Kyle Whittingham warns of 'major realignment' coming: 'It's going to boil down to 40-60 teams in the Super Conference'

Utah was one of 13 teams that took part in realignment in the Power Four going into this season. Their head football coach is now predicting an even more significant development there in the years to come.

Kyle Whittingham spoke about the future of conferences realigning during a conversation with John Canzano. He sees where an even more massive shift is coming with college football looking more like the pros by becoming about, whether a single or multiple, super conferences within two to four years.

“I think there is a major realignment coming and it’ll be a big one. I think it will create even more of a divide and exclusivity for the teams that are on the right side of that line,” said Whittingham. “In my opinion, it’s going to look very much like an NFL minor league.”

“20 months to four years? How about that for a time frame?” Whittingham said.

Within a super conference would be 40 to 60 programs across the country. That collection of teams would then play against one another in their own playoffs to determine the national champion.

“The short version is super conferences. I think it’s going to boil down to 40-60, maybe, teams in the super conference,” Whittingham said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t play anybody but other super conference teams. Make that a division as far as who you play. Like I said, a full-blown playoff.”

In the super conference model, Whittingham would expect further shifts. That would include aspects like more expansion of their respective playoff. It could also mean players then could become employees within that league.

“I see an expansion of the playoff with that to 16 teams,” continued Whittingham. “Whether or not the players will be employees officially remains to be seen but I think that’s very likely.”

This has been the natural progression for a lot of people around collegiate sports following the moves leading into this season. In the end, the Big Ten and Big 12 added four, the ACC added three, and the SEC added two while the Pac-12 lost all but a pair. Still, in terms of a super conference, all they did was shuffle a deck that might eventually be playing a much different game than what they dealt for.

We still need to see what this era of college football even looks like with the four major leagues up to between 16 to 18 teams. However, from there, Whittingham expects at least one super conference to come together at the collegiate level.

“I think that’s where it’s heading,” said Whittingham.