Dan Wetzel: What needs to happen for conference realignment to 'chill out'

Conference realignment is the hottest topic in college football right now, just a few days after Colorado decided to pack their bags and leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12. Different scenarios are spinning by the minute. The Arizona Board of Regents have scheduled a meeting for Thursday evening. Things are getting wild and crazy and in a hurry. On Wednesday’s version of the Andy Staples podcast, Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel discussed with Staples what they think needs to happen for conference realignment to ‘chill out’.

Dan Wetzel on what needs to happen for the chaos to calm down

Andy Staples said he heard from someone from the Big 12 mention that TV executives were okay if the league expanded to 14 teams, and that they had a path to 16.

“Okay, if they get that done. Then, Armageddon is gonna end. But if it’s only 14. So, I don’t think there’s a great path, but, what if it’s just Arizona [leaving the Pac-12],” Wetzel said.

“Then it chills out I think?!” Staples responded.

“Right. And the Big Ten says, they’re gonna take this little ethical high ground. And say, ‘We don’t wanna be the one to kill it.’ So, they know, in the long run, they’re gonna get them whenever they need to anyway. So, if Arizona State and Utah stay and the Big Ten says we’re not gonna take Oregon and Washington, then there’s eight Pac-12 teams and you add San Diego State, you add SMU, or you add Boise [State], whatever you do, it all chills out,” the Yahoo columnist noted.

“It’s not that hard to see that happening also,” Wetzel said.

He also thought the College Football Playoff could be a huge factor in conference realignment talks.

“And look, we haven’t gotten to the playoff. I think the playoff could be a stabilizer for all conferences because a path to get in becomes your thing. Gonzaga doesn’t leave the West Coast Conference because it doesn’t need to. Right? They’re not sitting there going ‘We don’t have enough money.’ Well, we’ll just do our own thing, and it works. We’re really good at basketball and we can still recruit. We can get to the Final Four. So, not only that, playoff share of revenue is gonna be based on how many teams you get in. Right? You get one team in a 10-team league, you’ve got 10 slices. You put one in a 16? You get a smaller share. So, there’s a little more there,” Wetzel continued.

“But mainly, it’s like, what do you get out of winning. What do you get out of late season games when you’re in playoff contention. Selling out your stadiums and all of those things. There’s a big advantage to that. Especially someone like an Arizona State that’s still trying to rebuild their program. Utah, Oregon, they pretty much fill up. But there’s definitely a chance that this fades out. But I think the big thing is can the Big 12 expand to 16? Or are the media partners gonna say you’re stuck at 14,” the Yahoo Sports columnist said.

It’s going to be fascinating to see what happens at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting on Thursday evening. For now, the college football world waits with anticipation. The chaos could potentially get crazier in the coming days. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds.