Who needs Big Ten? Not greedy Ohio State that could trigger super league

If Ohio State gets greedy and demands more in media rights, that could threaten to disrupt the Big Ten.
Hypothetical talks of a super league would gain steam if big brands like Ohio State get unhappy with conference structure.
Ohio State president points to Buckeyes’ television viewership as sign of its worth.

So, this is how Big Ten football withers. This is how college football’s super-conference power structure dies. With an act of Ohio State greed.

How appropriate, within an industry guided by a get-mine, forget-you philosophy.

The past few years have included blue-sky ideation about the possibility of an elitist College Football League emerging that uplifts the crème de la crème to a higher stratosphere.

Enacting such a change would require the sport’s biggest brands to untether themselves from the existing conference structure.

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Currently, a collection of 34 schools in the Big Ten and the SEC plus Notre Dame wield the power. But, what would happen if schools like Ohio State say, “Who needs the Big Ten? We’re bigger than the Big Ten.”

We might be only a few years from finding out.

Wildfires start with a spark, and a spark toward super-conference disruption came this week. Ohio State President Ted Carter alluded during an interview with USA TODAY that the Buckeyes could be deserving of a richer revenue distribution from the Big Ten.

The logic goes like this: A couple of Big Ten schools like Ohio State are much more valuable than the rest of the conference. These mega brands command the highest television ratings. So, why shouldn’t those schools get a greater percentage of the conference revenue distribution?

“There’s only a couple of schools that really represent the biggest brands in the Big Ten, and you can see that by the TV viewership,” Carter told USA TODAY during a wide-ranging interview.

Ohio State greed would be a spark for potential change

Carter gave no ultimatums, and we should note he said “we’re a proud member of the Big Ten, and that’s where we’re going to stay.”

But, let’s be real, the thinking that Ohio State deserves a larger Big Ten media-rights payout than most of its conference cohorts is the first step toward: Why does Ohio State need the Big Ten at all?

Carter drew attention to the whopper television ratings from Ohio State’s season opener against Texas on Fox.

“That’s what happens when you put the Ohio State brand out there,” Carter said.

That’s what happens when you put Texas and a Manning out there, too. No matter a quarterback’s surname, though, games featuring top brands like Ohio State and Texas offer ratings bonanzas.

So, you could see how Ohio State’s thinking might jump to: When Ohio State plays a smaller brand like Purdue, why shouldn’t the Buckeyes receive a higher media-rights payout from that game than Purdue?

If you’re wondering how unequal revenue sharing would be good for Purdue (or Minnesota, Rutgers, or any of the conference’s other smaller brands), well, it wouldn’t be.

But, do you think Ohio State cares about playing nice with the Big Ten’s underbelly? Not when there’s another dollar to be made and another championship to be bought.

Conference realignment coming in the 2030s, or a big-school breakaway?

Schools like Purdue wouldn’t have to agree to unequal revenue sharing, but if the Big Ten’s undercard takes a stand against Ohio State, what’s to stop the Buckeyes from ditching Purdue and its kind altogether?

Why bother with the Big Ten, when Ohio State could take a place at the vanguard of forming an elitist super league?

Get mine, forget you.

Get fellow mega-brand Michigan on board, and a spark becomes a flame.

Power Four conferences are locked into media rights deals that extend into the 2030s. Those deals help bind schools to conferences. Many have speculated the next major round of conference realignment will occur when those TV deals wind down.

But, perhaps that’s old-school thinking. New-school thinking is that the sport’s biggest brands will ditch their conferences, band together within an elitist super league, and strike a rich media deal to create games like Texas-Ohio State on the regular.  

Under the Big Ten’s current media rights deal, most members receive an equal revenue share. Oregon and Washington are exceptions. They accepted a smaller revenue share until July 1, 2030, in exchange for a Big Ten invite during the last round of realignment.

All SEC members receive equal distribution, too, meaning Vanderbilt and Mississippi State receive an equal share to Texas and Alabama.

If you’re a fan of Northwestern or Vanderbilt or any of the other smaller-branded schools in a super conference, the idea of a breakaway elitist league ought to terrify you.

The SEC affords Vanderbilt some notion of athletics relevance. And a nice paycheck, too. Same for the Big Ten and Northwestern. But, do you think the Buckeyes and their television partners give a rip about Northwestern and their kind being in a super league?

Not a chance, unless perhaps they’re willing to accept pennies on the dollar.

Equal revenue distribution is generally viewed as a positive for conference cohesion. The past iteration of the Big 12 catered to Texas, its richest brand, and how’d that work out? The conference came unglued, and the Longhorns eventually left anyway.

In this get mine, forget you, world of college football, leave it to a deep-pocketed, big-branded bully like Ohio State to demand even more cash.

Ohio State lacks the threat of leaving for another conference.

But, who needs conferences? That’s old thinking. A greedy wildfire could consume that structure. A spark came this week.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.