By BLAKE STIMPSON
Staff Writer
Admittedly, college football isn’t the most popular sport in New Jersey. Besides the occasional glimmer of hope Rutgers affords the Garden State, sports loyalties clearly lie with beloved New York teams; the Giants, Jets, Yankees and Mets are the big ones.
However, NCAA athletics are still a huge business with a gigantic following around the country. This empire, though, may be on the brink of a drastic overhaul. The trending word: superconference.
With college football reaching a new height of popularity, universities are looking to capitalize.
Being part of a successful conference helps. TV deals, bowl bids, and better recruits are just some perks.
Aaron Patel, a former CHS student, has an inside viewpoint on the subject. He currently attends Rutgers, a school situated in the tenuous Big East.
“I think with the revenue generated from TV dollars and conference games it will force the creation of superconferences with the additional conference games that come with it,” Patel said. This will bring more viewership to the networks, more money to the conferences, and more money to the schools.”
Despite the apparent positives of this situation, there remain many skeptics.
Their argument hinges on points such as awkward geographic relationships and diminished rivalries due to these proposed conferences.
Michael Lopes, a sophomore from Freehold, is one of these doubters.
“It seems like all of these conference changes are negatively impacting college football because either the conference teams have more competition or less depending on which teams left, and all of this just seems confusing.”
In the end, there will always be supporters and naysayers. Either way, it seems a drastic change is coming to one of America’s most beloved sports.