(06-22-2022 09:29 AM)Milwaukee Wrote: (06-22-2022 09:13 AM)UTEPDallas Wrote: 9-12
It all depends on the conference and what they want to accomplish.
Agree.
Question to those who think 9-12 is the optimal number: Why is it that 3 P5 conferences have 14 members and that 2 G5 conferences have decided to expand to 14 members? Was that not optimal from their standpoint?
.
Because we don't operate in a world of platonic ideals. As FtT said above, even if you already have 16 schools, if Notre Dame suddenly wants to join (or tv decides they'll pay you more money per school if you'll add
anyone) you just do it. Your conference would be "worse" from an ideal "structure of a conference" standpoint but "better" because you'd make more money/save on travel/have better exposure/some other positive.
I guess the real issue is that in the real world "all things being equal" isn't really possible. A nine team league with Notre Dame is better than a 10 team league with Notre Dame (or a 9 team league without Notre Dame) but it's also not good to boot a team out to make room for them. So you make that trade-off.
On the other end of the spectrum, CUSA is about to actually have 9 teams. That's great from an academic, perfectly balanced, round-robin, one true champion standpoint. But unfortunately, the 9 teams in question are all spread out and with the exception of a couple of pairs, don't have a lot of history with or interest in one another (and will include several historically, let's say "challenged" programs). 9 is the best number, but these 9 aren't necessarily the best pairings with each other. The old CUSA had 14 theoretically for insurance (which didn't pan out) and negotiating (which didn't pan out) and for travel (which I think helped quite a bit, but Marshall and ODU really didn't like having to play 8 games per year in Texas, which apparently they had to do, so maybe not). The new SB went to 14 in order to essentially give themselves 2 mini-conferences with really good geography and history.
Etc.