A break-up of big-time college football and the NCAA isn’t a new idea, but it continues to pick up mainstream support. One very influential athletic director, Ohio State’s Gene Smith, openly discussed the possibility while speaking to ESPN at the Big Ten’s spring meetings.
Telling Heather Dinich that he was “just throwing ideas out,” he proposed that the 10 FBS leagues move under the College Football Playoff banner, while having the NCAA continue to govern other sports, including basketball.
“We [can] create our own rules, create our own governance structure, have our own enforcement, we have our own requirements, whatever that might be,” Smith said in the ESPN interview. “…The reality is, those schools who offer 85 scholarships in football have made a different commitment and that needs to be addressed.”
