So. Miss, UAB, VT, and ECU were all in the same boat in the 1980s. However, my point was that if that all-sport eastern conference was formed and the commissioner had the same vision as Kramer did, then it could have been the first conference to utilize the NCAA bylaw for a conference to hold a CCG in football. If it was going to become the first conference, then it may mean inviting schools that have little or no history with the 7 schools.

Just imagine how different the landscape could be now if another conference held the first CCG in football 8 or 9 years before the SEC held its first CCG. Heck the rule had been around a long time (maybe even since the inception of the NCAA), so just image if a conference decided to do it in the 1970s. A conference deciding to hold a CCG would not be impacted by the NCAA controlling TV contract because the NCAA would still televise the game 1 week after the final regular season game.

If anything a CCG would have prompted someone to challenge the NCAA's right to have a monopoly long before Oklahoma and Georgia did in the early 1980s. If the conference had done it early in the 1970s, then it could have impacted how the conferences/schools divided themselves up when DI split into DI-A and DI-AA for football. A 12 member conference could have worked in the 1970s and 1980s especially if every team played 3 rotating cross-division games that rotated every 2 years.

Kramer had vision to invite South Carolina which had a little history and Arkansas which had hardly no history to join so the SEC could hold a CCG. Just imagine if Kramer was the new eastern conference's first commissioner.