(03-09-2014 12:35 AM)jhawkmvp Wrote: I think 24 works too. You play the 5 other schools in your pod and 1 school in each of the other 3 pods for 8 conference games. If you do a rivalry game there is 9. Play the schools in the other pods every 6 years. Not ideal, but workable. In the 14 team SEC don't some of the schools only play like once every seven years? Not much different.
Or just say screw it and set it up like 2 different conferences of 12-16 schools. Schools from each side only play each other in the conference playoff or out of conference. This is something the B12 and ACC could do.
With 24 it becomes too difficult to accommodate rivals that are located beyond your geographical division and it leaves no room for intersectional games which television loves.
As for the Big 12 and ACC getting together I would simply say that you can't join two cracked foundations and build safely upon it. The best solution is to add the strongest and best suited pieces from each to the SEC and Big 10 and then rebuild a new conference of relative peers out of the remnants. The Big 12 is too disparate in membership as too is the ACC.
Big 12 strata:
1. Texas, Oklahoma...............Kansas
2. Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Texas Tech...............W.V.U.
3. Baylor, ...........T.C.U.
ACC strata:
1. North Carolina, Virginia, Duke................Syracuse
2. Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh........Miami.....N.C. State
3. Boston College,.............Louisville................Wake Forest
1. Notre Dame in a class above the rest but not part of them.
Level 1 is a national brand that is the top school in their state. The only exception here is Duke.
Level 2 is an extremely strong program to moderate program but one that is not the top school in their state.
Level 3 is a good school but filler and probably private.
There are 7 national brands between the two. There are 11 strong to medium brands that are not #1 in their state. West Virginia is only ranked with these due to academics.
Level 3's will have a hard time finding a new home. Boston College because of markets and hockey has the best chance and then probably only in the Big 10.
The distance, the types of schools, the variance in their academic pursuits, and their sports emphasis all work against building something that would last out of the two conferences. It would be like two people with complimenting personality disorders saying, "I think together we can have a good marriage." It always sounds logical, but the results are seldom satisfactory.
The SEC is clearly a football first conference which is highly competitive and largely comprised of large state schools (large for the South) of which again the majority are the state flagship school of their state.
The Big 10 is clearly an academics first conference that plays great basketball, but wants to be a football first conference. The are comprised of large state schools with sound academic standing.
In both the SEC and Big 10 everyone is clear as to their priorities. In both the SEC and Big 10 profits are share and share alike. The SECN finally swept away the disparity of third tier deals in the SEC.
While the ACC has moved to share and share alike they remain 3 separate entities bound in once conference with two outliers. Boston College, Pittsburgh and Syracuse are similar but they are decidedly big city Northern cultures. Virginia, Duke, North Carolina and Wake Forest are decidedly wealthy suburban schools with Southern heritage. While N.C. State and Virginia Tech are part of this grouping they are distinct in that both are more middle class and prefer football somewhat.
Clemson, Florida State, Miami, and Georgia Tech are very different from the others. They are football first schools. But even these are very different than one another. Miami is more Northern in culture and has more in common with Syracuse, Pitt, and B.C. than any of the others. Georgia Tech is simply a stellar math and science school with Southern roots. Clemson and Florida State are the most similar.
There are three mindsets in the ACC. It is a house divided. Louisville is an outlier as is Miami. But Louisville in much farther inland and with a much different academic background.
Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas form the entitled culture of the Big 12. Kansas being the more mainline of those three. Oklahoma is basically in line with the SEC in most demographics but they fancy themselves as being better. Kansas is better than all but about 5 or 6 SEC schools when it comes to academics. They are a better fit for the Big 10.
Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech are all solid agricultural schools.
West Virginia is a total outlier but is the flagship school of its state with a mission to bring up the educational level of the rural parts of West Virginia. Much like Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State they are bound by their state legislature to make concessions on research and entrance requirements to accomplish their task of helping education statewide. This serves to handicap them in academic ranking.
Baylor is a strong private that should find a home but with 3 good state schools already in Texas it will be hard.
T.C.U. lacks the athletic diversity to truly compete at the P5 level and sustain success.
That's too much dissimilarity to build successfully upon. But between them there are enough schools in the middle range to reconstruct a competitive conference after those with more in common with the Big 10 and SEC leave.