I see that Texas Tech will allow a booster group to pay its football players $25,000 each for some unspecified NIL activities.  Seems like a return to the 1950s, only with different terminology.

Tech sees itself as taking the high road.

The major conferences will eventually break away from the NCAA according to all the “experts”

If they do, they might want to take a look at open-wheel racing's history and what's currently happening with the PGA Tour/LIV. No one wins in those situations. Rather than some making more money everyone loses everything. Greed will come back to bite.

Idk, I could totally see them being told they can only have 12 schools max per conference, tucking tail, and falling in line with the big bad NCAA.

And then no one will care. If they de-link from schools, it will just be a D-league. They can't breakaway from the NCAA and still have a connection with schools. So I see this as unlikely. I think it all goes up in flames and it has to rebuild. Just like pro golf is doing now.  

If they broke away from the NCAA, they wouldn't de-link from the schools. But, I agree that it will just be a D-league.  At some point, the average fan is going to be completely turned off.

+1

BAN THE BALL SCREEN!!! BAN THE BALL SCREEN!! BAN THE BALL SCREEN!!

What? Are you drinking?

eh, they could also look at the Premier League, where they kept all the money.  LIV/PGA Tour is also currently working as a windfall to the actual golfers, and is a terrible comparison to the NCAA (it's a non-economic actor trying to buy individual players, not a collection of the top 30-40 teams deciding their fates collectively).  The PGA tour is promising new, giant dollar events to keep the players around.  How is this a bad outcome for the participants?  

NCAAF isn't like the major pro sports or like NCAA basketball - the conferences already control their own revenue and their playoffs.  The NCAA hasn't had any real control over football for a very, very long time.  The biggest 40 programs are going to continue to chart their own path.

There is an awful lot of fantasy in this thread about the supposed power of the NCAA and the tie of fans to its name.  The reality is the minnows have no power in football.  The best they can hope for is continued games against the SEC and Big Ten

Matt Brown with a minor Missouri State update

https://www.extrapointsmb.com/p/heres-im-hearing-now-midmajor-conference-realignment

Seems that as the U.S. population continues to shift to the south/southeast, the South's smaller schools become big schools.  Captain Obvious told me that as they move up they are pulling established  D-I conferences in their direction.  So the Missouri Valley Conference has become more of an Ohio Valley conference.  The former Big East football conference (now the AAC) now looks like the MVC of the 1950s-70s.  And the Pac-12 is sniffing around... in Texas?

The Pac 12 wants to remain 12. San Diego State was seen as a likely target but if it was really as easy as it sounded at first one would think that would have been official by now. Can't deny everything is bigger in Texas and having a market there gives them much needed leverage in TV rights.

Posted in football, but W Illinois is moving from the Summit (and MVFC) to the OVC

The relevance in football is that Augustana University (Sioux Falls, SD) has already stated its intention of moving to D-I, and is very interested in joining the (Sioux Falls-based) Summit.  They need an all-sports D-I conference invitation to move up.  If/when they reclassify to D-I, it is very possible that Augie football will drop scholarships and join the PFL.  I don't see them doubling scholarships and competing directly with the Dakotas' nationally dominant FCS football programs.

Augustana (not to be confused with the D-III college in Illinois) is similar in some ways to Valparaiso.  It is a Lutheran school.  However, I think their financial condition is much better than Valpo's.

In basketball, maybe a D-I Augie plays Drake home-home.

Sioux Falls also has a nice basketball facility in town. They hosted Gonzaga-Baylor last fall.

Former Bulldog Casey Schlatter is an assistant there.

That’s what I was wondering about. No guarantee that the Summit League backfills, but there’s a potential opening now, and there aren’t a ton of schools that fit in that footprint.

Summit fan chatter has centerd around adding either Northern Colorado or the duo of Green Bay and Milwaukee.  I doubt there is reciprocal interest.  

Augustana is theirs for the taking.  Are the other South Dakota schools willing to share the spotlight?

This is a topic that has some interest to me because many years ago I was a student athlete at South Dakota U. It was a D2 school then in the north central conference along with all the Dakota schools, Northern Iowa, etc.  Western Illinois is not a huge loss as they were the eastern most school and was outside the conference's current footprint. Still the conference needs to develop some stability and Augie may be the best selection to replace Western from a geographical standpoint. Football may be a question mark but the rest of their athletic program is pretty solid. 

The only other super viable D2 programs that could theoretically support a move in the footprint are Metro State (they already passed on a move to D1 in 2019 and I'm not sure Denver would be super receptive), Fort Hays State (have the enrollment and a decent endowment but I'm not sure they have interest or that the Kansas Board of Regents wants a 4th D1 institution) and maybe UMSL but I'm not sure they have the backing financially (it's why a Central Missouri also wouldn't make sense.

Besides Augie I'm just not sure how viable the rest of the footprint is and truthfully I'm not sure Augie will really be able to make it work long term either.