College sports are in a wild, unpredictable place these days. With so much going on with conference realignment, we spoke with someone to help us make sense of it all. Awful Announcing recently caught up with CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah to break down the rapidly shifting landscape and other matters connected to college football.
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Awful Announcing: What will college football look like a decade from now?
Shehan Jeyarajah: “That’s a great question. In ten years, we might look back at this as a little more complicated than how we see it now. I think there is hope from a lot of people that bringing together these big brands will (benefit) the sport. I think in the long term, there is a fundamental misunderstanding of how this sport works. It’s a hyper-local sport that relies on people having proximity to these local schools. I just don’t think that consolidation is going to be in the best long-term interests of the sport.”
What’s the biggest unanswered question for you?
“For me, the way that this impacts the upcoming playoff setup. I think that will be significant because (in 2024) it’s going to be six auto bids and six at-larges. But now that there might only be four major conferences, I’m curious to see if that brings them back to the bargaining table. I think the six-plus-six model made a lot of sense. It guaranteed that there would be a team from every major conference and at least one non-major conference team. But if we do come back to the table and end up in a situation where there are 12 at-large bids or no auto bids, I think that’s detrimental to the sport.”
Made my CBS Sports Network debut today with the great @Hassel_Chris.
— Shehan Jeyarajah (@ShehanJeyarajah) August 2, 2023
Hopefully next time will involve a few more fun topics than a gambling investigation and the Pac-12 collapse! pic.twitter.com/TcJnPrMYTU
What school is the biggest winner from realignment?
“I would say a school like UCLA which decided to make this jump (last year) and will get a full $75 million (Big Ten) television rights share, as opposed to Washington and Oregon who are better and more successful athletic brands who are only going to be making in the $30 million range. I think the fact that UCLA was able to get in there with USC early and be part of this television rights negotiation puts them in a good position. And adding two more West Coast schools is going to make the task a little more manageable.”
What school is the biggest loser from realignment?
“The four schools that are left behind: Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, Washington State. We’re talking about four schools whose status as power conference teams is suddenly left on the table. We saw this in (the 1990s) when the Big 12 was created. Half of the Southwest Conference was left out, including Houston, TCU, and Rice. And we’ve seen the negative impacts on these schools. Rice, for all intents and purposes, does not play competitive college football at this level anymore. TCU clawed its way back up but it took a very long time for that to happen. Houston, only now, 25 years later, is reaching the point of playing major college football again. There are no guarantees that it will ever happen again.”
What do you think of the reports that Stanford and Cal are talking to the ACC?
Ultimately, I don’t see the Bay Area schools and the ACC being a good fit. The travel is off the charts, even relative to the spread of the Big Ten. It seems to be a home-run swing to preserve some of the finances of the two athletic departments, but I find it highly unlikely that it will end up being a fit.”
Speaking of the ACC, what happens to Florida State?
“They are definitely trying to figure out that answer right now. Short term, I don’t think it’s going to be palatable for them to remain in the ACC. But the question for me is do they have anywhere to go? I don’t think the SEC is in any hurry to take them. The Big Ten has announced that they are only going to take new schools at a discount. Oregon and Washington are set to make about the same amount to be Big Ten schools as Florida State would being an ACC school over the next decade. We’ve heard about this financing deal with JPMorgan Chase where maybe private equity would get involved. I think that would give them the ability to either buy their way out of the ACC contract or maybe just use this as an amount of money to help hold them over through the next decade of the ACC contract so they can continue to invest and win at the elite levels of college football.”
People have been waiting for Notre Dame to join a conference. Is their independence continuing to pay off?
“They are a unique program. They do print money on their own. They do have an exclusive television contract with NBC. Certainly, there are advantages to being in a conference. But I think they have absolutely maintained their advantages by being independent. They still are not dependent on anybody else. They still have as much money as everybody else. Remaining independent looks like a really good long-term plan for them.”
Any reaction to the release of the Top 25 coaches poll?
“It was a little bit of a surprise to me that Alabama was No.3, ahead of Ohio State, and receiving the second most first-place votes in the poll. They’re in a situation right now where we don’t know who is going to start at quarterback. They lost two games last season. I think probably most people would say they are going to be slightly worse this year. For the coaches to put that much faith in them is a testament to Nick Saban. And it’s also a testament to how open this field is. Maybe Georgia will run away with it again. But they are replacing Stetson Bennett and key pieces on defense as well. Maybe it doesn’t click the same way it has the past couple of years.”
Who are the craziest fans you have encountered?
“Tennessee fans will come at you for anything. I had a Tweet a couple of years ago criticizing Jeremy Pruitt. People came back to that Tweet to make fun of me because Josh Heupel was doing well. Even though those two things have nothing to do with each other. It’s always fun to see people who are that passionate and that crazy.”
