Utah Utes coach Kyle Whittingham caused a stir this week after comments he made about conference realignment.
Conference realignment has been a feverish topic in college sports since the late 2000s. There have been many movements over the past 15 years or so that have dramatically changed everything. This past offseason, there were a multitude of changes. Utah was affected by them. The Utes are now in the Big 12 after being part of the Pac-12, which dissolved under its own foundation this past year. Several schools fleed to the Big Ten. Others in other conferences went to the SEC, like Oklahoma and Texas.
Whittingham told veteran reporter John Canzano, “Well, yeah, I think there is a major realignment coming, and it’ll be a big one. I think it will create even more of a divide and exclusivity for the teams that are on the right side of that line.”
The Utes coach suggested to Canzano that this “major realignment” would occur within 20 months to four years. He also referred to the future of college football as “an NFL minor league.”
“I see an expansion of the playoff with that to 16 teams,” Whittingham predicted. “The short version is Super Conferences. I think it’s going to boil down to 40-60 maybe teams in the Super Conference. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t play anybody but other Super Conference teams. Make that a division as far as who you play. Like I said, a full-blown playoff. Whether or not the players will be employees, officially, remains to be seen, but I think that’s very likely. I think that’s where it’s heading.”
Warning signs have been all over for this sort of thing. It’s on everyone else to either let it happen on their watch, or let the sport change drastically forever.
