The whole thing carries a gross sheen of TV executive hucksters who don't understand or care about the sport, but I confess being a bit impressed by the elegance of what they're proposing, because it recognizes the three core truths of where we're at:
1. The "conferences" we've arrived at are an untenable abomination, purely and solely the charred battlefield remains of a cynical and senseless war for disappearing cable TV revenue, and no one in any part of the system wants to live in the world this has created.
2. The aforementioned TV war has been the destructive force at the heart of major college football since the CFA failed to get everyone on the same TV deal in the mid-80's, and the only way to stop the chaos and allow the sport to move positively forward is to agree to an armistice and pool everyone's media rights together.
3. Collectively bargaining with a player's union is the only legally viable alternative to anarchy in the relationship between schools and athletes.
The 8th division, a pro/rel "Premier League" of lesser conference schools, is a reasonably cute and clever idea. But 7 units of 10 teams each is a dog whistle to traditionalists that I hear loud and clear: putting the historic conference cores back together.
1. The original Big Ten
2. The original Pac 10
3. The pre-1991 SEC
4. The Big Eight plus Cincinnati and Louisville
5. The circa-90's ACC plus historic member South Carolina
6. The Southwest Conference minus Rice plus the Utah schools
7. The Eastern All-Sports League that never quite happened in the 70's plus Notre Dame
(ND, Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, Syracuse, Rutgers, Boston College, Virginia Tech, UCF, Miami)
The obvious observation from there: all the playoff and pro/rel stuff from there is totally superfluous! Getting everybody into one TV deal to neutralize the constant war over money and giving everyone the matchups they want to see is the juice here.
What that article is missing is any reference that anyone from the Big Ten or SEC is on board with this. Or why the Big Ten or SEC would give up money to move forward with this proposal. Kind of reads like a wish list of what mid-majors and schools afraid to be left behind want.
They throw two fig leaves in that direction:
1. A lawsuit against the conferences seeking damages for NIL rights from decades past, the suggestion being the conferences as entities could be legally bankrupted
2. The all-in-one TV arrangement they propose indicates that teams won't be paid equally, and that the elite would be able to secure a bigger slice of the pie, the suggestion being that the Texas' and Ohio State's of the world would choose this path over dead husks of conferences they no longer care about, along with support from the dying and left-behind ACC and Big 12 for whom this is a lifeline to remain at the top table.
I find both of those VERY dubious, but that's the plan they're describing.
You are correct that the Big Ten, SEC and the TV networks hold 100% of the power as things stand. But these plotters are correct that those entities are holding that 100% power over a laughable travesty that isn't going to be sustainable for very long.