Paul Finebaum has a dark prediction for future of college football

The Mouth of the South's warning for the future: "College football, as we know it, is on its last breath."

The future of college football is a trending topic around the sport with all the changes it's seen recently: the introduction of NIL, the transfer portal, and major conference realignments have the powers that be thinking of the future.

Up to and including the Mouth of the South. Longtime SEC fixture Paul Finebaum just made a very surprising prediction about not only where college football is going, but where it is already.

Not a sustainable model

"It’s not only the future — it’s the present," Finebaum said. 

"And I read something over the weekend from Jack Swarbrick of Notre Dame, respected individual — highly respected — and he said that he thought the NCAA current structure, Power Five, would be obsolete by the middle of the 2030's. 

"That’s 10 years off. I think he’s being very, very generous. I don’t think this is a sustainable model that will last another couple of years. 

"Now, it’s impossible to predict the breakup of an organization like this because it moves so slowly. But it is going to come apart. The NCAA is on its last breath. And I think college football, as we know it, is on its last breath."

What does it mean?

College football has always been a top-heavy sport, but that power is growing more each year with the advent of NIL rules and ever-bigger contracts with broadcasters.

The top conferences draw hundreds of millions of dollars each season in TV money, and when you add in the College Football Playoff money, that total is expected to run into the billions once expansion finally happens.

Only a few schools will have access to that kind of revenue. And when the gap between the top and the middle grows wide enough, those at the top will eventually decide in favor of going their own way.

What about the NCAA?

It could mean the NCAA ceases to have any authority over big-time college football.

It's been a tough year for the body, especially amid its failure to control the timeline and emergence of NIL rules around the country. That was left to state governments, and potentially Congress.

But what real use does big-time college football have for the NCAA now? There's talk that the recent SEC expansion is really the first step in a long process of consolidation that results in a single league. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said as much recently.

Big programs could prefer to form their own association and enjoy complete autonomy similar to the now-junked European Super League idea in soccer.

Notably, as one athletic director told ESPN, "The NCAA has essentially collapsed, and it just hasn't been recognized yet."

(h/t ESPN)

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