3 things we love and 2 things we hate from Andy Staples' proposed CFB super league

Let me be clear before I begin unpacking Andy Staples' proposed college football super league post for On3; he is my favorite college football writer out there. I have read his work dating back to his days at Sports Illustrated. I followed him over to The Athletic and now to On3. He is the college football writer I have modeled my career after. After all, he has a soft spot for the late Lewis Grizzard as well.

While I want nothing to do with a college football super league because I think it is in the sport's best interest to have the Power Four working together, this does feel like an inevitability. Not until SEC commissioner Greg Sankey decides to leave his post to become the supreme leader of college football, this sport I love so much is going to swallow its own tail like the serpent known as ouroboros.

But you know what? I love it when people spend a great deal of time trying to come up with something new. Nobody has all the right answers, but the attempt should be celebrated. Together, we must all find a way to keep college football special. It is becoming more and more like the NFL by the minute, and I am not so sure that is a good thing. At least we all should have a say in the matter, right?

Here is a visual representation of Staples' 48-team super league: 24 in the Big Ten and 24 in the SEC.

Before we begin to unpack this, the most important thing you should know is that none of the 34 teams currently in the Big Ten or SEC were "relegated", so congratulations, Indiana and Vanderbilt!

We love Andy Staples putting Notre Dame into the Big Ten against its will

That's what I'm talking about, Andy! Force Notre Dame against its will to join a league. Up until recently, I had been sort of okay with rampant Notre Dame exceptionalism. That NBC TV contract sure is sweet. However, in a day and age where the sport is becoming increasingly national and more and more of a TV product, it does not make sense for Notre Dame to remain fiercely independent.

Geographically, Notre Dame to the Big Ten makes a ton of sense. After all, the Irish play in the same state as two public institutions in Indiana and Purdue. This would give the Big Ten another huge brand to work with in a massively expanded 24-team league. Even then, shoehorning Florida State into that league when the SEC fit is so obvious is even more of a reason why Notre Dame to the Big Ten works.

Ultimately, you need to have structure in a super league like this. "Conferences" and divisions are probably par for the course, but you cannot continue to enable a school that doesn't want to play by the rules quite like this, especially since that school hasn't won a national championship since the dawn of the internet. It is purely comical, but I low-key dig the notion that Notre Dame is in the Big Ten.

If the Irish want a seat at the big kids' table in this super league, then they will have to join ... a league!