This is an attempt to realign FBS conferences to achieve the following goals:

1. Keep the high resource schools in the NCAA within the existing FBS structure.
2. Keep current conferences as intact as possible.
3. Provide a path, however unlikely, for all 130 teams to reach the CFP.
4. Expand access to the New Year's Day contract bowls beyond the current P5 schools.
5. Establish the CFP winner as undisputed national champion.

The new conference divisions are shown below. Schools printed in blue are new additions to their respective confereces. In parentheses are likely annual games outside the divisions (provided both schools want them). The annual games in bold are OOC games. The others are protected crossover games within the conference. The fact that the divisions are shown side by side is not meant to suggest that the schools on the same line are annual crossovers. The format shown was just intended to save space. Schools without an annual in-conference crossover partner would rotate their 8th game however their conference chooses.

The PSW (Pacific Southwest Conference) is divided in a zipper format, with a nine game conference schedule, in order to accommodate the unique scheduling needs caused by their geography. Because it is a zipper arrangement and not a geographic alignment, I had to make up division names. To give credit where it is due, somebody else thought of these before me.


SEC East...............................................SEC West
Kentucky (Louisville)..............................Auburn
Tennessee (Alabama)...............................Alabama (Tennessee)
Vanderbilt...............................................Ole Miss
South Carolina.........................................Mississippi State
Clemson (Georgia Tech)........................LSU
Georgia (Auburn, Georgia Tech)...............Arkansas
Florida (Miami)......................................Texas A&M (Texas)
Florida State (Miami)............................Missouri (Kansas)

B1G East..............................................B1G West
Michigan (Michigan State).........................Michigan State (Michigan)
Purdue (Indiana).....................................Indiana (Purdue)
Ohio State..............................................Illinois
Penn State (Pitt)....................................Northwestern
Maryland (West Virginia, Virginia).........Wisconsin
Rutgers (Syracuse)................................Minnesota
NC State (UNC, Duke)...........................Iowa (Iowa State)
Virginia Tech (Virginia).........................Nebraska

PSW Legends.........................................PSW Leaders
Washington (Washington St, Oregon)..........Washington St (Washington, Oregon St)
Oregon St (Oregon, Washington St)............Oregon (Oregon St, Washington)
California (Stanford, UCLA)........................Stanford (California, USC, Notre Dame)
USC (UCLA, Stanford, Notre Dame)...........UCLA (USC, California)
Utah (Colorado, Arizona, BYU)...................Colorado (Utah, Arizona St, Colorado St)
Arizona St (Arizona, Colorado)...................Arizona (Arizona St, Utah)
Oklahoma (Texas, Oklahoma St)...............Texas (Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas A&M)
Texas Tech (Oklahoma St, Texas)..............Oklahoma St (Texas Tech, Oklahoma)

ACC North...............................................ACC South
Boston College..........................................Wake Forest
Syracuse (Rutgers)..................................North Carolina (NC State)
Pitt (Penn State).....................................Virginia (Virginia Tech, Maryland)
Louisville (Kentucky)................................Georgia Tech (Clemson, Georgia)
West Virginia (Maryland)........................Miami (Florida St, Florida)
Cincinnati...............................................Duke (NC State)

Big 12 North...........................................Big 12 South
Iowa State (Iowa)....................................Tulsa
Kansas (Missouri).....................................Houston
Kansas State.............................................Tulane
Baylor.......................................................Memphis
TCU..........................................................South Florida
SMU........................................................Central Florida

AAC (football only)
Connecticut
Temple
East Carolina
Navy (Air Force, Notre Dame)
Army (Air Force)
Massachusetts
Liberty
Old Dominion

C-USA replaces Old Dominion with New Mexico State, leaving only Notre Dame and BYU as football independents. The MAC, Mountain West and Sunbelt remain unchanged.

The postseason schedule becomes:

Week 14: Army-Navy, G7 CCG's and AQ conference semifinals
Week 15: CFP quarterfinals **
New Year's Eve (approx): CFP semifinals
New Year's Day:
....Rose Bowl (B1G vs PSW)
....Sugar Bowl (SEC vs PSW)
....Orange Bowl (ACC vs SEC)
....Fiesta Bowl (MWC vs PSW)
....Peach Bowl (SEC vs B1G)
....Cotton Bowl (Big 12 vs B1G)

** 3 AQ conference finals plus the 2 highest ranked G7 conference champions or independents who play off for the 4th CFP berth.

Because of existing contracts, including Grants of Rights, this configuration would take a lot of cooperation among the NCAA, schools, conferences and media partners. Maybe too much. But it's the best I can come up with given my stated goals.

I think it would benefit ODU to be in a football only conference and then the A-10 for basketball and everything else.

(12-18-2018 02:44 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  I think it would benefit ODU to be in a football only conference and then the A-10 for basketball and everything else.

I had the same thought about several of the schools I put in this conference. There are conferences that suit them better for their other sports, and rather than just leave them in the limbo of football independence I tried to give them a conference home to facilitate bowl tie-ins.

Nice project, Ken.

May I ask why you kept UNC and Virginia in the ACC, while moving Virginia Tech and North Carolina State to the B1G? Would it not have been easier to move UNC/Virginia to the B1G (UNC - NCST/Duke; Virginia - VT), especially since UNC/Virginia are AAU institutions?

I liked your alignment of the PAC/Texahoma. Perhaps Pacific and Western Divisions as names instead?

For the Big 12 back-fill, I would remove SMU, Tulane and Tulsa, and replace with Boise State (West), San Diego State (West) and Temple (East). Iowa State would move to the Eastern Division, while SMU would take Boise's spot in the MWC, Tulsa would take San Diego State's, and Tulane would simply take Temple's and slot in the American.

(12-18-2018 02:50 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 02:44 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  I think it would benefit ODU to be in a football only conference and then the A-10 for basketball and everything else.

I had the same thought about several of the schools I put in this conference. There are conferences that suit them better for their other sports, and rather than just leave them in the limbo of football independence I tried to give them a conference home to facilitate bowl tie-ins.

What about the basketball and Olympic sports for the other AAC football only schools? What would be their home?

(12-18-2018 03:01 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Nice project, Ken.

May I ask why you kept UNC and Virginia in the ACC, while moving Virginia Tech and North Carolina State to the B1G? Would it not have been easier to move UNC/Virginia to the B1G (UNC - NCST/Duke; Virginia - VT), especially since UNC/Virginia are AAU institutions?

I liked your alignment of the PAC/Texahoma. Perhaps Pacific and Western Divisions as names instead?

For the Big 12 back-fill, I would remove SMU, Tulane and Tulsa, and replace with Boise State (West), San Diego State (West) and Temple (East). Iowa State would move to the Eastern Division, while SMU would take Boise's spot in the MWC, Tulsa would take San Diego State's, and Tulane would simply take Temple's and slot in the American.

Frankly, I don't think UNC and Virginia would agree to go. VT and NCSU aren't as closely aligned, IMO, with others in the ACC Coastal division.

I considered other options for backfilling the Big 12. One big reason why I rejected adding Boise and SDSU was that I felt that those moves would weaken the argument for giving the MWC a guaranteed berth in an NY6 Bowl. As I configured it, there would be 84 schools with a path to the benefits of NY6 exposure every year. That's hard to do, and a major improvement IMO to the status of schools that have been playing at the top level of college football for more than 50 years, but who are facing the possibility of de facto relegation unless something is done to change the direction of realignment.

(12-18-2018 03:21 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 02:50 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 02:44 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  I think it would benefit ODU to be in a football only conference and then the A-10 for basketball and everything else.

I had the same thought about several of the schools I put in this conference. There are conferences that suit them better for their other sports, and rather than just leave them in the limbo of football independence I tried to give them a conference home to facilitate bowl tie-ins.

What about the basketball and Olympic sports for the other AAC football only schools? What would be their home?

I considered speculating about that, but was afraid it would derail the main point of the OP.

Army and Navy are already on their own for other sports, and presumably reasonably satisfied with what they have. I would imagine that, as an alternative to placing Olympic sports with the Big East, UConn might consider seeking to become a 14th member of the ACC, which would now have a stronger northeastern presence.

As much as I like and admire East Carolina, they are overmatched in basketball wherever they could land in a strong all sports conference. They probably fit better in something like the Colonial Conference, even though that's a hard pill for them to swallow.

An ODU fan has also suggested this could be good for his school. Temple may be the only one of these 8 schools for whom this is overall a negative outcome.

You'll probably need to protect Auburn/Georgia too. If the SEC only has 8 conference games, a team with a protected crossover won't be able to play any of the other schools in the opposite division in-conference. Similarly, even with 9 games, the schools in the PSW will never face off in-conference against the 6 schools in the opposite division that aren't protected crossovers. Requiring OOC scheduling to play conference mates would not likely be acceptable to most schools. That's why either going divisionless or using a rotating pod structure is more ideal for a 16-team conference than two locked 8-team divisions.

(12-18-2018 04:46 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 03:21 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 02:50 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 02:44 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  I think it would benefit ODU to be in a football only conference and then the A-10 for basketball and everything else.

I had the same thought about several of the schools I put in this conference. There are conferences that suit them better for their other sports, and rather than just leave them in the limbo of football independence I tried to give them a conference home to facilitate bowl tie-ins.

What about the basketball and Olympic sports for the other AAC football only schools? What would be their home?

I considered speculating about that, but was afraid it would derail the main point of the OP.

Army and Navy are already on their own for other sports, and presumably reasonably satisfied with what they have. I would imagine that, as an alternative to placing Olympic sports with the Big East, UConn might consider seeking to become a 14th member of the ACC, which would now have a stronger northeastern presence.

As much as I like and admire East Carolina, they are overmatched in basketball wherever they could land in a strong all sports conference. They probably fit better in something like the Colonial Conference, even though that's a hard pill for them to swallow.

An ODU fan has also suggested this could be good for his school. Temple may be the only one of these 8 schools for whom this is overall a negative outcome.

I think the ECU to the A-10 for Olympic sports would be good for them. The A-10 could help themselves by dropping La Salle, Duquense, St. Bonnie and Fordham. And replacing them with (in your scenario) ODU, ECU, Temple and Liberty. Liberty just because I think they are going to shell out whatever it takes to be competitive in sports. That leaves the A-10 with

Davidson
Dayton
East Carolina
George Mason
George Washington
Liberty
UMass
Old Dominion
Richmond
Rhode Island
St Joes
Saint Louis
Temple
VCU

Wait... so mwc gets fiesta and AAC is a football only with 0 ties to anything?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(12-18-2018 04:56 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 04:46 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 03:21 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 02:50 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 02:44 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  I think it would benefit ODU to be in a football only conference and then the A-10 for basketball and everything else.

I had the same thought about several of the schools I put in this conference. There are conferences that suit them better for their other sports, and rather than just leave them in the limbo of football independence I tried to give them a conference home to facilitate bowl tie-ins.

What about the basketball and Olympic sports for the other AAC football only schools? What would be their home?

I considered speculating about that, but was afraid it would derail the main point of the OP.

Army and Navy are already on their own for other sports, and presumably reasonably satisfied with what they have. I would imagine that, as an alternative to placing Olympic sports with the Big East, UConn might consider seeking to become a 14th member of the ACC, which would now have a stronger northeastern presence.

As much as I like and admire East Carolina, they are overmatched in basketball wherever they could land in a strong all sports conference. They probably fit better in something like the Colonial Conference, even though that's a hard pill for them to swallow.

An ODU fan has also suggested this could be good for his school. Temple may be the only one of these 8 schools for whom this is overall a negative outcome.

I think the ECU to the A-10 for Olympic sports would be good for them. The A-10 could help themselves by dropping La Salle, Duquense, St. Bonnie and Fordham. And replacing them with (in your scenario) ODU, ECU, Temple and Liberty. Liberty just because I think they are going to shell out whatever it takes to be competitive in sports. That leaves the A-10 with

Davidson
Dayton
East Carolina
George Mason
George Washington
Liberty
UMass
Old Dominion
Richmond
Rhode Island
St Joes
Saint Louis
Temple
VCU

La Salle and Fordham were 1995 adds, but Duquesne is a founding member of the A10 and the Bonnies joined up only 3 years later. Tough sell to kick them out.

Also lol at Temple leaving the A10 and then coming back into it in this scenario. All comes full circle for them.

(12-18-2018 05:01 PM)Starfox207 Wrote:  Wait... so mwc gets fiesta and AAC is a football only with 0 ties to anything?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well there will be sort of bowl tie for ECU in the colonial conference

(12-18-2018 05:01 PM)Starfox207 Wrote:  Wait... so mwc gets fiesta and AAC is a football only with 0 ties to anything?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As a conference, rather than 8 separate independent schools, they can negotiate tie-ins like any other conference. They would start out with at least two - the Armed Services Bowl and the Military Bowl. Nothing stopping them from getting more.

But clearly, this isn't anything like the current AAC, the heart of which would have gone to NY6 contract conferences.

Why would the BIG want NC State if it had UNC, seems like a duplicate market?

(12-18-2018 04:50 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  You'll probably need to protect Auburn/Georgia too. If the SEC only has 8 conference games, a team with a protected crossover won't be able to play any of the other schools in the opposite division in-conference. Similarly, even with 9 games, the schools in the PSW will never face off in-conference against the 6 schools in the opposite division that aren't protected crossovers. Requiring OOC scheduling to play conference mates would not likely be acceptable to most schools. That's why either going divisionless or using a rotating pod structure is more ideal for a 16-team conference than two locked 8-team divisions.

You're right. I missed that game. There are no doubt other games that schools would want to play every year. One big reason for keeping the B1G and SEC at an 8 game conference schedule was to provide another OOC game to facilitate them. For example, I suspect Rutgers and Temple may want to see each other every year.

To the extent that some schools, by virtue of having fixed crossover games, wouldn't ever play each other in conference (except in the post season), they always have the option of using one of their OOC games to remedy that if they want to. The PAC's traditional games, owing to geography, make this more problematic for them. But any plan will have unpleasant tradeoffs.

EDIT: If I had been more awake when I answered that, I would have said that for the B1G and SEC the simpler solution is to make their only two necessary rivalry games the OOC contests, so everyone would still have a rotating crossover every year.

I wouldn't force the PAC to have two fixed crossovers, but the fact that a zipper format when you have four distinct geograhical groups (Texhoma, Four Corners, Pacific Northwest and California) makes it almost a necessity. By that I mean that I believe to get the votes of the Four Corners schools for expansion, you must accommodate their need to have two California opponents every year.

(12-18-2018 02:27 PM)ken d Wrote:  This is an attempt to realign FBS conferences to achieve the following goals:

1. Keep the high resource schools in the NCAA within the existing FBS structure.
2. Keep current conferences as intact as possible.
3. Provide a path, however unlikely, for all 130 teams to reach the CFP.
4. Expand access to the New Year's Day contract bowls beyond the current P5 schools.
5. Establish the CFP winner as undisputed national champion.

The new conference divisions are shown below. Schools printed in blue are new additions to their respective confereces. In parentheses are likely annual games outside the divisions (provided both schools want them). The annual games in bold are OOC games. The others are protected crossover games within the conference. The fact that the divisions are shown side by side is not meant to suggest that the schools on the same line are annual crossovers. The format shown was just intended to save space. Schools without an annual in-conference crossover partner would rotate their 8th game however their conference chooses.

The PSW (Pacific Southwest Conference) is divided in a zipper format, with a nine game conference schedule, in order to accommodate the unique scheduling needs caused by their geography. Because it is a zipper arrangement and not a geographic alignment, I had to make up division names. To give credit where it is due, somebody else thought of these before me.


SEC East...............................................SEC West
Kentucky (Louisville)..............................Auburn
Tennessee (Alabama)...............................Alabama (Tennessee)
Vanderbilt...............................................Ole Miss
South Carolina.........................................Mississippi State
Clemson (Georgia Tech)........................LSU
Georgia (Auburn, Georgia Tech)...............Arkansas
Florida (Miami)......................................Texas A&M (Texas)
Florida State (Miami)............................Missouri (Kansas)

B1G East..............................................B1G West
Michigan (Michigan State).........................Michigan State (Michigan)
Purdue (Indiana).....................................Indiana (Purdue)
Ohio State..............................................Illinois
Penn State (Pitt)....................................Northwestern
Maryland (West Virginia, Virginia).........Wisconsin
Rutgers (Syracuse)................................Minnesota
NC State (UNC, Duke)...........................Iowa (Iowa State)
Virginia Tech (Virginia).........................Nebraska

PSW Legends.........................................PSW Leaders
Washington (Washington St, Oregon)..........Washington St (Washington, Oregon St)
Oregon St (Oregon, Washington St)............Oregon (Oregon St, Washington)
California (Stanford, UCLA)........................Stanford (California, USC, Notre Dame)
USC (UCLA, Stanford, Notre Dame)...........UCLA (USC, California)
Utah (Colorado, Arizona, BYU)...................Colorado (Utah, Arizona St, Colorado St)
Arizona St (Arizona, Colorado)...................Arizona (Arizona St, Utah)
Oklahoma (Texas, Oklahoma St)...............Texas (Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas A&M)
Texas Tech (Oklahoma St, Texas)..............Oklahoma St (Texas Tech, Oklahoma)

ACC North...............................................ACC South
Boston College..........................................Wake Forest
Syracuse (Rutgers)..................................North Carolina (NC State)
Pitt (Penn State).....................................Virginia (Virginia Tech, Maryland)
Louisville (Kentucky)................................Georgia Tech (Clemson, Georgia)
West Virginia (Maryland)........................Miami (Florida St, Florida)
Cincinnati...............................................Duke (NC State)

Big 12 North...........................................Big 12 South
Iowa State (Iowa)....................................Tulsa
Kansas (Missouri).....................................Houston
Kansas State.............................................Tulane
Baylor.......................................................Memphis
TCU..........................................................South Florida
SMU........................................................Central Florida

AAC (football only)
Connecticut
Temple
East Carolina
Navy (Air Force, Notre Dame)
Army (Air Force)
Massachusetts
Liberty
Old Dominion

C-USA replaces Old Dominion with New Mexico State, leaving only Notre Dame and BYU as football independents. The MAC, Mountain West and Sunbelt remain unchanged.

The postseason schedule becomes:

Week 14: Army-Navy, G7 CCG's and AQ conference semifinals
Week 15: CFP quarterfinals **
New Year's Eve (approx): CFP semifinals
New Year's Day:
....Rose Bowl (B1G vs PSW)
....Sugar Bowl (SEC vs PSW)
....Orange Bowl (ACC vs SEC)
....Fiesta Bowl (MWC vs PSW)
....Peach Bowl (SEC vs B1G)
....Cotton Bowl (Big 12 vs B1G)

** 3 AQ conference finals plus the 2 highest ranked G7 conference champions or independents who play off for the 4th CFP berth.

Because of existing contracts, including Grants of Rights, this configuration would take a lot of cooperation among the NCAA, schools, conferences and media partners. Maybe too much. But it's the best I can come up with given my stated goals.

Did a nice job on XII and ACC. Way to go.

(12-18-2018 05:15 PM)e-parade Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 04:56 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 04:46 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 03:21 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 02:50 PM)ken d Wrote:  I had the same thought about several of the schools I put in this conference. There are conferences that suit them better for their other sports, and rather than just leave them in the limbo of football independence I tried to give them a conference home to facilitate bowl tie-ins.

What about the basketball and Olympic sports for the other AAC football only schools? What would be their home?

I considered speculating about that, but was afraid it would derail the main point of the OP.

Army and Navy are already on their own for other sports, and presumably reasonably satisfied with what they have. I would imagine that, as an alternative to placing Olympic sports with the Big East, UConn might consider seeking to become a 14th member of the ACC, which would now have a stronger northeastern presence.

As much as I like and admire East Carolina, they are overmatched in basketball wherever they could land in a strong all sports conference. They probably fit better in something like the Colonial Conference, even though that's a hard pill for them to swallow.

An ODU fan has also suggested this could be good for his school. Temple may be the only one of these 8 schools for whom this is overall a negative outcome.

I think the ECU to the A-10 for Olympic sports would be good for them. The A-10 could help themselves by dropping La Salle, Duquense, St. Bonnie and Fordham. And replacing them with (in your scenario) ODU, ECU, Temple and Liberty. Liberty just because I think they are going to shell out whatever it takes to be competitive in sports. That leaves the A-10 with

Davidson
Dayton
East Carolina
George Mason
George Washington
Liberty
UMass
Old Dominion
Richmond
Rhode Island
St Joes
Saint Louis
Temple
VCU

La Salle and Fordham were 1995 adds, but Duquesne is a founding member of the A10 and the Bonnies joined up only 3 years later. Tough sell to kick them out.

Also lol at Temple leaving the A10 and then coming back into it in this scenario. All comes full circle for them.

Fordham can put the rest of their sports in the Patriot League with their football program.

(12-18-2018 02:27 PM)ken d Wrote:  This is an attempt to realign FBS conferences to achieve the following goals:

1. Keep the high resource schools in the NCAA within the existing FBS structure.
2. Keep current conferences as intact as possible.
3. Provide a path, however unlikely, for all 130 teams to reach the CFP.
4. Expand access to the New Year's Day contract bowls beyond the current P5 schools.
5. Establish the CFP winner as undisputed national champion.

The new conference divisions are shown below. Schools printed in blue are new additions to their respective confereces. In parentheses are likely annual games outside the divisions (provided both schools want them). The annual games in bold are OOC games. The others are protected crossover games within the conference. The fact that the divisions are shown side by side is not meant to suggest that the schools on the same line are annual crossovers. The format shown was just intended to save space. Schools without an annual in-conference crossover partner would rotate their 8th game however their conference chooses.

The PSW (Pacific Southwest Conference) is divided in a zipper format, with a nine game conference schedule, in order to accommodate the unique scheduling needs caused by their geography. Because it is a zipper arrangement and not a geographic alignment, I had to make up division names. To give credit where it is due, somebody else thought of these before me.


SEC East...............................................SEC West
Kentucky (Louisville)..............................Auburn
Tennessee (Alabama)...............................Alabama (Tennessee)
Vanderbilt...............................................Ole Miss
South Carolina.........................................Mississippi State
Clemson (Georgia Tech)........................LSU
Georgia (Auburn, Georgia Tech)...............Arkansas
Florida (Miami)......................................Texas A&M (Texas)
Florida State (Miami)............................Missouri (Kansas)

B1G East..............................................B1G West
Michigan (Michigan State).........................Michigan State (Michigan)
Purdue (Indiana).....................................Indiana (Purdue)
Ohio State..............................................Illinois
Penn State (Pitt)....................................Northwestern
Maryland (West Virginia, Virginia).........Wisconsin
Rutgers (Syracuse)................................Minnesota
NC State (UNC, Duke)...........................Iowa (Iowa State)
Virginia Tech (Virginia).........................Nebraska

PSW Legends.........................................PSW Leaders
Washington (Washington St, Oregon)..........Washington St (Washington, Oregon St)
Oregon St (Oregon, Washington St)............Oregon (Oregon St, Washington)
California (Stanford, UCLA)........................Stanford (California, USC, Notre Dame)
USC (UCLA, Stanford, Notre Dame)...........UCLA (USC, California)
Utah (Colorado, Arizona, BYU)...................Colorado (Utah, Arizona St, Colorado St)
Arizona St (Arizona, Colorado)...................Arizona (Arizona St, Utah)
Oklahoma (Texas, Oklahoma St)...............Texas (Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas A&M)
Texas Tech (Oklahoma St, Texas)..............Oklahoma St (Texas Tech, Oklahoma)

ACC North...............................................ACC South
Boston College..........................................Wake Forest
Syracuse (Rutgers)..................................North Carolina (NC State)
Pitt (Penn State).....................................Virginia (Virginia Tech, Maryland)
Louisville (Kentucky)................................Georgia Tech (Clemson, Georgia)
West Virginia (Maryland)........................Miami (Florida St, Florida)
Cincinnati...............................................Duke (NC State)

Big 12 North...........................................Big 12 South
Iowa State (Iowa)....................................Tulsa
Kansas (Missouri).....................................Houston
Kansas State.............................................Tulane
Baylor.......................................................Memphis
TCU..........................................................South Florida
SMU........................................................Central Florida

AAC (football only)
Connecticut
Temple
East Carolina
Navy (Air Force, Notre Dame)
Army (Air Force)
Massachusetts
Liberty
Old Dominion

C-USA replaces Old Dominion with New Mexico State, leaving only Notre Dame and BYU as football independents. The MAC, Mountain West and Sunbelt remain unchanged.

The postseason schedule becomes:

Week 14: Army-Navy, G7 CCG's and AQ conference semifinals
Week 15: CFP quarterfinals **
New Year's Eve (approx): CFP semifinals
New Year's Day:
....Rose Bowl (B1G vs PSW)
....Sugar Bowl (SEC vs PSW)
....Orange Bowl (ACC vs SEC)
....Fiesta Bowl (MWC vs PSW)
....Peach Bowl (SEC vs B1G)
....Cotton Bowl (Big 12 vs B1G)

** 3 AQ conference finals plus the 2 highest ranked G7 conference champions or independents who play off for the 4th CFP berth.

Because of existing contracts, including Grants of Rights, this configuration would take a lot of cooperation among the NCAA, schools, conferences and media partners. Maybe too much. But it's the best I can come up with given my stated goals.

Can't take this seriously. You have added nearly all of the AAC and left Fresno State out.

(12-18-2018 03:01 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Nice project, Ken.

May I ask why you kept UNC and Virginia in the ACC, while moving Virginia Tech and North Carolina State to the B1G? Would it not have been easier to move UNC/Virginia to the B1G (UNC - NCST/Duke; Virginia - VT), especially since UNC/Virginia are AAU institutions?

I liked your alignment of the PAC/Texahoma. Perhaps Pacific and Western Divisions as names instead?

For the Big 12 back-fill, I would remove SMU, Tulane and Tulsa, and replace with Boise State (West), San Diego State (West) and Temple (East). Iowa State would move to the Eastern Division, while SMU would take Boise's spot in the MWC, Tulsa would take San Diego State's, and Tulane would simply take Temple's and slot in the American.

Tulane stays.. it is the second best option in talent rich Louisiana and New Orleans is strong demographic.. also AAU which adds prestige to the BIG 12 and plays football for 125 yrs

(12-19-2018 02:09 PM)buffdog Wrote:  

(12-18-2018 02:27 PM)ken d Wrote:  This is an attempt to realign FBS conferences to achieve the following goals:

1. Keep the high resource schools in the NCAA within the existing FBS structure.
2. Keep current conferences as intact as possible.
3. Provide a path, however unlikely, for all 130 teams to reach the CFP.
4. Expand access to the New Year's Day contract bowls beyond the current P5 schools.
5. Establish the CFP winner as undisputed national champion.

The new conference divisions are shown below. Schools printed in blue are new additions to their respective confereces. In parentheses are likely annual games outside the divisions (provided both schools want them). The annual games in bold are OOC games. The others are protected crossover games within the conference. The fact that the divisions are shown side by side is not meant to suggest that the schools on the same line are annual crossovers. The format shown was just intended to save space. Schools without an annual in-conference crossover partner would rotate their 8th game however their conference chooses.

The PSW (Pacific Southwest Conference) is divided in a zipper format, with a nine game conference schedule, in order to accommodate the unique scheduling needs caused by their geography. Because it is a zipper arrangement and not a geographic alignment, I had to make up division names. To give credit where it is due, somebody else thought of these before me.


SEC East...............................................SEC West
Kentucky (Louisville)..............................Auburn
Tennessee (Alabama)...............................Alabama (Tennessee)
Vanderbilt...............................................Ole Miss
South Carolina.........................................Mississippi State
Clemson (Georgia Tech)........................LSU
Georgia (Auburn, Georgia Tech)...............Arkansas
Florida (Miami)......................................Texas A&M (Texas)
Florida State (Miami)............................Missouri (Kansas)

B1G East..............................................B1G West
Michigan (Michigan State).........................Michigan State (Michigan)
Purdue (Indiana).....................................Indiana (Purdue)
Ohio State..............................................Illinois
Penn State (Pitt)....................................Northwestern
Maryland (West Virginia, Virginia).........Wisconsin
Rutgers (Syracuse)................................Minnesota
NC State (UNC, Duke)...........................Iowa (Iowa State)
Virginia Tech (Virginia).........................Nebraska

PSW Legends.........................................PSW Leaders
Washington (Washington St, Oregon)..........Washington St (Washington, Oregon St)
Oregon St (Oregon, Washington St)............Oregon (Oregon St, Washington)
California (Stanford, UCLA)........................Stanford (California, USC, Notre Dame)
USC (UCLA, Stanford, Notre Dame)...........UCLA (USC, California)
Utah (Colorado, Arizona, BYU)...................Colorado (Utah, Arizona St, Colorado St)
Arizona St (Arizona, Colorado)...................Arizona (Arizona St, Utah)
Oklahoma (Texas, Oklahoma St)...............Texas (Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas A&M)
Texas Tech (Oklahoma St, Texas)..............Oklahoma St (Texas Tech, Oklahoma)

ACC North...............................................ACC South
Boston College..........................................Wake Forest
Syracuse (Rutgers)..................................North Carolina (NC State)
Pitt (Penn State).....................................Virginia (Virginia Tech, Maryland)
Louisville (Kentucky)................................Georgia Tech (Clemson, Georgia)
West Virginia (Maryland)........................Miami (Florida St, Florida)
Cincinnati...............................................Duke (NC State)

Big 12 North...........................................Big 12 South
Iowa State (Iowa)....................................Tulsa
Kansas (Missouri).....................................Houston
Kansas State.............................................Tulane
Baylor.......................................................Memphis
TCU..........................................................South Florida
SMU........................................................Central Florida

AAC (football only)
Connecticut
Temple
East Carolina
Navy (Air Force, Notre Dame)
Army (Air Force)
Massachusetts
Liberty
Old Dominion

C-USA replaces Old Dominion with New Mexico State, leaving only Notre Dame and BYU as football independents. The MAC, Mountain West and Sunbelt remain unchanged.

The postseason schedule becomes:

Week 14: Army-Navy, G7 CCG's and AQ conference semifinals
Week 15: CFP quarterfinals **
New Year's Eve (approx): CFP semifinals
New Year's Day:
....Rose Bowl (B1G vs PSW)
....Sugar Bowl (SEC vs PSW)
....Orange Bowl (ACC vs SEC)
....Fiesta Bowl (MWC vs PSW)
....Peach Bowl (SEC vs B1G)
....Cotton Bowl (Big 12 vs B1G)

** 3 AQ conference finals plus the 2 highest ranked G7 conference champions or independents who play off for the 4th CFP berth.

Because of existing contracts, including Grants of Rights, this configuration would take a lot of cooperation among the NCAA, schools, conferences and media partners. Maybe too much. But it's the best I can come up with given my stated goals.

Can't take this seriously. You have added nearly all of the AAC and left Fresno State out.

Left Fresno State out of what?