Kent Syverud, the Big Ten, and the Push Towards a “Super League”

By Max Adox

On July 1, 2026, Kent Syverud will become the University of Michigan’s 16th President and fourth, including interims, since 2022. Prior to his most recent role as president and chancellor of Syracuse University, Syverud headed the law schools of Washington University in St. Louis and Vanderbilt.

It’s no secret that a divide has been developing in college football between the Big Ten and SEC and… everybody else. Despite leading an institution in a weakening conference, the ACC, Syverud has been active in finding a new direction for college football, participating in a group called College Sports Tomorrow (CST). The group, which functioned as a “Think Tank,” was headed by an executive search firm and consisted of several pro sports executives, team owners, and university leaders. CST’s final proposal was an 11-page document that outlined an initial plan for a 70–80 team “Super League,” and updated rules and regulations surrounding NIL, transfers, and scheduling. In this article, we will focus specifically on the setup of the league, some history behind the change, and the president’s role in it all.  

The League

Right now, there are 136 college football teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) across nine conferences and one group of independent teams. Under the CST-proposed Super League, the number of teams in the top division, and competing for playoff spots, would be cut down to the 80 Power Five schools (and Notre Dame). These new 10-team conferences would be organized geographically, with one exception:

Promotion and Relegation

The eighth conference would be made up of a collection of teams from across the country, each fighting for a playoff spot or, for the weaker teams, to avoid being sent down to the pool of non-power conference teams. Conversely, in the new underbelly of the FBS, the top teams would be battling it out for a chance in the eighth division of the Super League. 

Context

Conference realignment is not new. “Conferences have been shaped and reshaped,” says UM professor Greg Dooley, who teaches a class on the history of college athletics, “Since the first major conference, the Big Ten, was formed in 1896.” While conference adjustments typically involved schools that were near each other geographically (Ohio State in 1912 and Michigan State in 1949), recent realignments have seen West Coast teams make a money-driven, cross-country jump to compete in the Big Ten.

However, the Super League would not be like previous realignments. “As far as a drastic reshaping of the entire landscape, like the Super League proposal,” Dooley says, “nothing quite like that has happened.”

Syverud

At Syracuse, Kent Syverud was active in engaging with athletics on a school and conference level, reportedly stabilizing the ACC amid talks of Clemson and Florida State leaving the conference, according to UM Regent Jordan Acker. Syverud has not been shy about his criticism of the current state of college athletics either, stating to ESPN that “The current system can't continue, it's a dead man walking." Syverud is in favor of one potential option for innovation involving the Big Ten: A cash injection of roughly $2.4 Billion in exchange for a cut of the Big Ten’s media rights. His support for the idea goes against UM’s Board of Regents, which, in late 2025, all but single-handedly shot down the proposal when it was put in front of the Big Ten. However, Syverud’s history of support is from his time at Syracuse, prior to being selected as the future president of the University of Michigan. “I think he was speaking in the best interest of what he saw for Syracuse.” Said Dooley, “I would expect him to soft-pedal [that stance] back.”

This could leave us at an impasse. An athletically-engaged president whose ideas differ from the Regents on the best path forward in the ever-evolving world of college sports. This, at the end of the day, may be a good problem, Dooley says, “I’m more concerned about a President who doesn’t understand the importance of sports.”