You know why there's the scramble? It ain't about bowl games. It's about the future Playoff System. There will be a playoff system and it ain't going to involve all current 100+ teams of FBS or whatever the current newspeak term is for D1 football. It makes sense for the borderline BCS teams to form some sort of federation to assure them a spot at the table. 

Here's the gist:
16 team playoff
X number of auto bids for conference champs
Y number of bids

The Powers That Be do not want to waste an auto bid on the MAC, SunBelt and other conferences they deem unworthy of even receiving an at-home version of their game as a parting gift. Their logic of thinking - does the champion of the MAC, the SunBelt, and other mid-major conference(s) deserve a playoff spot over the second place team of the SEC, Big10 and or the PAC10? Or even the monies involved? Their answer is NO!!!!!!

But this super conference is actually a brilliant scheme that benefits many. This allows the BCS to eliminate the headache of a significant number of marginal schools bitching to their Senators, representatives, lawyers, village elders or trusted clergymen about being excluded from the playoff system. The BCS will fork over one auto bid to not deal with this boondoggle.

This super conference in return, is going to know its role, be happy with its one auto bid, and keep its mouth shut. Those schools left out of the super conference will rot on the vine...

Wait, no they won't.

There still will be the excitement of college football, even playoff football. You'll have the drama and pageantry of FCS football. I've learned that the majority of the Ohio U. fan base wants to excel, but not necessarily on the national stage. So this will be a blessing in disguise for a whole lot of you. Plus, you won't have to worry about competing with O$U!!! Do the Toledo Mud Hens compete with the Reds or Indians? Nope, two different entities. You can even root for them and your favorite Ohio MLB team. It's a win for our fan base - like having two hands and three snakes at Sunday service!!! 

Thank you! I take back everything bad I've ever said about Marshall fans! 

Now if someone as dense as a Marshall fan can see the big picture, why can't a bunch of you learned, shoe wearing types see it too?

The End (of Ohio as D1 football) is Nigh!  

I think there may be a 16 team playoff in the fairly near future, but the incoherent ramblings of FSF have nothing relevant to say about what is actually going to happen.  Ohio will NOT be going to FCS football.  Perhaps, if FSF had spent his collegiate years on Second rather than First street he'd be a whole lot more capable of rational thought processes. Just like me!

OCF aka "2nd Street Guy"

The aforementioned article I posted in the previous post is obviously a direct result of the report that WVU is now going to the Big 12. The next few days should be interesting.

 We'll see what shakes out over the next couple days. It's still possible the Big East will survive in one way or another but them losing WVU (another full member) today is an absolute huge blow to that conference. That likely all but assured Boise and Air force staying put. Can't imagine them making the trek to play Rutgers, Uconn, Louisville, Cincy and South Florida. Obviously the topic of the meeting tomorrow will be "plan b" which is essentially working out a deal where the remaining five football teams can play in the merged football conference allowing the Big East to add some good "basketball only" playing schools to bolster back up the Big East basketball side. That could essentially have an effect on the A-10.

The problem is, for this to make sense, the NCAA has to change its rules regarding postseason. And to get it to change its rules, this new megamidmajor conference would seemingly need a ton of votes from either the BCS AQs or the MAC/Sun Belt/WAC schools. I have a hard time either group would sign on.

Exactly!  This is a pipe dream born of desperation on the part of the Big Least.  Even the more modest, C-USA-MWC "merger" or "alliance" would need new legislation by the NCAA to make it truly viable. 

Actually, no new legislation is needed to be passed and that's why the alliance between the MWC and CUSA has already been announced.

The rule for FBS schools is that they can play no more than 13 games before entering bowl season. What I'm told is that each division will likely have 8 members (32 teams total). Each division will be grouped based on geography location(less travel). Other than the standard out of conference games, the schools will only compete in their respective division.  Each team in the alliance will have their "open" week the weekend before the final regular season game. The final season game for each school will be known as "to be determined" on the schedule. During that "open" week schools will then be paired to play each other based on seeding. Obviously the four number one seeds will play each other the final week to determine the two winners that will advance to the overall "Championship Game".

Example: In the east will be two divisions. After the bye week pairings, the number 1 seed of division 1 will meet the number 1 seed of division 2. Number 2 seed will meet the number 2 seed and so on. Obviously the winner of the number 1 seeded games will advance to the Championship.

12 regular season games. 1 Championship. Playoff football without the need of NCAA legislation.

I believe the NCAA will make the ruling that you can have a C-USA Championship and a MWC Championship, but to have both play each other during the regular season to determine a Joint Champion will require a new by-law.

It does, except I think (and I could be wrong) to qualify for a championship game you have to play a round-robin in your division. So if you have 24 teams, you'd have to play at least 11 games in your division. So in order to qualify, you'd have to forego all nonconference games? So how could you guarantee AQ status without any nonconference games? The devil will be in the details.

Anyway, you can't just say these 24 teams qualify. There have to be standards to be met and kept. And there's no reason that other non-AQs couldn't line up and form similar "mergers." To keep those schools out would be anti-competitive as Tulane's president is well aware.