The Conference of Private Universities and Military Academies (CPUMA)
The Conference of Private Universities and Military Academies (CPUMA)
If college conference Armageddon occurs and the ACC and Big 12 are gobbled up by the PAC, B1G and SEC, and the College Football Playoffs either requires the participates to either be conferences championship game winners or favor such teams to an extent it would be practically impossible to get into the CFP unless you win your conference championship, then the private schools could form an East/West conference with the Military Academies and have a very nice conference.
Northwestern, Stanford, USC, and Vanderbilt are not included because I presume these four would stay in the B1G, PAC and SEC, respectively, due to their being in the three dominant conferences and wanting to maintain their present conference rivalries.
EAST
Army
Boston College
Duke
Miami
Navy
Notre Dame
Syracuse
Wake Forrest
WEST
Air Force
Baylor
BYU
Rice
SMU
TCU
Tulane
Tulsa
Each school would play 2 teams from the other division, one home, the other away, so that Air Force could play Army and Navy every year and every school would have the same number of conference games. With 2 divisions or 4 divisions, each school would have 9 conference games and 3 out of conference games. If one school is not included, say Duke goes to the SEC with UNC, there would be 15 schools that could be divided into 3 divisions of 5, and each school would have 8 conference games and 4 OOC games.
Duke and Wake Forrest could be enticed with permanent OOC games with UNC, NCS and UVA. The same could happen with Baylor and TCU with Texas and Texas A&M.
Notre Dame would not be happy with 3 OOC games, even with yearly trips to New York and North Carolina, biannual trips to Boston, Maryland and Miami, and frequent trips to Texas. However, if there are 3 divisions of 5 and 4 OOC games, ND could keep its California presence with USC and Stanford, could alternate Michigan State and Purdue, and still schedule another marque matchup every year and have a true national schedule.
The OP was edited by adding the following:
The CPUMA could go to 20 by adding Pitt and Temple, both of which are officially "public-related" universities under Pennsylvania law, which means that they get public funds to subsidize PA citizens getting in state tuition but they are still privately run. That is good enough for me since ND would probably like to play both schools. The Citadel and VMI are added so the militaries could have their own division and so Army would have a decent chance to win some conference games until they build their program back up. The military schools are football only and the rest are full members. VMI would need immediate facility upgrades.
Each school plays every team in their division each year, their permanent rivals every year that are in their same horizontal row, and another game each year from each of the other three divisions. That means 10 conference games per year.
NORTH EAST-------SOUTH--------------WEST-----------MILITARY
Boston College-----Tulsa----------------TCU-------------Air Force
Syracuse------------Duke----------------SMU------------Army
Notre Dame---------Miami---------------BYU------------Navy
Pittsburg------------Tulane---------------Rice------------The Citadel
Temple--------------Wake Forrest-------Baylor----------VMI
This conference make up would hinge on ND joining and presupposes the major conferences have gone to 20 schools, the ACC and Big 12 are no more, it becoming impossible to set an independant schedule because all of the other schools play so many conference games, and the new rules practically require schools be conference champions to get into the playoffs.
To get ND to join this conference instead of the B1G, which ND does not want to do, they get very special treatment. With the exception of the schools that are their permanent cross division rivals, when ND plays their away conference games ND can schedule any such game in any accommodating facility within 250 miles of the other schools' campus. That means ND can play Syracuse in New York City and Baylor in Dallas. Additionally, 1/2 of the tickets would be sold to the general public, a lot of which would be Notre Dame fans. ND must travel to Miami, BYU and Navy, unless they voluntarily work out a deal, in order to get these schools to join the conference. ND also gets to keep their home TV rights, but the ND conference away games belong to the CPUMA.
In a Conference Realignment Armageddon the large public schools likely would be the most sought after, so the above may make since for the private schools and military academies. Consider it an option.
(This post was last modified: 01-21-2014 12:36 AM by Lurker Above.)
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