4 Super Conferences: My Final Realignment Shakeout Restores Traditions
by 75 on Nov 3, 2011 6:48 AM EDT
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PrintThe end game of the conference realignment shakeout _should_ look something like what I offer below. Note, of course, that under the current anarchic 'process' my end stage will never happen. Also, I felt free to exclude marginal BCS programs, because its the right thing to do. (By marginal I mean weak attendance, small television audience, NOBODY CARES kind of schools relative to a mid-level member of a BCS conference.) In addition, I break each of the mega-conferences down into their fairly sensible subdivisions, and discover some very pleasant 'tradition restored' phenomena. One final note: I limited super conferences to a maximum of 18 schools, because that's the max that allows playing all your subdivision foes, having a final championship game, and scheduling a reasonable number of non-conference games.
BIG TEN (18 schools)
WEST
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Northwestern
Illinois
Purdue
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
EAST
Indiana
Notre Dame
Penn State
Boston College
Maryland
Virginia
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Pittsburgh
The above is essentially a combination of the Big Ten with an idealized Big East. Weak literally and in tradition football not allowed. Note how the West subdivision is the old Big Ten (yay!) except for poor Indiana. The East is an old-fashioned best in the northeast football competition. Tradition restored!
SEC (18)
ATLANTIC
NCSU
North Carolina
Duke
Wake Forest
Clemson
South Carolina
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Tennessee
SOUTHEAST
Florida State
Florida
Miami
Auburn
Alabama
Kentucky
Vanderbilt
Mississippi State
Mississippi
Here I do the natural thing and combine the ACC and SEC, and return a few out-of-place schools back where they should be. Sorry South Florida, but ain't it great having all three traditiona Florida powers in the same conference?
BIG 16
NORTH
Colorado
Nebraska
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
Arkansas
LSU
SOUTH
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma
Texas A&M
Baylor
Texas
TCU
Texas Tech
New Mexico
Note the restoration of tradition, lots of long familiar foes. Feels real natural, and this is what America wants! New Mexico is a stretch but a natural region-and-travel wise.
PAC-14
NORTH
Washington
Washington State
Oregon State
Oregon
Boise State
Utah
Brigham Young
SOUTH
California
Stanford
UCLA
USC
San Diego State
Arizona
Arizona State
Can't get more than 14 into this one, and even SDSU was a stretch. San Diego is a huge television market and a natural for growth in fan base if it gets these sorts of conference opponents.
Of course I offer all of the above for argumentative purposes only. And, hey, if your team is left out that there are two extra spaces in the Big 16 and 4 extra ones in the Pacific 14. However, I don't think there will ever be enough true BCS schools in the west to justify 18 teams in its super conference. OTOH, certainly there are neglected powerhouses in the Southeast that I've excluded at this point. South Florida, I want to offer a personal apology to you, but I just couldn't find a space if I limit maximum conference size to 18. I suppose you (and who?) could be an 'out-of-region' member of the Big 16?
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Furk.
So does ECU end up in the SUNBEAST?
Tumblr. EDSBS steam group.
"Damnation seize my soul if I give you quarters, or take any from you." - Edward Teach
Football schools only, Nick.
Will engineer for food and loan payments.
by purwho on Nov 3, 2011 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
How about real schools only...
…so there’s a vacant space in the Big Ten – Indiana moves to the west, and Syracuse goes in that spot.
Easy peasy and Bob’s your uncle.
I'm not really a CPA, I just play one on television.
by BamaTaxMan on Nov 3, 2011 11:37 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
then you have ten in the west subdivision of the big ten
Syracuse is a fine school, and just barely misses out. It’s not the equivalent in football attendance or tv market or football history of any other school in the east section of the new big ten. These superconferences would have to leave the marginal behind, but I’m not a fan of the marginal schools and don’t care much about watching Syracuse against anyone, for example.
by 75 on Nov 4, 2011 5:07 PM EDT up reply actions
Replace either Maryland or Virginia with Syracuse
Syracuse has a much better football history than either of those schools.
"Some mathematician has said that pleasure lies not in discovering truth, but in seeking it." -Tolstoy
"While you may not give a shit, @mlebowski313 is an unstoppable force of nature [at Words With Friends]" -T-Jax
by MikeLew on Nov 4, 2011 5:33 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Mr. 75,
what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
by BamaThrasher on Nov 3, 2011 4:23 PM EDT reply actions 10 recs
and put them back in the SEC.
LSU IS SEC GODDAMMIT (GODDAMMIT has become my favorite word of this footbaw season. THANKS CHARLIE WEIS!!!)
Weoejuwejhdjwe!
Twitter
by Chekhov's Spread Gun Option on Nov 4, 2011 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions
OK, I semi-agree, exchange New Mexico and LSU,
BUT THAT’S TEH BESTcommissionar 75 can do for you!
by 75 on Nov 7, 2011 12:18 AM EST up reply actions
Fuck that.
If you go to a 9-game conference schedule, you would host each cross-division team (in the 18-team conferences) five or six times a century. That’s not a conference by any reasonable definition. It’s not even a conference by any unreasonable definition.
I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left-hand side.
Bradley-Terry rankings for college football and basketball: because there aren't enough computer rankings already.
This is 8 9-team conferences
Which would be a preferable result anyway.
Get rid of championship games and call that “round one” of the playoffs.
SpartanDan has hit on exactly why the superconferences are stupid in the long run. They are two conferences with an artificial relationship.
If you want to force something like this, do 8 9-team conferences with relegation/promotion so it really doesnt matter (well, it matters, but with 72 teams, you cant get everyone with decent attendance) who INITIALLY gets left out. That would mean scheduling 8 conference games and allow 4 games to schedule traditional rivals/patsies/etc
the secret ingredient is ... love?!
by gtne91 on Nov 4, 2011 10:15 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Eggzackly, that's why the sub-divisions matter
The left side of Big Ten is close enough to the ‘real big ten’, for example. I would have all same place finishing teams play each other the last saturday of the season, not just the 1st place finishers. that would be it for cross-division stuff, basically.
My point is that things are so messed up already and getting worse, this arrangement is much better than the mess that is developing. Boise State in the Big East!
by 75 on Nov 4, 2011 5:03 PM EDT up reply actions
Or just, you know, stick with 10-to-12 team conferences.
There is no 16-team conference, or even 14-team conference, I would want to be in over the current Big Ten. I don’t think I’m in the minority among Big Ten fans. I hope Delany isn’t dumb enough to go to 14 just because the SEC is doing it; I don’t think it makes sense financially (given the extra bump for a conference championship game is already there, you almost certainly can’t grow the pie proportionally), historically (fuck, our “rivalry” with Penn State only goes back 15-20 years and I’m still pissed about losing it, I can only imagine how mad Wisconsin is about losing their Iowa rivalry and not even getting Nebraska to compensate), competitively, or for stability.
I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left-hand side.
Bradley-Terry rankings for college football and basketball: because there aren't enough computer rankings already.
by SpartanDan on Nov 4, 2011 8:12 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Twelve is a couple too many for me
10 was just right- send PSU back with their eastern friends, they wanna bitch so much about the Big Ten
"Some mathematician has said that pleasure lies not in discovering truth, but in seeking it." -Tolstoy
"While you may not give a shit, @mlebowski313 is an unstoppable force of nature [at Words With Friends]" -T-Jax
Hey, that's exactly what my deal does
except you have a ‘playoff’ game between ‘big ten (now 9) and a real big east (plus Virginia schools, cuz there really aren’t a lot of great football schools in the Northeast).
by 75 on Nov 7, 2011 12:22 AM EST up reply actions
You aren't in the minority.
12 is the maximum number I want for a conference. Only because it’s better than 11. Then again… 10 is better than 11.
Will engineer for food and loan payments.
And nine is better than 10, 11 or 12
the secret ingredient is ... love?!
9, 10, and 12 all have advantages
14’s only advantage is that it means we’re not in the zombie Big East.
What is the advantage of 10 over 9?
12 has the obvious advantage of allowing a championship game, but I dont see what 10 has going for it.
You either cant play a full round robin or have an imbalanced home/road schedule. That is why 9 is so nice, full round robin with 4 home and 4 road. And can play double round robin in basketball (as you can with 10).
the secret ingredient is ... love?!
Then you can't have a four-team playoff
for the national championship. Which is all you realistically should need, and a plus-one playoff is very compatible with the current bowl system.
by 75 on Nov 7, 2011 12:19 AM EST up reply actions
If you replace "conference championship weekend"
with “round 1” of an 8 team playoff, that is exactly the same as the 4 superconference proposal.
The question I have is, why would you want to be compatible with the current bowl system? The bowls are a bunch of thieves screwing the schools that deserve to die.
The percent of bowl revenue that gets to the participants is pathetic.
the secret ingredient is ... love?!
My plan would have every school play the same-place school
in the other sub-division. That’s 33 games. Your plan gives us 4 games. My plan is far better for the average and below-average schools, cuz it gives everyone an ‘extra’ game.
by 75 on Nov 9, 2011 1:19 PM EST up reply actions
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