Well, we can pretty much draw down college football to two conferences now...

It sounds like the last survivor, outside the SEC, is the Big Ten.

In a move NO ONE SAW COMING, USC and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 and going to the Big Ten in 2024.

In short:

• That's the end of the Big XII, Pac-12, and maybe the ACC as well.  The ACC has Clemson and maybe Miami and who knows about Florida State, but the Big XII and Pac-12 have NOTHING.  I could see, post departures, the Big XII and Pac-12 attempt a merger and create a Western Superconference, but, especially for football, you have ZERO RELEVANCE.

About the only real question mark left between what's left of the Big XII and Pac-12 after this is Nike...  err, Oregon!  And that's basically why.  At this point, basically two choices remain:  Either Oregon gets in the Big Ten somehow with USC and UCLA, or Nike leaves.  Because, even if in a 2-3 year window where Oregon basically dominates the dregs of Western football (and you learn how little relevant football is even remotely played west of Norman and the Texas schools, etc.)...

I'm still reminded of a Pac-12 Championship Game (I forget the year -- I might've mentioned it on the blog) in Santa Clara at the new stadium.  Coming back from halftime, they did their sponsor spot, and did the worst possible camera shot for it -- the 50 yard line section opposite the hard camera...

WHICH HAD TWO PEOPLE IN IT.  TWO!

But, as of the moment, this is your Big XII and Pac-12:  Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, West Virginia for the Big XII; and Arizona, Arizona State, Cal-Berkeley, Colorado, Oregon (see above), Oregon State, Stanford, Utah, Washington, and Washington State from the Pac-12.

And then you apparently are getting into the Big XII:  Cincinnati, Houston, Central Florida, and BYU.

That's 22 schools, and...  ONE RELEVANT SCHOOL, and that's only because of corporate ties????

(And if there are four others, it's the four the Big XII are plucking from outside the Power 5!!!)

You know what has to happen here:  That's going to be one conference, sooner than later.  And I look at that list and I can think of...  Rapelor, Ok State, MAYBE Iowa State from the Big XII and Oregon and Utah from the Pac-12 and good luck finding even schools worthy of being in an expanded superconference situation!

• ESPN's Gary Finebaum is right:  We're going to have two superconferences, at least for a while.  The Big Ten, with USC and UCLA (and maybe Oregon and MAYBE Utah) and the SEC.
• There goes the CFP, and probably the Rose Bowl with it.  Unless...

I think it's pretty clear to most sane people that the Rose Bowl was the last thing propping up the Pac-12 in football at this point.

This pretty much ends it -- and I think I know what, if the Granddaddy of Them All is going to survive, what's going to happen...

2025 (after the current CFP contract expires), AT THE LATEST:  The Rose Bowl becomes The Big Ten Championship Game and retains it's New Year's Spot.

You get a MASSIVE BIDDING WAR between the Cotton, Orange, and Sugar (the Peach might want in, but I don't think it has the pedigree!) for the Southern Superconference Championship Game.

The two winners meet for the title.  Boom, you have your four-team CFP.

If you want to have semifinals for the two conferences, there's your eight-team playoff.

But, barring that, I can't see the Rose Bowl surviving at this point, especially with the complete non-relevance of the Pac-12 (or even the Big Pac-22 or whatever you'd call that...).

That's where I think we go from here.

EVENTUALLY, I think we get to 32 schools and a full NFL-sponsored college minor league -- and I think this is a major step, because it will mean travel coast to coast (USC/UCLA to Rutgers).  It will mean that eventually the Vanderbilts and the Purdues and Illinois' are cut off...

But, right now, as things currently stand, you have 16 schools in the Big Ten and you have 16 schools in the SEC, as of 2024 in the Big 16 and 2025 in SE-16.

And if you take a look at the rest of the country right now...  Nike?  (Note I did not say "Oregon" here...)  Miami???, Florida State????, Clemson and Notre Dame are definites at this point.