With realignment winding down, I was thinking of different ideas that could possibly trigger the next waive of movement. I had heard of these comments of 24 or 32 team conferences and I couldn't figure out how in the heck they would work. Then I realized that bigger conferences might be a great idea for smaller conferences to consolidate TV contracts, lowering the supply making their TV contract more valuable, and consolidating their travel footprint, while still allowing for a conference that covers a big TV viewing area.

I am going to use an alignment similar to what the NHL is using starting next year.

I am going to use CUSA and the Sunbelt as an example.

Hypothetically say CUSA invited JMU, Mo St. and the entire Sunbelt except for UTA, UALR, and Idaho. You would have a 26 team league that could easily be broken into 4 divisions, 2 of 7 and 2 of 6

North - Marshall, JMU, ODU, Charlotte, App St. WKU, MTSU
South - UAB, Troy, USA, FIU, FAU, Ga St. Ga Southern
Southwest - So Miss, La Tech, ULL, ULM, Ark St., Mo St
Texas - UTEP, UTSA, Texas St. N Texas, Rice, NMSU

The only games you are guaranteed to play are your divisional games and 1 WILDCARD game against a inter divisional opponent (North would play South and Southwest would play Texas) that will be the last conference game of the year based upon your standings in the conference. North and Southwest schools host the Wildcard game in odd years while South and Texas schools host it in even years.

So North and South division schools would play 7 conference games and Southwest and Texas schools would play 6 conference games. Schools would be free to schedule their non divisional games against whomever they want, both outside of conference and schools in other divisions, thereby maximizing schools freedom of scheduling while ensuring schools will have teams to play.

The two winners of the 1 v. 1 games would play for the conference title in the conference championship game.

For basketball you would play your division round robin while North would play South schools once and Southwest would play Texas schools once.

The only time far flung schools would be forced to come together would be for a centrally located or bid out to the highest bidder conference tournament. Travel would be cake for the schools. The TV people would have a conference stretching from WV to Texas with a gigantic supply of attractive regional games and the supply of conferences would go down by 1 therefore enhancing the value of CUSA contract an increasing the amount of CFP money CUSA would get to cover the excess of schools.

(05-23-2013 06:50 PM)solohawks Wrote:  With realignment winding down, I was thinking of different ideas that could possibly trigger the next waive of movement. I had heard of these comments of 24 or 32 team conferences and I couldn't figure out how in the heck they would work. Then I realized that bigger conferences might be a great idea for smaller conferences to consolidate TV contracts, lowering the supply making their TV contract more valuable, and consolidating their travel footprint, while still allowing for a conference that covers a big TV viewing area.

I am going to use an alignment similar to what the NHL is using starting next year.

I am going to use CUSA and the Sunbelt as an example.

Hypothetically say CUSA invited JMU, Mo St. and the entire Sunbelt except for UTA, UALR, and Idaho. You would have a 26 team league that could easily be broken into 4 divisions, 2 of 7 and 2 of 6

North - Marshall, JMU, ODU, Charlotte, App St. WKU, MTSU
South - UAB, Troy, USA, FIU, FAU, Ga St. Ga Southern
Southwest - So Miss, La Tech, ULL, ULM, Ark St., Mo St
Texas - UTEP, UTSA, Texas St. N Texas, Rice, NMSU

The only games you are guaranteed to play are your divisional games and 1 WILDCARD game against a inter divisional opponent (North would play South and Southwest would play Texas) that will be the last conference game of the year based upon your standings in the conference. North and Southwest schools host the Wildcard game in odd years while South and Texas schools host it in even years.

So North and South division schools would play 7 conference games and Southwest and Texas schools would play 6 conference games. Schools would be free to schedule their non divisional games against whomever they want, both outside of conference and schools in other divisions, thereby maximizing schools freedom of scheduling while ensuring schools will have teams to play.

The two winners of the 1 v. 1 games would play for the conference title in the conference championship game.

For basketball you would play your division round robin while North would play South schools once and Southwest would play Texas schools once.

The only time far flung schools would be forced to come together would be for a centrally located or bid out to the highest bidder conference tournament. Travel would be cake for the schools. The TV people would have a conference stretching from WV to Texas with a gigantic supply of attractive regional games and the supply of conferences would go down by 1 therefore enhancing the value of CUSA contract an increasing the amount of CFP money CUSA would get to cover the excess of schools.

You would need an NCAA rule change. The rule that allows conferences to have a 13th game for a conference championship would not allow your set up. The rule only allows splitting the conference into TWO divisions and it requires that you play EVERY team in your division. It does not require crossover games. That means, the largest confernce you could theoretically have is a 26 team conference with two 13-team divisions. The teams would play no OOC games and would have a 12 game conference schedule playing against each of the other 12 teams in the division.

Realistically, nobody would want a schedule that doesnt allow for a single OOC game. Plus, you would want at least one crossover game to so you feel like you actually share a confernece with the other division teams. Thus, in real life, probably 18 is the largest possible conference.

two 9 team divisions
9 game conference schedule
8 games in division
1 crossover
3 OOC

The Universities themselves decide whom they are scheduled against from other divisions instead of the Conference controlling the scheduling? Yeah, nice idea in theory but in practice I don't see how it could go without major issues popping up.

(05-23-2013 07:20 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(05-23-2013 06:50 PM)solohawks Wrote:  With realignment winding down, I was thinking of different ideas that could possibly trigger the next waive of movement. I had heard of these comments of 24 or 32 team conferences and I couldn't figure out how in the heck they would work. Then I realized that bigger conferences might be a great idea for smaller conferences to consolidate TV contracts, lowering the supply making their TV contract more valuable, and consolidating their travel footprint, while still allowing for a conference that covers a big TV viewing area.

I am going to use an alignment similar to what the NHL is using starting next year.

I am going to use CUSA and the Sunbelt as an example.

Hypothetically say CUSA invited JMU, Mo St. and the entire Sunbelt except for UTA, UALR, and Idaho. You would have a 26 team league that could easily be broken into 4 divisions, 2 of 7 and 2 of 6

North - Marshall, JMU, ODU, Charlotte, App St. WKU, MTSU
South - UAB, Troy, USA, FIU, FAU, Ga St. Ga Southern
Southwest - So Miss, La Tech, ULL, ULM, Ark St., Mo St
Texas - UTEP, UTSA, Texas St. N Texas, Rice, NMSU

The only games you are guaranteed to play are your divisional games and 1 WILDCARD game against a inter divisional opponent (North would play South and Southwest would play Texas) that will be the last conference game of the year based upon your standings in the conference. North and Southwest schools host the Wildcard game in odd years while South and Texas schools host it in even years.

So North and South division schools would play 7 conference games and Southwest and Texas schools would play 6 conference games. Schools would be free to schedule their non divisional games against whomever they want, both outside of conference and schools in other divisions, thereby maximizing schools freedom of scheduling while ensuring schools will have teams to play.

The two winners of the 1 v. 1 games would play for the conference title in the conference championship game.

For basketball you would play your division round robin while North would play South schools once and Southwest would play Texas schools once.

The only time far flung schools would be forced to come together would be for a centrally located or bid out to the highest bidder conference tournament. Travel would be cake for the schools. The TV people would have a conference stretching from WV to Texas with a gigantic supply of attractive regional games and the supply of conferences would go down by 1 therefore enhancing the value of CUSA contract an increasing the amount of CFP money CUSA would get to cover the excess of schools.

You would need an NCAA rule change. The rule that allows conferences to have a 13th game for a conference championship would not allow your set up. The rule only allows splitting the conference into TWO divisions and it requires that you play EVERY team in your division. It does not require crossover games. That means, the largest confernce you could theoretically have is a 26 team conference with two 13-team divisions. The teams would play no OOC games and would have a 12 game conference schedule playing against each of the other 12 teams in the division.

Realistically, nobody would want a schedule that doesnt allow for a single OOC game. Plus, you would want at least one crossover game to so you feel like you actually share a confernece with the other division teams. Thus, in real life, probably 18 is the largest possible conference.

two 9 team divisions
9 game conference schedule
8 games in division
1 crossover
3 OOC

With 4 divisions you could have an unofficial semifinal with predetermined hosts. I labeled this as a wildcard game and counted it as a conference game. In that scenario the last conference game of the year would not be set in stone but you would play a cross divisional opponent based upon your standings.

So North #1 would play South#1 and Texas#1 would play Southwest #1 and that would count as a conference game. Divisions would go straight down the line to ensure everyone had a game and the host would be predetermined depending on if it was an even or odd year.

I do concur it would take a rule change because there would be more than 2 divisions, but the rule could be changed I think a big team conference that allowed more less travel and more out of conference games would be a big plus for many schools.