(06-22-2022 08:03 PM)AztecNation Wrote: I think an ideal structure for the current Big12 if they make the move to 16 is a 4 school pod out west, 4 school pod out east, 4 school Texas pod and 4 school central. This would help reduce travel for other sports and fits with the top schools they would likely consider adding.
Something like:
West: BYU, Boise St., SDSU, UNLV? (not really sure who would be the best 4th team)
East: WV, UC, UCF, Memphis
Central: Kansas, Kansas St., Iowa St., OK St.
Texas: Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Houston
Texas and the Central schools would still be the core of the conference.
I can see merit for a network in the idea of a coast to coast conference with teams in four time zones. It might be overall the weakest P5, but still in that group, not far behind the PAC and ACC but far ahead of any G5 conference in football.
I would configure it a little differently.
For football:
West: Boise, BYU, SDSU, Fresno St.
Plains: Oklahoma St, Kansas St, Texas Tech, Kansas
East: West Virginia, Iowa St, Cincinnati, Memphis
South: Baylor, TCU, UCF, Houston
3-4-1-1 schedule (3 your pod, 4 other pod in your division, 1 each against other pods). Nine conference games.
For basketball:
West: Oklahoma St, Kansas St, Texas Tech, Kansas, Boise, BYU, SDSU, Fresno St
East: WVU, Iowa St, Cincinnati, Memphis, Baylor, TCU, UCF, Houston
Double round robin within division, 6 games (3H, 3A) against the other division. Total 20 conference games. This may be top to bottom as good a hoops conference as any in the country.
The big question is how much a network would pay for this per school compared with the NB12.