Adding Fuel to the Consolidation Fire

What does a map reflecting the current prices of gas in the U.S. have to do with college football? As fuel costs rise, so do the expenses for college teams. Combine that with the insane salaries paid to coaches, rising college costs other downturns in the economy and you have a recipe for consolidation and — dare we say it — a playoff system.

Tim Stephens of the Orlando Sentinel follows his "Thinning of the Herd" piece with a look at what superconferences could look like in the not too distant future. The BCS would consist of four 16-team leagues, each divided into two eight-team divisions. After conference title games, the four winners of each of the superconferences would advance to a four-team playoff.

The rest of the riff-raff reorganizes into five leagues, hoping that the greedy superconferences one day expand the playoff system to eight teams.

Thanks to Gas Buddy for the snazzy map, which you can click on to examine in detail.