Rich Rodriguez proposes Power Four programs 'come together' to form geographic, fan-friendly regions

Over the last few years, following widespread conference realignment in the first half of the decade, a lot has been made about what the future of college football actually looks likes. Whether it’s in the halls of Congress or in private, backroom meetings in Destin or Indianapolis, the conversation ultimately comes down to what’s next for the most lucrative sport in college athletics.

And while much of those discussions involve controversial topics like antitrust exemptions, expansive rules and regulations around NIL and student-athlete movement, and potential “super leagues,” there’s an emerging sentiment — mostly among traditional college football fans — calling for a complete and drastic overhaul of the entire system. One that would likely involve the Power Four football conferences effectively splintering away from the NCAA and establishing their own football-only governance structure to more effectively address the many issues that have plagued the sport in recent years.

[ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ]

And, while that’s little more than a pipe dream at the moment given the billions of dollars invested in maintaining the status quo, fans can continue to dream. And, based on his comments Wednesday, you can count West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez among those dreamers. The 63-year-old Rodriguez, who is entering Year 2 of his second stint with the Mountaineers, proposed a wild suggestion about the future of college football during Day 2 of the 2026 Big 12 Football Media Days in Frisco, Texas.

“I think all that’s happened in college athletics, all the conference expansions and breakups has caused some of those traditional rivalries to go by the wayside,” Rodriguez said Wednesday. “I love the Big 12, but it’d be nice to have some regional (competition). … Can’t we all come together and shake hands and give each other a group hug. And then have an Eastern regional and a South regional and North regional and then everybody share the money, and there’s money for everybody and we can all get along. There’s like 60 of us (Power Four programs) or so, I think that’d be great.”

As Rodriguez points out, one of the drawbacks to the recent conference realignment has been a loss of annual regional rivalries, including Bedlam between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and the Backyard Brawl between West Virginia and Pitt. And while both rivalries are hopeful to return in the future, conference scheduling issues coupled with uncertainty around the College Football Playoff format have certainly complicated renewing those particular rivalries much before the end of the decade.

Instead, Rodriguez is calling for a kumbaya coalescing of the Power Four conferences in order to pool media rights for a financial windfall before breaking teams into more geographically-favorable regions that would appeal to local fanbases. Rodriguez even proposed a hypothetical eight-team region that’d include Cincinnati, Maryland, North Carolina, Penn State, Pitt, Virginia, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

“I’m not speaking for anybody other than Coach Rod, (but I’d) love for all the Power Four teams to come together, shake hands and then, hey, let’s get the biggest TV package in the history of TV packages,” Rodriguez continued inside the Dallas Cowboys‘ practice facility. “We’d have a rivalry every year and everybody makes money, nobody gets fired, players get good, and this place will be packed again and this would be the Texas regional, so you guys would come. Wouldn’t that be fun?

“Can you guys put that together?” Rodriguez asked rhetorically in the direction of several Big 12 athletic directors. “I got all the ADs out there shaking their heads like I’m nuts. I’ve got a lot more time behind me than ahead of me, I just want to get this thing right before I leave.”