Why Oregon vs. Ohio State ushered in college football's superconference era

On the last day of June, rapper Pitbull appeared on a stage at the University of Texas wearing the school's burnt orange football jersey. Spring classes lasted several weeks, but their show capped off an all-day party that took over the Austin campus.

The occasion was the Longhorns' official entry into the Southeastern Conference. Its blue and yellow logo was on tents and tables, and a sculpture of its slogan, “It Just Means More,” stood next to a reflecting pool as fans took turns taking photos. A few hours north, a similar celebration was taking place at the University of Oklahoma, which joined the conference in Texas. As dusk falls and the concert ends in Austin, fireworks shoot from the top of the university's tallest tower. At midnight, when the calendar flipped to July 1 and two of the nation's richest athletic divisions joined its most dominant league, college football officially entered its superconference era.

More than three months later and nearly 1,700 miles west of Texas, the first echoes of this new era will truly be felt for the first time on Saturday when third-ranked Oregon (5-0) hosts second-ranked Ohio State (5-0). . ). )

There are certainly football reasons to pay attention to the game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock). By almost every metric, Ohio State coach Ryan Day has had remarkable success, going 41-3 against conference opponents since 2019 — but with those three losses against rival Michigan, he has faced pressure and unrest within his own fan base. Finally win a national championship. Undefeated but somewhat forgettable this season, Oregon is trying to return to the College Football Playoff for the first time in a decade.

The game marked a turning point in the era of sport because of what happened beyond the white lines. Until kickoff in Eugene, all of this season's marquee games will be between teams that also faced each other in previous years, when the geography of the conference was still regional. The September 28 matchup between Alabama and Georgia was a rematch of the previous SEC title game. Although Texas and Oklahoma meet as SEC rivals for the first time Saturday morning in Dallas, they have faced each other since 1900.

However, Ohio State vs. Oregon in a game that doesn't count as a non-conference game, or a Rose Bowl matchup on New Year's Day but in the Big Ten standings? For the first time since the five most powerful conferences dwindled to four last year following the collapse of the Pac-12 conference, the Bicoastal Conference's new reality will materially affect the college football playoff race in the form of an oversized conference game that It was already difficult to imagine.

Oregon, Washington, UCLA and Southern Cal didn't abandon the Pac-12 because they thought a conference called the “Big Ten” still made sense with 18 members or because they saw a shared history with schools like Rutgers, Illinois or Nebraska. Their action was motivated by unrest over the structure and governance of the NCAA, and the Big Ten's lucrative media rights deal offered a safe haven – as did the SEC's own large annual payments to Texas and Oklahoma.