The Ohio State Buckeyes, Penn State Nittany Lions, and TTUN may decide that the Big Ten isn't the way. They may decide that being in a conference at all isn't the way. They may decide the Notre Dame Fighting Irish's College Football dependence is the way.
ESPN's Dan Wetzel and Rece Davis proposed that those schools, and even West Coast programs like the Oregon Ducks and USC Trojans, take full autonomy over their schedule and play whoever they want, with an eye on making the CFP the most important element of the change.
The thinking is that "The Game" makes enough money on its own to justify Ohio State and TTUN making the move.
"If you had this one game as independents or in a little group, and then we throw in the Ohio State-Penn State game and the Michigan-Penn State game, and maybe we add a couple of these others... and then you take all your others [and] you go play in the MAC for your other leagues or do whatever you want to schedule out," Wetzel said, per Ohio State Buckeyes On SI.
"If you took that thing out to bid and let everybody from Netflix to ESPN, Fox, CBS, whatever, and said, 'There's $150 million [just for The Game]...' that's $75 million a school. That's the same amount you're getting for everything right now. Now you got all that, you got all your other home [games]... you can play eight home games a year... that pot of money is sitting there. And the more you expand... at some point, it's just fiscally irresponsible for those schools not to look at it."
"When are we going to get to the point when you're trying to deal with the revenue of saying, 'Why am I helping these guys?" Davis asked. "They're not bringing anything to the table.' ...I've got to believe it happens because... right now in a lot of ways they are giving up both [money and power]... to people who are not really helping them."
Ohio State won't always get what it bargains for against Michigan and Penn State
While the idea of leaving the Big Ten is good in theory, it relies on the typical opponents showing up to play year in and year out. Of course, as the Buckeyes just learned during the 2025 season, that's not always the case.
TTUN and Penn State did little to nothing to have Ohio State prepared for the CFP during their matchups this past fall. The Buckeyes bludgeoned both, which faded down the stretch and proved they weren't as good as expected.
Scheduling an independent slate certainly burned the Fighting Irish by the time the CFP selection committee was picking its 12 teams for the field this past December.
A lot of ideas are flying around College Football right now. This one may not be the best for OSU, considering the Buckeyes have long dominated their Big Ten schedules and don't back down from strong non-conference competition.
We'll see what the power brokers decide. As the NIL/rev-share era progresses, profits are fully at the wheel, so if it makes dollars, it makes sense.