(08-20-2015 08:22 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote: Yep. Get BYU on board with poaching the Mountain West, then go after Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, New Mexico, San Diego State, and UNLV (one of these likely gets left out). With Air Force and Navy on board, go after Army and split into 3 geographical divisions of 6 and a military academy division of 3. That's the closest we are going to get to P5-level money, media coverage, and consideration for the CFP and bowl games.
Do this with or without BYU. It might be easier to convince some of the MWC schools to join if BYU were involved; however, I don't think BYU is ready to do anything like this right now - unless it were Olympic sports only with a football scheduling agreement. And that might be a non-starter.
Instead, start with the military angle. Warm Air Force and Army to the idea of conference affiliation with Navy in the AMERICAN. Perfect fit. CIC trophy = division winner. With Air Force and Navy in the mix, SDSU and Colorado St. become viable. Then, the rest will fall into place. The hardest part might be to figure out the 6th team for the Central division or to convince CSU or New Mexico to part of the Central division - if BYU joins.
EAST: Cincy, ECU, Temple, UConn, UCF, USF
CENTRAL: Houston, Memphis, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, TBD (NIU?)
WEST: Boise St., Colorado St., Fresno St., New Mexico, SDSU, UNLV
ARMED FORCES: Air Force, Army, Navy
For the typical schedule, play 5 division games, and then 1 game against each other division. For the ARMED FORCES division, play 2 division games, 4 aligned games (Army-EAST, Navy-CENTRAL, Air Force-WEST), and 1 game against each non-aligned division.
Also, consider to have schedule agreements with BYU and Hawaii (who goes independent). This gets BYU and Hawaii away games on the American media deal (enhancing its value) and could help ensure the Hawaii and Las Vegas bowls go to the AAC.
* C-USA or Sun Belt pick up the rest of the MWC leftovers in their western divisions.
For basketball, it really could help to add BYU for Olympic sports. With 20 teams, you could have four 5-team divisions.
EAST: ECU, Temple, UConn, UCF, USF
CENTRAL: Cincy, Memphis, Tulane, Tulsa, TBD (NIU?)
SOUTH: SMU, Houston, New Mexico, CSU, Air Force
WEST: Boise, BYU, Fresno, SDSU, UNLV
Play 8 division games (H-H) and 10 games rotating through the other divisions. 18 games total. Bball tournament would be tremendous, with 4 division winners and some awesome potential matchups.
OR, have the TBD Central team (NIU?) for football only and keep the East, Central, and West divisions from football - slide New Mexico into the Central and AFA into the West.
Some Olympic sports could stay almost entirely within division if that is really necessary to limit travel - but the basketball schedule formula could also work well.
