History is moving rapidly around us from a variety of flashpoints, so it’s easy to forget exactly how we wound up….here, wherever this is. Let’s not implode our brains attempting to merge the timelines. Instead, search your brain for memories from just one year ago. Can you do it? That’s right! We were all bracing for the twin atomic blasts of Barbie and Oppenheimer. Good times.

Besides weighing the political and social messages delivered by a pair of Hollywood blockbusters, we were also bandying around expansion ideas for the NCAA College Football Playoffs. Increasing the number to eight teams seems a decent step, but what was really gaining steam was the idea of a 12-team playoff – one that would encompass every conference champion PLUS two deserving programs. Simple in its elegance, sensible in its structure, the 12-team playoff hand’t been approved by anyone in authority, but its popularity was undeniable. Finally, a system that was fair. At last, a format that rewarded victory and wasn’t so heavily reliant on the grossly fallible “eye-test.” Who could be unhappy with such an inclusive tournament of champions?

Turns out, Greg Sankey of the SEC, Tony Petitti of the BIG10, James Phillips of the ACC, and (a desperate) Brett Yormark of the BIG12 weren’t really thinking about everybody else. The BIG12, already picked apart by the SEC, pulled the Colorado Primetime out of the PAC12, leaving the BIG10 and ACC to draw-and-quarter what remained of the Conference of Champions. (The BIG12 scooped up Arizona State and Arizona at bargain basement prices.)

In their defense, the ACC and BIG12 are just trying to survive. Good luck with that. The Big 12 has lost its four best brands to the SEC (Missouri, Texas A&M, Texas, and Oklahoma), and the ACC’s most powerful programs (Clemson and Florida State) cannot wait to bail. That leaves the Fox Sports BIG 10 and the ESPN SEC to do whatever they want.

And what they want is football all to themselves. “If the most powerful programs are SEC and BIG10,” the mouthpieces of both conferences yawned, “then why share a tournament format with programs from (fake cough) inferior conferences?” For added authenticity, read that aloud in your best Kirk Herbstreit voice. Furthermore, now that both the SEC and BIG10 bear 28 of the biggest brands in football, why play teams from any other conference? (Pan to Florida State and Clemson shaking with fear and fury).

Goodbye all-inclusive 12-team tournament. Hello to “let’s have the 12 best teams” tournament, with the twelve best teams already culled from pre-designated conferences.

It’s obvious, with their Monopoly Man talk of private equity and court rulings enabling universities to pay athletes like Golden Company mercenaries, that the BIG10 and SEC are squeezing everyone else out of big time college football. Let’s stop pretending otherwise. Hope you like watching games on ESPN Plus with remote broadcasters calling the action.

This leaves Group of Seven conferences scrambling for relevancy on other playing fields. It seems clear that Commissioner Keith Gill of the Sun Belt had long read the tea leaves and began moving deck furniture over to basketball and baseball, focusing on acquiring programs with strong programs in both sports. Good move. Because as we saw with last year’s College Football Playoff Rankings, those in command are paying more attention to broadcast numbers than football scores.

Yes, applying more focus to basketball and baseball is the right chess move when only a handful of players control the majority of the pieces. However, we’re already seeing the Visigoths ruining basketball, too, with the perfectly fine-as-it-was NIT suddenly becoming a Power Program stan tournament and the NCAA seriously considering the radical increase of participants to mitigate the influence of all those damn automatic qualifiers. WHO DOES GRAND CANYON THINK IT IS UPSETTING KENTUCKY?

The Greedy Two will eventually destroy basketball, and once every ball is deflated for every dime it’s worth, they’ll come after baseball, too. After all, everybody likes a Cinderella because she goes goes home at midnight and never overstays her welcome. But God forbid we see another selfish Coastal Carolina win a championship, or a SEMO rudely expel Arkansas from its own building. How is poor ESPN going to sell advertisers on SEMO?

For now, though, we can have our shining moment on the hardwood and the diamond. For as long as the Greedy Two allow it.

IMAGE CREDIT: AI Monstrosity