College athletics makes a lot of money, yo.

For the 2011 season, here are the 32 highest grossing college football programs (source: Equity in Athletics):

Institution Name	Total Revenues
The University of Texas at Austin	$103,813,684
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	$85,209,247
The University of Alabama	$81,993,762
Auburn University	$77,170,242
University of Georgia	$74,989,418
University of Florida	$74,117,435
University of Notre Dame	$68,986,659
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College	$68,804,309
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus	$66,210,503
University of Arkansas	$64,193,826
University of Oklahoma Norman Campus	$59,630,425
Ohio State University-Main Campus	$58,112,270
University of Nebraska-Lincoln	$55,063,437
University of Washington-Seattle Campus	$53,092,369
The University of Tennessee	$52,590,771
University of Oregon	$51,921,731
University of Iowa	$50,460,344
Michigan State University	$49,754,373
University of Wisconsin-Madison	$48,416,449
University of South Carolina-Columbia	$48,065,096
Texas A & M University-College Station	$44,420,762
Oklahoma State University-Main Campus	$41,138,312
Clemson University	$39,207,780
Arizona State University	$34,859,343
Florida State University	$34,484,786
University of Southern California	$34,410,822
Texas Tech University	$33,510,844
University of Kentucky	$32,997,939
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	$32,989,216
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	$32,956,474
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus	$32,104,928
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	$30,545,255

So, what would they look like as a 32 team supeconference?

SOUTHEAST	MIDWEST	WEST	EAST
Alabama (+39.5%)	Michigan (+22.2%)	Texas (+17.5%)	Notre Dame (+33.9%)
Auburn (-14.9%)	Illinois (-19.8%)	Oklahoma (+30%)	Clemson (+16.1%)
Georgia (+26.4%)	Ohio State (+25.5%)	Oklahoma State (+23.8%)	Florida State (+24.8%)
Florida (+37.5%)	Nebraska (+21.8%)	Texas Tech (+8%)	Virginia Tech (+6.6%)
LSU (+26.5%)	Iowa (-0.5%)	Washington (+1.9%)	Georgia Tech (+1.1%)
Arkansas (+0.3%)	Michigan State (+23.3%)	Oregon (+35.8%)	Kentucky (-19.5%)
Tennessee (+3.2%)	Wisconsin (+23.3%)	Arizona State (+7.5%)	Penn State (+13.4%)
Texas A&M (+29.4%)	Minnesota (-6.8%)	Southern Cal (+19.6%)	South Carolina (+20.1%)
avg. 2012 F/+: +18.49%	avg. 2012 F/+: +11.13%	avg. 2012 F/+: +18.01%	avg. 2012 F/+: +12.06%

Seven game round-robin conference schedule to determine champions, leaving five games left for interconference play (or potentially games against lower division teams). The postseason would consist of a seeded four team playoff, comprising of only teams that can afford to play at that level.

Is this a good idea? Probably not; no Cinderella stories, teams on the outside would all but never work their way into the top tiers, and this isn't even close to an approximation of the best 32 programs (or even the best divisional balancing).

But after reading an article at the mothership about weight gain in college athletics I started to think about the abuse college football players put on their bodies and how much the NFL benefits from the player development that occurs at the college level. We will eventually get around to properly compensating revenue-generating student-athletes, and I'm of the opinion that the NFL should pay its fair share. A 32-team "farm league" for the NFL may not be the right answer, but it's something I'd want to consider.