idea of football conference reshuffling

[freepcrusher]

based on geography so that all the conferences are bcs ones and that each conference is a mix of weak and strong teams.

Border Conference
Arizona State
San Diego State
Hawaii
USC
UCLA
UNLV
Fresno State
San Jose State
Stanford
Cal

Northwest
Nevada
BYU
Utah
Utah State
Idaho
Boise State
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Washington State

WAC
Arizona
New Mexico
New Mexico State
Wyoming
Colorado
Colorado State
Air Force
UTEP
Texas Tech
UTSA

Big East
UMass
Boston College
Uconn
Army
Buffalo
Syracuse
Rutgers
Penn State
Temple
Navy
Maryland

Southern Plains
Texas State San Marcos
Texas
Texas A&M
Rice
Houston
Baylor
SMU
North Texas
TCU
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Tulsa

Gulf Coast
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana Monroe
Louisiana Lafayette
LSU
Tulane
Arkansas
Arkansas State
Memphis
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Southern Miss
Southern Alabama

SEC
Florida
Florida State
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Miami FL
South Florida
Central Florida
Auburn
Troy State
Alabama
UAB
Georgia State

ACC
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Clemson
South Carolina
ECU
NC State
Wake Forest
Duke
UNC
Tennessee
MTSU
Vanderbilt

Cumberland
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Kentucky
Louisville
Western Kentucky
West Virginia
Marshall
Indiana
Miami OH
Cincinnati
OH
Ohio State

Great Lakes
Pittsburgh
Kent State
Akron
Bowling Green
Toledo
Ball State
Notre Dame
Michigan
Michigan State
Western Michigan
CMU
EMU

Northern Plains
Purdue
Illinois
NIU
NW
Wisconsin
Missouri
Iowa
Kansas
Kansas State
Nebraska
Minnesota
Iowa State

[Dancing with Myself]

based on geography so that all the conferences are bcs ones and that each conference is a mix of weak and strong teams.


ACC
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Clemson
South Carolina
ECU
NC State
Wake Forest
Duke
UNC
Tennessee
MTSU
Vanderbilt

Good conference but I would move App State up and put them in instead of MTSU.

[DINGO Joe]

I don't think you understand capitalism

[Хahar 🤔]

All conferences should be exactly the same as in 1967.

ACC: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest
Big 8: Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State
Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
Pac-8: California, Oregon, Oregon State, Southern California, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, Washington State
SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
SWC: Arkansas, Baylor, Rice, Southern Methodist, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech

[Indy Texas]

I don't think you understand capitalism

Some of these hypothetical conferences have zero major media markets in them. Who is going to watch the games?

[7,052,770]

Most major schools would never want to be in a conference with the little brothers of their state.

For example, Mississippi is stretched too thin as it is.  Why would Mississippi State and Ole Miss ever want to elevate Southern Miss to our level?  Right now, we almost always get recruits over them.  If we were in the same league, it would be a more even split.

Plus, why give up our actual rivals to play a bunch of teams we have no history against.


I would be onboard with 4 18-team conferences or something like that:

Pac-18: Current 12, plus Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, BYU, and Boise State
Big 18: Upcoming 14, plus UVA, UNC, Duke, and Notre Dame
SEC: Current 14, plus Florida State, Clemson, NC State, and VA Tech
Atlantic 18?: Leftovers from Big 12 and ACC, plus Cincinnati, USF, UCF, and Connecticut

The rest are demoted to the FCS, or some new in-between division.  The 4 conference champions go to the playoff.

Or something along those lines.  Granted, most of those suggestions aren't realistic either, but it would make an exciting and fair football season.

[traininthedistance]

All conferences should be exactly the same as in 1967.

ACC: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest
Big 8: Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State
Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
Pac-8: California, Oregon, Oregon State, Southern California, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, Washington State
SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
SWC: Arkansas, Baylor, Rice, Southern Methodist, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech

Would you accept the addition of a northeastern conference including BC, Syracuse, Rutgers, Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, Army, Navy, and possibly Connecticut and Lousiville?

[Gass3268]

All conferences should be exactly the same as in 1967.

ACC: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest
Big 8: Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State
Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
Pac-8: California, Oregon, Oregon State, Southern California, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, Washington State
SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
SWC: Arkansas, Baylor, Rice, Southern Methodist, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech

Would you accept the addition of a northeastern conference including BC, Syracuse, Rutgers, Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, Army, Navy, and possibly Connecticut and Lousiville?

And a new WAC with Airzona, Arizona State, Utah, BYU, Boise State and what other 3-5 schools they want to include. 

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I am obviously in complete agreement with Xahar, but even if a forceful dictatorship came in with complete power over the schools, that would have zero chance of happening due to a number of relevant teams left out. I'm happy to see Harry suggest the 18 team conference as opposed to the 16 team garbage that stupids propose. If I could propose a scenario that has a fractionally greater possibility than a 1967 time machine, it is below. The 18-team conference would likely come with a 13 game regular season. 8 division, 1 interdivision locked rival, 2 rotational interdivision matches. And 2 non-conference games for rivalry pride/funding for lower programs. Only divisional games are truly counted towards placement.

During championship week, the power conferences would have the top 5 in each division face off (3rd through -5th for pride/momentum) and the lower ones would have the top 3 (2-3 for pride). The Sugar Bowl half of the bracket has SEC Champ/C-USA Champ vs. Big 12 2nd Place/Big 12 3rd and Big 12 Champ/AAC Champ vs. SEC 2nd/SEC 3rd. The Rose Bowl half of the bracket features Big Ten Champ/MAC Champ vs.  Pac-18 2nd/Pac-18 3rd and Pac-18 Champ/MW Champ vs. Big Ten 2nd/Big Ten 3rd. And yes, it's hard to consider the physical wear of an 18-game season behind my computer. However, all theoretically are in it.

I wrote a whole storyline about how this reshuffling plays out, but I won't bore you all.



The Big Ten is divided into the original 9 teams and the 9 teams added later, which is a decent geographic split. It is just too much to ask to replace Rutgers with Syracuse, but Rutgers-Penn State will develop. Definitely the best suited for interconference match-ups. Unfortunately Notre Dame can’t get Michigan, but they will play every 4 years, which is still better than the current status.

Pac-12 is the conference with the least chance to expand appropriately, and the rivalries are a tad strange, especially for the Oregon schools. UNLV is definitely a drag, but I don’t see a better option. Sports is about to be huge in that city though, so I’m hopeful they can make something of it. San Diego is for geography. Boise is for eyes. UNLV is for both. Air Force is for academics. Hawaii is 18th by default at reduced payout. Rice can't make the cut because sports are that pathetic.

The SEC’s problem is that it doesn’t have a football-only member so that other sports have an even schedule, but the football storylines are far too exciting to pass up including new and old cross divisional rivalries alike as well as the in-state battles now in-conference. From a football perspective, this is too much fun to think about.

The Big 12 is divided into its original components, or what is left of them. The Southwest Conference doesn’t miss Rice much except for tradition, and they won’t be a power elsewhere. Plenty of non-conference scheduling opportunities. Arkansas is more than well-adjusted to the SEC at this point. A&M would be the one to get back if possible, but the SEC offers better opportunity, so I’ll remain realistic and keep it to these six Texas schools. Houston serves as the link to the other city schools via the old days of Conference USA (and notably 80s basketball).

The Big 8 side of the conference has lost each arm outstretched from Kansas, but the regaining of Nebraska recreates the corn beltway. Missouri-Kansas can be OOC. The three Big East teams are just a random throw-on, but at least they have some identity even if it is separate from the rest. Rivalries remain rather strong with plenty of opportunities for all to play and recruit in Texas.



I will simply say that the cross-conference rivalries and competitive balance both start out a little rougher. I would’ve liked to get USM into a better conference with Tulane, but I think maintaining the UAB and Marshall rivalries could be enough. I actually like the Alabama-centric nature of the last conference. If Ohio gets its own football conference, Alabama sure deserves something close to that. North Alabama will have to improve its stadium by leaps and bounds to make it happen, but they have a special degree of fan support.

To replace all the promotions, the FCS has to reload from D2. I don’t think most of these teams are actually considering upgrading their programs outside the Gulf South, but the vast majority are among the strongest programs, which may be needed to keep the FCS stable. I would be most interested in the Ivy, Patrot, and SoCon, but I'm optimistic that a lot more would develop. Missouri State appears to be the only prospective move-up that fails to. But they are garbage, so who care.





This is the first part with literally zero possibility, but I would love to see the HBCU’s get into two conferences of 16 and duke it out for the Celebration Bowl. Almost all have financial issues preventing move-up, but it would be quite exciting to see the top. SWAC would add Savannah State and Tennessee State and promote Kentucky State, West Virginia State, Tuskegee, and Albany State while the MEAC promotes Winston-Salem State (yeah, fer real this time), Fayetteville State, Elizabeth City State, Virginia Union, Virginia State and Bowie State. ECSU is probably too weak, but I’ve always wanted them D1 because there is an obvious lack of a D1 program in that area (much like Fayetteville).

I won’t share my D2 conferences too, but it would retain 131 teams. 6 would be prospective move-ups (Augustana and Indianapolis for MVFC, Colorado State-Mesa and Colorado School of Mines for Big Sky to push CP with other Cal schools, and West Texas A&M and Midwestern State for Southland as Amarillo and Wichita Falls oddly lack D1 schools)

9/26/16 edit: My newly modified version has North Texas remaining in Division 1, taking the place of Montana State (NMSU slides into the North Division). Gives a slight bit more realism to it. Montana-MSU can remain in spite of it.
To make up for this, Colorado State-Mesa also joins the 14-team Big Sky (Mines is stuck in D2). West Alabama shifts from the Big South to Southland east (UCA to Southland west). ETSU remains in the SoCon to keep the Big South at 10 teams and SoCon at 10.

[Santander]

I've only looked at your power conferences smilo, but it's clear you actually put some thought into it. Good work. I think Colorado State would be a better fit for the Pac-12 than UNLV though.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Looked at from a gridiron-only viewpoint, 18-team conferences aren't too bad,  but no way they'd fly for other sports. Personally, I think that a lot of the problems with the FBS schools could be resolved by having gridiron use gridiron-only conferences.  That way schools like Wake Forest and Vanderbilt that have no business being in the FBS could be in the FCS where they ought to be.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I've only looked at your power conferences smilo, but it's clear you actually put some thought into it. Good work. I think Colorado State would be a better fit for the Pac-12 than UNLV though.

I have been doing this for years, and historically, they have been my choice. However, as a Wyoming fan, losing the Border War would be a little tough. Fine to keep it OOC if we must. Rams seem ready to move on though, you are right. 3 Colorado schools also may be a bit much, but perhaps the population growth is good enough and still better than the Vegas market. Close call, and academics could win out. I could live with switching.

Looked at from a gridiron-only viewpoint, 18-team conferences aren't too bad,  but no way they'd fly for other sports. Personally, I think that a lot of the problems with the FBS schools could be resolved by having gridiron use gridiron-only conferences.  That way schools like Wake Forest and Vanderbilt that have no business being in the FBS could be in the FCS where they ought to be.

The reason I have Notre Dame and Hawaii as football-only (and the B12 would add, say Wichita) is that it would create a true round-robin in basketball with even home/away scheduling for a 17 or 19-team conference.  From what I've seen, baseball/softball already has plenty of non-conference scheduling late in the season (at least up north). Lacrosse is fine, conferences max at 9. Soccer is what I imagine would be the toughest, and it is tough to analyze because not all sponsor. Will consider looking into it. Swimming/Track&Field meets can be worked out via tiers of qualification surely? It's definitely tough, but we are in the age of 14 team conference, and we have seen 16.

The biggest issue I can see is that the SEC doesn't sponsor some sports like wrestling/soccer for VT and NC St (and Clemson). SoCon associate could be an alternative. Issues like this won't hold up football conferences though. As we see, Cincinnati is the frontrunner for Big 12 membership, and they have a soccer team that would have no conference.

Also, I'm not really a fan of removing teams just because they don't win many championships - every school has different goals to attain, and at the end of the day, there are historical rivalries, and someone has to be a cellar dweller. Why lose Vandy/Tennessee? And Wake/Duke?

Only reason ACC privates get downgraded slightly is due to space. 2 could easily survive if the Big 12 doesn't take Memphis/SMU (but from a geography/FB History perspective, I much prefer that). But this is a big moneysaver for them, and they get paired with Army/Navy and really relevant USF/UCF/ECU, so it's not terrible.

[Del Tachi]

My dream SEC

Eastern Division:

• Clemson
• Florida
• Florida State
• Georgia
• Georgia Tech
• Virginia Tech
• West Virginia
• South Carolina

Western Division:

• Alabama
• Auburn
• LSU
• Ole Miss
• Mississippi State
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Texas A&M

Permanent Cross-Divisional Rivalries:

• Alabama vs. Florida State
• Auburn vs. Georgia
• LSU vs. Florida -
• Ole Miss vs. Georgia Tech
• Mississippi State vs. South Carolina
• Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech
• Texas vs. West Virginia
• Texas A&M vs. Clemson

[FairBol]

18-team conferences? Not sure I dig that idea.  :: shrugs ::

[7,052,770]

18-team conferences? Not sure I dig that idea.  :: shrugs ::

If you want UConn included, 4 18-team superconferences is a much more likely way to get that than 4 16-team superconferences.