(08-01-2015 12:55 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: To make everybody happy, it would have to be larger than three. Five is more plausible. So you see less teams you DON'T want to play. And that's a bad thing???? Well pardon me if I don't shed many tears for not playing Louisville or Syracuse as often. I would have listed BC as well, but the game in Ireland is pretty damned cool of them.
I'll add the obligatory note here that if you move to a megaconference like my signature, you could not only see almost exclusively teams you want to play, but you'd eliminate lame OOC games (looking at you NCST and Duke), the PITA of OOC scheduling altogether, but still have a trickle of variety from the greater region, and you'd have THE RETURN OF THE HOME AND HOME ROUND ROBIN in basketball with your division. Have I mentioned yet how a megaconference solves all these problems while making you filthy huge piles of lucre?
Basically, your signature creates one conference by merging three conferences. But you have to sacrifice two schools - BC and Iowa State - to make it work. I am partial to 9 team conferences/divisions as you are. But I'm not willing to make anybody walk the plank to make it happen.
I would keep the three conferences, but reshuffle the deck just a little.
I would move West Virginia to the ACC, bringing the B12 down to nine.
Then, I would move Missouri and Vandy to the SEC West, bringing them to nine and the SEC East to five. I would bring them up to nine by moving Ga Tech, UNC, Duke and Virginia from the ACC, leaving the ACC with 11. I'd bring them back up to 12 by adding Cincy.
The three 9 team divisions/conferences play a full round robin, with no crossovers (unless two teams agree to play OOC). Divide the ACC by geography:
BC, Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia, Cincy and Louisville.
FSU, Clemson, Miami, NC State, Wake Forest, Va Tech.
Play 5 and 3, with no permanent rivals. Notre Dame plays north division teams every two years and south division every three years.
The two ACC divisions still play a CCG, as do the two SEC divisions to produce a champion. Since the nine team SEC West doesn't play against the East in the regular season, they can play a challenge series every year against the nine team B12.
I can't see a single team whose schedule would be made worse by this, and I can see a lot whose would be improved.
As you would, I would look forward to a return of the home and home round robin in hoops for 27 of these schools. And I would love to see Duke, UNC and Kentucky in the same division.
What would sweeten the deal for me is if the ACC were added to the SEC network as part of the bargain. Their footprint would cover roughly half of the US population.