Watching Alabama play Clemson again and again for the National Championship, it is hard to deny that college football is evolving into a sport of the Southeast. As discussed a few weeks ago on this Board, the once thriving JC leagues in the West and Southwest are gone or in serious decline. High School football participation is in free fall, and will continue to decline as more and more is learned about chronic traumatic encephalopathy. I think “Blue State” parents are just not going to let their sons play football. The two best college teams in the entire Pacific and Mountain time zones were in Washington, and neither would have been competitive in this game. Programs like USC and UCLA are exposed so regularly now it is routine, and they are in the coaching revolving door death spiral. Midwest football is basically just Ohio State, with Notre Dame or Wisconsin occasionally putting together a team, but mostly surviving on reputation and weak competition in the Big 10. Its been decades since there has been a nationally competitive team from the Northeast. It is inconceivable to imagine the NC game without a SEC team, and Clemson is almost a lock for the next two years. If not for Clemson we would probably be looking at two SEC teams in the playoffs pretty much every year.
I see college football in the future as centered in the Southeast, just like college hockey is in the Northeast/upper Midwest, wrestling in in the Midwest, lacrosse is in the Northeast, beach volleyball is in the West, ect. There will of course be exceptions, and programs that survive across the United States given the long tradition of the sport, but to me the long-term trend seems undeniable.
I see college football in the future as centered in the Southeast, just like college hockey is in the Northeast/upper Midwest, wrestling in in the Midwest, lacrosse is in the Northeast, beach volleyball is in the West, ect. There will of course be exceptions, and programs that survive across the United States given the long tradition of the sport, but to me the long-term trend seems undeniable.