Why can't the BE just add a 13th western school and have 6 in the west until Navy joins and 7 in the east:

East:
UC
UL
UConn
USF
UCF
Temple
Rutgers

West:
UH
Smu
Boise
Memphis
SDST
BYU/AF/Fresno St.

Unless there is a rule against it. Wouldn't this work better? Add the Western team now to maximize TV money bc we already know Navy is coming, keep the East intact so no one has to have crazy travel until Navy comes in. Just a thought.

I think that's a possibility, and could be why Aresco was talking out loud about Navy joining early. BYU could certainly do it, assuming they say yes soon, but probably not until 2014. Not sure it's worth the effort for one year.

I have been making the case for some time that it would not be a big problem to play a year or two with 13 teams. The B1G was playing with 11 teams for years until they added Nebraska last year to get to 12. And look at the MAC. They have been doing a 13-team conference since 2007. And the SEC was prepared to do it until Missouri was added.

The BE conference championship game would not be a big problem either. Suppose it came down to a championship playoff game like this:

Eastern Division Champ (11-1, 5-1) vs Western Division Champ (10-2, 4-1)
or
East (12-0, 6-0) vs West (11-1, 5-0)
East (10-2, 4-2) vs West (11-1, 4-1)
East (11-1, 5-1) vs West 12-0, 5-0)

You get the idea. It would only be until Navy and #14 are both on board.

I thought the whole thing was to get BYU on board for the tv contract negotiations. Isn't this all about tv money. I have no clue what is really going on behind the scenes but I hope this is what is driving everything right now. If we are unable to get BYU then I don't care when we add who ever it will not matter then.

As long as you have the bird in the hand, It doesn't matter whether it is in 2013, 14, or 15. TV deal can be worked out with the needed jumps in value depending on the years.

You can do 13 team conferences, but it breaks the rule about playing every team in your division, at least the way the MAC schedules it. Since no one cares about the MAC, no one says anything, but you know someone would complain if the Big East did it. That or 2 teams would go undefeated in the same division without playing each other.

(10-23-2012 06:37 AM)General Mike Wrote:  You can do 13 team conferences, but it breaks the rule about playing every team in your division, at least the way the MAC schedules it. Since no one cares about the MAC, no one says anything, but you know someone would complain if the Big East did it. That or 2 teams would go undefeated in the same division without playing each other.

Yeah, it's probably a moot point anyway about playing with 13. When Aresco held that press conference in Boise Saturday he talked about having a 12 team conference next year. In fact he said two weeks ago that a 13 team conference would not work:

http://snyrutgers.com/rutgers/football/b...r-message/

I would think that if he doesn't like it, it ain't gonna happen.

(10-23-2012 06:24 AM)FUB Wrote:  I thought the whole thing was to get BYU on board for the tv contract negotiations. Is't this all about tv money. I have no clue what is really going on behind the scenes but I hope this is what is driving everything right now. If we are unable to get BYU then I don't care when we add who ever it will not matter then.

That's more of a catch-22 situation - We would definitely have better negotiations if BYU agreed to join, but they won't until they see how much the contract is worth to decide if it's worth ending their agreement with ESPN.

The negotiations will undoubtedly include a clause of how adding BYU would affect the bottom line, but don't expect to see BYU agree to join anytime before the TV deal is reached.

The MAC got an NCAA exemption which allowed them to avoid round robin play in division. Theoretically you could have 2 teams in the MAC East end up undefeated and have issues. The MAC provided a landing spot for Temple though so the NCAA wasn't going to complain. The Big East would probably get a 1 year exemption too, but like with the SEC when they were talking about it, I wouldn't say its 100%. If the conference didn't get it, still playing round robin in division would be possible, but it would require 4 teams in the bigger division to play 9 conference games instead of 8 (this doesn't work with the whole conference playing 9 though).

Math:
Non divisional games for smaller division (3 non-divisional games for 6 teams): 6x3=18
Non divisional games for bigger division (2 non-divisional games for 3 teams, 3 for 4 teams): 3x2=6 3x4=12 12+6=18

In the next few months Aresco will be negotiating with all the TV sports channels . I would be willing to bet that he will be able to provide BYU with approximate dollar amounts close enough for BYU to make a decision. I think we need to have at least 14 now to negotiate from a better position. I could be completly wrong about this ,but I think if BYU does not come before the new contract is signed they will not be joining at all. I think we should be doing more to improve football strength before contract talks are over . I can't stand this reactive instead of proactive lull we seem to be in.

Im sure that the league will get numbers for all the different 14th team scenarios before going forward.