Playoff Contract Could Stand in the Way of Conferences Considering a Split In recent weeks, the commissioners of three of the most prominent conferences in college sports have publicly mused about how the five most powerful leagues might soon be forced to create their own division in order to govern themselves. The commissioners - Mike Slive of the Southeastern Conference, John Swofford of the Atlantic Coast Conference and Bob Bowlsby of the Big 12 Conference - say the needs of those leagues, along with the Big Ten and the Pac-12, are so different from the rest of Division I that they may need their own set of rules. When it comes to football, however, the commissioners of the other five conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision - the Mid-American, the American Athletic, the Mountain West, the Sun Belt and Conference USA - do not seem eager to see a split. "We are business partners; that C.F.P. contract will be honored, or there will be tremendous legal implications," Craig Thompson, the commissioner of the Mountain West, said, referring to the new college football playoff. We're not going anywhere. The 10 conferences in the F.B.S. signed a 12-year, $5.5 billion deal late last year agreeing to a playoff format that begins next season and includes dozens of contracts for regular seasons between teams from the top five conferences and those from the bottom five. Ryan Rodenberg, an assistant professor of sports law analytics at Florida State, said in the natural evolution of college athletics a "superdivision" might be created, but it was difficult to envision it happening soon. "There are five and half billion reasons why, and that's the contract that was just signed among all 10 conferences for the football playoff," Rodenberg said. The money is too good. They just entered this deal. Why mess with it now? Thompson said the high-revenue schools could form a division with their own set of N.C.A.A. bylaws - allowing stipends for players, for example. But those leagues are not likely to be doing business only with themselves. "We developed access that we agreed upon, and we developed revenue sharing that we agreed upon," said Britton Banowsky, the commissioner of Conference USA. We signed a contract for 12 years committing our resources and team inventory. That is pretty substantial glue. It is not just the postseason that binds the 10 conferences. Mike Aresco, the commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, said teams from his league have contracts with opponents like Wisconsin, South Carolina, Notre Dame, North Carolina State and Oklahoma. "I have talked to the commissioners of those five conferences, and they all want to play the other conferences," Aresco said. Financially, it would be better for everyone if there was broader scheduling. Thompson said the big universities want seven home games to meet their budgets, which would be difficult to do without playing teams from the other five conferences. Some observers say that part of the charm of college football is the fact that an Appalachian State can beat a Michigan or a Louisiana-Monroe can defeat an Arkansas, but Nick Saban, the coach of two-time defending national champion Alabama, said he would not be opposed to a superdivision of high-revenue conferences playing one another. "I've said this before, nobody wants to hear this, but I was in the N.F.L. for eight years, where every team you played was in the N.F.L.," Saban said at SEC Media Days. So if somebody wants to take the leadership and say, O.K., here are the five conferences that are the top conferences, and we're going to play all our games amongst those people, I'd be fine with that. The comments by Slive, Swofford and Bowlsby may have created the perception that high-revenue universities wished to break from the rest of college football, but Dr. Jon Steinbrecher, commissioner of the Mid-American Conference, said the comments had more to do with how college sports were governed. "Bob Bowlsby's own words were "this is a last resort," " Steinbrecher said. They are passionate about some issues. A lot of it stems from frustration of how some things have bogged down as we try and legislate. They did not necessarily advocate that we are going to pull away and do this Division IV thing. That is not their intent. Indeed, many of the bigger universities cannot agree on legislation among themselves. For instance, the Southeastern Conference is in favor of paying stipends to athletes, but the Atlantic Coast Conference is not. Ohio State did not want deregulation of recruiting, but Alabama did. "What you may see is the 10 conferences participating in the College Football Playoff for the next 12 years with different operating standards," Thompson said. Thompson said the larger significance of the comments by the three commissioners is that the N.C.A.A. is being pushed to change significantly. "Virtually everyone has issues with the governance model, so what this has done is lit a fire," Thompson said. The president of the N.C.A.A. sent out a save the date for everyone to attend the N.C.A.A. convention next January. It's a call to arms, and it is long overdue.