(09-28-2013 11:07 AM)bitcruncher Wrote:  

(09-28-2013 10:56 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(09-28-2013 10:04 AM)SeaBlue Wrote:  Does 18 work for a conference, or for practical reasons does it really need to be 16 or 20?

Eighteen works beautifully for several reasons. It permits geographical groupings of sufficient numbers to curtail travel expense excesses for the year, allows for the annual playing of virtually all regional rivals, and permits for a natural balancing of the divisions with the use of a wild card for the remaining team with the best overall conference record to have entry into the conference championship rounds.

The professionals use wild cards for one important reason. Having one energizes the fan bases of many more schools to remain actively interested late into a season when otherwise divisional races might already have been decided. It is a marketing bonanza more than anything else. But, it does add fairness to balancing the relative strengths of the 3 divisions. It also doesn't detract from playing all conference schools within a 3 year rotation. You play your 5 divisional games and rotate two teams from each of the other two divisions each year for a total of 9 conference games. The following is a hypothetical for the SEC using Baylor and Oklahoma and N.C. State and Virignia Tech (I'm not saying they would come to the SEC but you will see how groups of 6 really help with geography.

West: Arkansas, Baylor, Louisiana State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas A&M

Central: Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi, Miss St., Tennessee, Vanderbilt

East: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, N.C. State, South Carolina, Va Tech

The 3 divisional champs and best remaining team play it off for the Conference Championship.

And for He1nous and Bit, in my opinion you get a truer divisional champ playing 5 divisional games than you do playing 3 or 4. More divisional games creates a greater distinction.

Perhaps. But smaller pods allows each team to play every conference member more often than otherwise. IMO the more you play all your conference members, the more cohesive the entire conference becomes...

But either method will work...

No more often, and no less often either way. It still takes 3 years to play everyone.