

Of the 16 sports whose champions are not members of the Big Ten or SEC, half are members of the ACC. And nine are sports which have lower team participation across-the-board and for which there is only a Collegiate Champion, not a dedicated Division 1 champion. 

Plus, the Big 12 Conference, the conference in which Iowa State plays, has only three current NCAA Division I champions – in men’s cross country, rifle and skiing. Whereas the sports that the Iowa State athletic director mentioned the SEC and Big Ten would not have fun playing without other teams – baseball, softball and track – all have champions from either the Big Ten or the SEC.

Which is why, although it was a very bold move for him to say that all the non-Big Ten and SEC schools should break away first and control their own destiny, suggesting that the Big Ten and SEC would somehow not have fun playing these other sports because there would only be a limited number of them is shortsighted. Because the Big Ten and SEC are already ruling the majority of the sports anyway. And the only way to change that is if they separate and have their own championships, so the other schools can have a chance to win championships among themselves.

Maybe a Super League really is the best things for all schools?