I don't know about you, but I love conference realignment. It's QAnon for college sports fans. There are those among us who earnestly believe the Big 12 is thisclose to expanding from 16 to 20, 24, even 30 teams. What would the Big 12 do with 30 teams? They don't know, they just know they want them, according to the informed folks. Also, the Big Ten and SEC have also secretly yearned for your alma mater for years and have informed your school's leadership they would leap at the chance to add them, if given the chance.
The Protect College Sports Act could ruin all this fun.
Beyond just providing the long-awaited "guardrails" around NIL and the transfer portal, the PCSA could also effectively put an end to realignment, at least at the Power 4 level. If passed, any conference that collects at least $700 million in annual revenue -- that's all four power conferences -- would not be allowed to expand past 19 members, and any new member it adds must spend at least five seasons as an independent before joining a new conference.
It just so happens that the Big Ten currently has 18 schools, and Notre Dame has spent more than a century as a football independent. Funny how that lines up.
For those currently in a conference, the PCSA would effectively shut the door forever on conference realignment as we know it -- unless and until the aliens descend upon us and figure out a congressionally-approved way to form a super league.
That's bad news for the collection of schools who have pined for a way out of the ACC for years.
And so before the door to the so-called Power 2 can effectively slam shut forever, a secret tunnel to the Big Time has emerged. According to Yahoo's Ross Dellenger, Senator Ashley Moody has filed an amendment that would create a 180-day window for schools to leave their current conference before the 5-year waiting period goes into effect. What state does Moody represent? Florida, of course.
The realignment provision cuts at the fatal flaw of the PCSA, well the fatal flaw beside trying to take on the Power 2. Rather than pick up Sen. Tommy Tuberville's "skinny" bill that tackled eligibility, transfers, and nothing else, the Senate has decided to move forward with the PCSA, which is trying to be all things to all people. And that means all people get a say. As Dellenger reports, not only are ACC schools with eyes on B1G/SEC life trying to kill and/or delay the realignment provision, any Group of 6 school with Power 4 desires is trying to do the same. "It has put a shot clock on it," an AD told Yahoo.
Then again, the PCSA faces its own shot clock. Various other factions within the Senate are trying to delay, mutilate or kill the bill, and the Senate goes on recess beginning at the close of business on Friday. The Upper Chamber won't reconvene until Sept. 14, and by then it's anyone's guess where this bill will fall in the pecking order. The Sept. 14 window will run until Oct. 2, and after that it's just a hop, skip and a jump until Election Day on Nov. 3.
By that point, the QAnon for College Football Fans industry could be running absolutely rampant, or it could be effectively shut down forever. We could know one way or the other by dinnertime on Friday.