(05-04-2015 07:41 PM)YNot Wrote: (05-04-2015 06:32 PM)Sactowndog Wrote: I disagree about not needing divisions. Whether you are talking the Big 12 competing for the playoff or the AAC/MWC trying to control the access bowl, the surest way to accomplish this feat is have 2 undefeated teams play in the championship game. At worst you want a 12-0 team playing a 11-1 team.
The higher the chance your two top teams meet the less chance you have of them both being strongly positioned. That reason is why I like 8-8-8 because you have almost no chance of it happening. In the Big 12 model, such an outcome is virtually guarenteed.
With divisions, the more likely scenario is that you have your second strongest team that finishes second place in a division is left out while your strongest team plays a relative under-achiever. There are tons of examples of this over the course of college football history. Just last year, the MWC and MAC suffered from this very issue. Boise St. (7-1, 10-2) played Fresno State (5-3, 6-6) instead of CSU (6-2, 10-2) and Utah St. (6-2, 9-3) and even Air Force (5-3, 9-3). Had Fresno St. pulled off the upset, there is no way that Fresno lands in the NY6. However, if CSU or Utah St. upset Boise St., it could have been enough to propel them into the NY6.
See the similar situation in the MAC where the best team actually played the fourth or fifth best team in the conference in the CCG because of divisional alignment - although the stakes weren't quite as high.
True if you have two divisions. Much less likely if you have 3 and the teams don't play each other. Let's use the MWC as an example. Had we been a 24 team triple 8 team you would have Boise in the west at probably 11-1 as they beat all the west teams and would likely not played AF or Colorado State. Colorado State would have been 11-1 or 10-2 in the central if they lost to Houston and Memphis would have been say 9-3 in the east with a loss to UCF. In this case, the two highest teams would have gone.
Assuming C State had not lost to Houston you would have two 11-1 teams playing in the Championship and a win by either would have put them in over Marshall. They key is don't have your division champs hand each other loses, do well OOC, and pick your best two of three. That is the problem with six is you have too much cross over. But perhaps 7 would work where you play 3 home and 3 away in league and 1 in each other for an 8 game schedule.
The problem is you don't have a good fit unless you drop an AAC team so I dumped Tulane.
Using Coogs plan you might have:
West: Boise, Fresno, SDSU, UNLV, Reno, Utah State, Hawaii
West hoops: BYU, Gonzaga (Hawaii football only)
Central: Colorado State, Air Force, Houston, SMU, Tulsa, New Mexico, Memphis
Central hoops: Whichita State, UAB (AF Football only)
East: UConn, Cincinatti, Temple, ECU, UCF, USF, Navy
East Hoops: VCU, Dayton. (Navy football only)
You could make it even more attractive by stating hoops credits get shared only within your division. That means Gonzaga is sharing theirs with 7 other schools. It would be a very attractive hoops league in addition to owning the access game.