Just imagine... Boise State (assuming they get left out of the breakaway mega-conferences) winning the NCAA football national championship... in a playoff! In the meantime, others here have argued that the rise of mega-conferences would mean fewer non-conference games vs. mid-majors. I think it will go a step further: fewer non-conference games, period. Remember there are only 11-12 games per team per season, and bigger conferences make it that much harder to have every team play each of its conference rivals at least once per season. Furthermore, games within a mega-conference will be more attractive to TV networks than non-conference games vs. teams from less competitive conferences, or even from other mega-conferences. (As it is now, inter-BCS-conference games are compelling mainly because of their BCS implications, but with mega-conferences the same thing can be had without scheduling outside the conference, so intersectional regular-season games just become redundant.) You're kidding right? Unless Boise State ends up in one of the mega-conferences they may as well drop down to the FCS level and be done with it. How you guys can realize that this conference jumping is all about money yet still believe that the "outsider" conference schools are going to get a shot at anything is amusing to me. Boise State does everything well except make huge amounts of money and get great TV ratings. Why on Earth would these new mega-conferences, which we all admit are nothing more than a cash grab, have any interest in having a playoff that involves teams that aren't part of the new cash flow. Can someone explain to me how schools like Boise State and Utah will benefit in any way from these mega-conferences if they aren't a member of those conferences? If there is a playoff it is simply not going to include "mid-majors." I've said it more times than I can remember at this point but I'll say it again... There is simply no way that any playoff that's part of this new mega-conference system, which again we all admit is about money, is going to include a Boise State at the expense of one of their own. That's more true now than it was before all this started. You guys think all this stuff is a good thing for the "BCS busters." The truth is it's the kiss of death for them. It may take a few years but you can count on it. Just look at the second sentence in bold to see why. In a climate that's all about money how are schools that aren't making any money going to survive? You're overlooking what illwauk mentioned in the post I was responding to: Forming mega-conferences is in all likelihood just a step toward leaving the NCAA altogether and forming a separate governing body of their own. The "mid-majors" would, presumably, remain in the NCAA - and suddenly find themselves to be its new powerhouses in football (and probably other sports too). And of course, once the (ex-)BCS schools bolt from the NCAA there is no reason for the NCAA to even keep the FBS/FCS distinction anymore; since the bowls would presumably throw in with the new league for mega-conferences, the NCAA could just put everyone remaining under the playoff system. So, my previous point stands: If/when the great mega-conference schism occurs, we could easily see the likes of Boise State winning a unified NCAA Division I football championship in a playoff. That playoff just won't involve any of the (ex-)BCS schools, because they'll be in a whole other universe.