Following up on the insanity from last night, here are my thoughts on how to organize D1-A football. Return to sixteen 8-team geographical conferences and have an orderly playoff. This can be done while maintaining historical rivalries and promoting exciting non-conference games because of the reduced league season and because non-conference losses do not affect qualification for the playoffs.
Mid-Atlantic |
Dixie |
Miss Delta |
WLOCP |
Red River |
Breadbasket |
Southwest |
Duke |
GT |
Aub |
FL At |
A&M |
IA St |
UCLA |
Mary |
Kentucky |
Bama |
Fl Int |
Baylor |
Iowa |
USC |
Navy |
Louisville |
LSU |
UCF |
OK |
Kansas |
AZ |
NCSU |
SC |
Miss |
USF |
OK St |
KSU |
ASU |
UNC |
VT |
Miss St |
FSU |
Tex |
Mizz |
Hawaii |
UVA |
WVU |
Tenn |
Miami |
Tex Tech |
Nebr |
SDSU |
Wake |
E Car |
Vandy |
UGA |
Tulsa |
Minn |
Fresno |
Temple |
Clemson |
UAB |
FLA |
Ark |
North IL |
Pacific |
Rockies |
Western |
Great Lakes |
Eastern |
Stars-n-bars |
Tejas |
Ohio Valley |
Mideast |
Cal |
Colo |
Nevada |
Ill |
Army |
LA tech |
No Tex |
Ball St |
Akron |
CSUSJ |
CSU |
UNLV |
Indiana |
BC |
LA-Lafay |
Rice |
Bowling |
Buffalo |
Ore |
NewMex |
Utah |
Mich |
Oh St |
LA-Monroe |
SMU |
Cinn |
CMU |
OreSt |
NM st |
Utah St. |
Mich St |
Penn St |
S Bama |
Tex St. |
Miami U |
EMU |
Stan |
UTEP |
Boise |
ND |
Pitt |
Ark St |
UTSA |
Mid Tenn |
Kent St |
Wash |
WY |
BYU |
NW |
Syr |
So Miss |
TCU |
W Mich |
Marshall |
WSU |
AFA |
ID |
Purdue |
Uconn |
Memp |
Houston |
Ohio |
Toledo |
Wisco |
Umass |
Troy |
Tulane |
W Kent |
Rutgers |
Addendum: 64 team realignment
WEST | SOUTH | NORTH | EAST | ||||
Wash | Boise | OK | Auburn | Illinois | BC | UNC | Clemson |
WSU | BYU | OK St | Bama | Indiana | Pitt | NCSU | Fla |
Ore | AZ | Tex | LSU | Iowa | PSU | Duke | FSU |
OreSt | AZ St. | A&M | Miss | Iowa St. | Syr | UVA | GA Tech |
Cal | Colo | Ark | Miss St | Minnesota | Ohio St. | VT | Kent |
Stan | Nebr | TCU | Tenn | N'Western | Michigan | Mary | Miami |
USC | Kansas | Tex Tech | Tulane | Purdue | Michigan St. | WVU | SC |
UCLA | KSU | Mizzou | Vandy | Wisco | ND | Wake | UGA |
Notes:
No more independents. ND keeps its Big Ten games and has room on the schedule for SC, Stan, and Navy.
Ohio-Michigan is now non-conference, as it was in the beginning. Could swap Indiana and OSU and it would make a solid hoops conference, but Boston-Bloomington wouldn't exactly be geographically tight.
I also made the Minny-Wisco game, which is the oldest in the land, non-con. I would not object to switching ILL and Minny.
This anticipates Pitt and Syracuse becoming relevant in football again.
ACC is now effectively basketball only.
But what about basketball-only schools in football conferences? I re-aligned those, too. Appendix not included for space and relevance reasons.
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Let's give each team a 11 week schedule, plus one bye. That means post-season starts thanksgiving weekend. How should we work playoffs? I think the sixteen conference champions, and only the conference champions should make it in. Yes, this means every year 3-4 patsies get in. We could make an exception that in the case of a 3-way circular firing squad tie atop a league, then The Committee could select an additional team from that league and ding a lesser conference champion is they have N or more losses. But remember: a few patsies are good in that they protect the higher seeds.
How does seeding work? I'd do it like in tennis, where the tournaments aren't 1-16, 3-14, etc. It'l be top half of the daw vs bottom half, with pairings chosen each round to optimize travel convenience.
WRINKLE: if two conferences want to form a 16-team superleague for the $TEXAS, then they can. But only if they keep the round-robin format with inter-divisional games counting only as tiebreakers. (So they're basically two separate leagues with a mutual scheduling agreement.) Their championship game would replace one 1st round playoff game. Conceivably, two top-5 teams could then meet in the 1st round, which would suck for them. On the other hand, $TEXAS.
1st round played Friday-Saturday while america recovers from Turkey overdosing. Higher seed gets home field. TV and gate split 50-50. Home team gets most, but not all, of concessions, etc.
Play the 2nd round the following week. Same rules apply.
Semis played the following week, because OMG FINALS! Also, allows teams to make plans for New Years bowl games with several weeks lead time. Venue? Maybe at home for higher seed, maybe at neutral site. I prefer home because the local team should be able to open presents in the morning and still be within a couple hours drive for an afternoon kickoff.
Title game played NYD as COTG intended (Maybe Jan 2). And teams that lost in earlier rounds can still play bowl games.
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I welcome your comments. Thanks for reading!