(01-02-2013 06:51 PM)NJRedMan Wrote: If we leave the H/H series to whats TV friendly then the teams at the bottom of the conference will never get a H/H with the teams at the top.
I think you're looking at an extreme view of what I'm suggesting. I don't mean The top six play each other H/H and the bottom six play each other H/H.
The rivalry games and the TV games are going to be pretty close to the same thing.
Let's say you've got the C7 plus Xavier, Dayton, SLU, Butler and VCU.
You don't automatically put VCU H/H vs SHU, Nova, GTown, Prov, SJU every year because of the map. You DO put SHU, Nova, GTown, Prov, SJU vs each other H/H every year because it's common sense.
But VCU vs Butler would be a better TV game than VCU-Hall, so you schedule that one instead.
Marquette, Xavier, Butler playing extra games vs SJU, Nova, GTown is what you want for TV. But you don't do that at the expense of Hall-SJU twice, or Nova-GTown twice, or Xavier-Dayton twice. You do it at the expense of H/H between two schools who aren't really rivals and never have been.
You could set 3-4 opponents that are ALWAYS H/H each year and rotate the other 1-2 based on good TV games.
You leave yourself the option to schedule more good TV games, but you'd be basing the schedule off of those geographic rivalries.
Take a look at what the Big XII did when they had 12 teams. They dumped the divisions because Kansas vs Texas would only meet once and that's a good TV game.
They didn't abandon Kansas vs K-State twice; or Texas vs Baylor twice. They just traded second matchups like Colorado vs Kansas for a second Texas vs Kansas matchup. Or OK State vs Texas Tech of OK St vs Kansas St. It's subtle changes, not drastic ones.