I agree. NIL has essentially rendered the NCAA obsolete when it comes to football....hell they don't even run the championship now. Imagine you are an AD at Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida....and see that affiliation with the NCAA and it's rules no longer have to apply....why wouldn't you, at minimum, reach out to the most attractive 24 schools nationwide and say "hey, we can make all the football money...all of it...and essentially act as a semi-pro developmental league for the NFL."
Football only, 24 teams, 2 divisions, 11 games against your division + one from other division, top 2 in each division make a playoff.
Florida, Miami, Florida State, Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi St, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Auburn, Texas A&M, LSU, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, USC, Oregon
Which of those schools is a firm no if the rest are leaning yes? They already dominate football recruiting....12 games every week with only those schools involved (5 at noon, 5 at 3:30, two games in primetime); what would a TV contract like that look like? What would the playoff contract look like? Those 24 teams would own a day of the week for the entire fall.
Those AD's have no obligation to worry about the program survival at Vanderbilt, or Georgia Tech, or Utah, or Iowa State. All the tradition and rivalry and geographic considerations in the world can't match up with the mountain of money those 24 schools would be dividing up. Even Notre Dame, presented with that scenario, would have to either jump in or schedule what's left of the big 10/big 12.
Really hope this doesn't happen, but consolidation has been the way of the business world for quite some time...