07-21-2021, 02:44 PM
I have always thought that a combo conference from the SEC/ACC/Big 12 with state Flagship and Land Grant - Tech school divisions would be interesting. I think it is highly unlikely that such a conference would come into existence but it's fun to play around with what ifs. The conference would look like this .......
Flagship Division
Florida
Alabama
Texas
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Georgia
Mississippi
Tennessee
Arkansas
North Carolina
Land Grant/Tech Division
FSU
Auburn
Texas A&M
Oklahoma St
Clemson
Ga Tech
Miss St
Va Tech
LSU
NC St
Before the argument gets started about who is and who is not a “flagship” school, if the school name starts with “University Of” then they are the flagship school for that state regardless of whether that is true or not. It is also true that several of these flagships were originally established as land grants (UF, Tenn, Ga, Ark). Since Tennessee does not have a big time football playing land grant/tech school, I picked what I thought would be the best/closest option (Va Tech). LSU is considered the flagship for Louisiana (even though they were established as a land grant institution) but I included them in the Land Grant/Tech division and included Arkansas as their corresponding “flagship” school.
So, this would result in a 20 team conference with divisions of 10 teams each. Each team would play everyone in their division (9 games), their corresponding in state school plus Tenn/Va Tech & Ark/LSU, a permanent cross division opponent, and a rotating cross division opponent. This would be 12 conference games (6 home / 6 away).
I am not sure the best combination of permanent cross division opponents but here is my take:
Florida / Texas A&M
Alabama / LSU
Texas / Oklahoma St
Oklahoma / Clemson
South Carolina / Miss St
Georgia / Auburn
Mississippi / Ga Tech
Tennessee / FSU
Arkansas / NC St
North Carolina / Va Tech
There are obvious drawbacks to this conference and proposed scheduling. First and foremost, there would be no OOC games (of course, some may see this as a plus). Each team would only have 6 home games ……… this is a big deal financially for many of these teams. There are a few big rivalries that I can think of (FSU/Miami, UNC/Duke, ????) that would be eliminated. In a conference of this size and having a permanent cross division rival and with only one rotating cross division game each year, it will take 16 years for each team to complete a home/home with every team in the conference.
Some of the plusses:
- A lot of big time games
- Blanket covers all of the best football schools from the southern/southeastern states (TX, OK, LA, AL, MS, AR, TN, GA, NC, SC, FL) plus VA (no longer considered a southern state by most southerners!)
- Hardly any doubt that the winners of the two divisions would be included in a 12 team playoff and very probable that a 3rd team from this conference would be included.
Flagship Division
Florida
Alabama
Texas
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Georgia
Mississippi
Tennessee
Arkansas
North Carolina
Land Grant/Tech Division
FSU
Auburn
Texas A&M
Oklahoma St
Clemson
Ga Tech
Miss St
Va Tech
LSU
NC St
Before the argument gets started about who is and who is not a “flagship” school, if the school name starts with “University Of” then they are the flagship school for that state regardless of whether that is true or not. It is also true that several of these flagships were originally established as land grants (UF, Tenn, Ga, Ark). Since Tennessee does not have a big time football playing land grant/tech school, I picked what I thought would be the best/closest option (Va Tech). LSU is considered the flagship for Louisiana (even though they were established as a land grant institution) but I included them in the Land Grant/Tech division and included Arkansas as their corresponding “flagship” school.
So, this would result in a 20 team conference with divisions of 10 teams each. Each team would play everyone in their division (9 games), their corresponding in state school plus Tenn/Va Tech & Ark/LSU, a permanent cross division opponent, and a rotating cross division opponent. This would be 12 conference games (6 home / 6 away).
I am not sure the best combination of permanent cross division opponents but here is my take:
Florida / Texas A&M
Alabama / LSU
Texas / Oklahoma St
Oklahoma / Clemson
South Carolina / Miss St
Georgia / Auburn
Mississippi / Ga Tech
Tennessee / FSU
Arkansas / NC St
North Carolina / Va Tech
There are obvious drawbacks to this conference and proposed scheduling. First and foremost, there would be no OOC games (of course, some may see this as a plus). Each team would only have 6 home games ……… this is a big deal financially for many of these teams. There are a few big rivalries that I can think of (FSU/Miami, UNC/Duke, ????) that would be eliminated. In a conference of this size and having a permanent cross division rival and with only one rotating cross division game each year, it will take 16 years for each team to complete a home/home with every team in the conference.
Some of the plusses:
- A lot of big time games
- Blanket covers all of the best football schools from the southern/southeastern states (TX, OK, LA, AL, MS, AR, TN, GA, NC, SC, FL) plus VA (no longer considered a southern state by most southerners!)
- Hardly any doubt that the winners of the two divisions would be included in a 12 team playoff and very probable that a 3rd team from this conference would be included.