Details of the College Football Super League revealed, would be called College Student Football League

A group of executives and administrators developing a college football Super League formally announced its proposal Tuesday, which outlines a single national league, the College Student Football League (CSFL).

The details, which have been being formulated for months, include a reorganization of the 136 football-only Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools into two separate conferences. The top 72 programs, primarily the current Power 5, would compete in the Power 12 Conference, consisting of a dozen geography-based divisions of six teams.

The remaining 64 programs, mainly the current Group of 5, would compete in the Group of 8 conference.

A group of the top teams from the Group of 8 would be eligible for promotion to play the Power 12 the following season, similar to the structure of European football leagues, but there would be no relegation among the Power 12 schools.

The advisory group for the CSFL, known as College Sports Tomorrow (CST), is a collection of industry leaders in business and sports, as well as college presidents and athletic directors. The Athletics first reported on CST and its Super League ambitions in April.

Despite Tuesday's announcement, which included in-depth details on a format, governance and revenue model for the CSFL, the league is still a long way from being a realistic and viable proposition. It would require cooperation and coordination between the NCAA and its member institutions, almost all of which are part of conferences with their own separate television contracts and rights awards. The current College Football Playoff contract with ESPN runs through the 2031-32 season, and other conference agreements extend beyond that. CST also states that it will not interfere with or request renegotiation of current media contracts.

CST has brought together too many high-profile power brokers to be dismissed entirely. But the idea of ​​college sports, which long lacked any semblance of coherence, breaking away from the existing model and agreeing to a newly unified structure, seems like a pipe dream at best at this point.

Barriers aside, CST claims the league would not be a Super League and instead aims to prevent such a thing by better supporting all 136 FBS members. CST's argument is that the CSFL would remedy that disruption and disorder within college sports and address the numerous legal battles currently facing the NCAA, including the proposed settlement in the House of Representatives. It would also aim to reduce the financial and competitive imbalance that so often characterizes college football in particular.

On the field, the CSFL would use a geographic and results-based scheduling model to promote more competitive fixtures, while still maintaining certain long-standing rivalries, even between teams in different divisions. Postseason berths and seeding would be determined by win/loss records, similar to the NFL, with a 24-team playoff featuring division winners and wild card spots. The Power 12 season and postseason would last 21 weeks from late August to early January, including multiple byes.

Historically, the beauty of college football has been how many schools across the country competed for the championship, Jimmy Haslam said in a statement released by CST on Tuesday. Haslam is a member of CST, as well as the owner of the Cleveland Browns and longtime booster for University of Tennessee athletics. We must return college football to the broad, national model of its golden years, in a system that promotes a more competitive balance.

The CSFL would be football-only, and other sports could continue to compete in their current conferences or return to their traditional, geographic conferences, as stated in the press release.

Off the field, the CSFL would bargain collectively through a single, comprehensive players' association, which the CST's proposal suggests could join the league in lobbying for a special classification from Congress, allowing athletes to seek collective representation without being treated as employees considered.

According to the CST, this would give college athletes input on rules and compensation, while giving the league protection from antitrust claims through the non-statutory employment exemption. The CFSL could also use a team salary cap and pay scales for player earnings, and is proposing new guidelines such as limiting athletes to two transfers within a five-year eligibility period.

The courts are forcing changes in college sports, providing an opportunity to reinvent college football so it works for everyone, CST co-founder Len Perna said in a statement. Perna is also president of TurnkeyZRG, a leading job search firm in college athletics.

CST's proposal believes that the CSFL would be economically beneficial and sustainable, with a single, consolidated league that could generate more revenue, allowing universities to fairly compensate players, create a reasonable competitive balance, reduce rising NIL costs could cover and continue to support other intercollegiate sports that generate revenue. less revenue, including women's sports and the U.S. Olympic program.

The proposal suggests that within each conference, the revenue distribution per school would be relatively equal, with slightly more incentives ultimately focused on legacy and top-performing programs that generate the most value. However, an overwhelming majority of revenues (94 percent) would be distributed to Power 12 programs, with the remaining 6 percent going to the Group of 8.

The CSFL would be governed by a board comprising all 136 schools, with one commissioner overseeing the entire league and smaller executive committees within each conference. Power 12's executive committee would serve an important governance role.

Under the CST proposal, the CSFL would be owned and controlled by its member programs, with each school retaining its rights. CST believes that the revenue this competition could generate would mean that no private equity would be required to fund the model, but that CST would use minimal external capital to bridge the financing during the initial transition.

CST members include Perna, Haslam and former NBA player Grant Hill. Supporting ambassadors include athletic directors Danny White (Tennessee), Bubba Cunningham (North Carolina) and Kirby Hocutt (Texas Tech), along with West Virginia University President Gordon Gee and Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud.

CST's website states that despite the ties of several NFL members, the NFL has nothing to do with CST or the CSFL.

In April, The Athletics reported that Brian Rolapp, the NFL's second executive behind Commissioner Roger Goodell, was a member of the 20-person CST group. On Tuesday, Rolapp's name was not mentioned in the CST news release or any other media materials, and a CST spokesperson confirmed that The Athletics that Rolapp is not involved in CST.

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(Graphics courtesy of College Sports Tomorrow; top photo: Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)